gdb
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
6 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
7
8 * X86 general purpose registers
9
10 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
11 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
12 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
13 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
14 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
15
16 * Python scripting
17
18 ** The GDB Python API now has access to symbols, symbol tables, and
19 frame's code blocks.
20
21 ** New methods gdb.target_charset and gdb.target_wide_charset.
22
23 * New targets
24
25 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
26
27 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
28
29 * C++ Improvements
30
31 ** Namespace Support
32
33 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
34 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
35 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
36 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
37 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
38
39 ** Bug Fixes
40
41 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
42 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
43 qualified name.
44
45 ** Cast Operators
46
47 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
48 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
49
50 * New targets
51
52 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
53 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
54
55 * New Simulators
56
57 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
58 Renesas RX rx
59
60 * Multi-program debugging.
61
62 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
63 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
64 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
65 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
66 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
67 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
68 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
69 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
70
71 * New tracing features
72
73 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
74
75 ** Trace state variables
76
77 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
78 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
79 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
80 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
81 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
82 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
83 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
84 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
85 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
86 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
87
88 ** Fast tracepoints
89
90 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
91 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
92 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
93 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
94 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
95 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
96 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
97 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
98 the regular trace command.
99
100 ** Disconnected tracing
101
102 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
103 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
104 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
105 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
106 connection is lost unexpectedly.
107
108 ** Trace files
109
110 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
111 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
112 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
113 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
114 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
115 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
116 <name>".
117
118 * Changed commands
119
120 disassemble
121 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
122 the arguments to be comma-separated.
123
124 info variables
125 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
126 which only declare a variable are not shown.
127
128 source
129 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
130 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
131 support.
132
133 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
134 "set script-extension" (see below).
135
136 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
137
138 record save [<FILENAME>]
139 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
140 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
141
142 record restore <FILENAME>
143 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
144 earlier time, for replay debugging.
145
146 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
147 Add a new inferior.
148
149 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
150 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
151 inferior has loaded.
152
153 remove-inferior ID
154 Remove an inferior.
155
156 maint info program-spaces
157 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
158
159 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
160 show remote interrupt-sequence
161 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
162 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
163 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
164 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
165 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
166
167 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
168 show remote interrupt-on-connect
169 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
170 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
171 Linux kernel.
172
173 set remotebreak [on | off]
174 show remotebreak
175 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
176
177 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
178 Create or modify a trace state variable.
179
180 info tvariables
181 List trace state variables and their values.
182
183 delete tvariable $NAME ...
184 Delete one or more trace state variables.
185
186 teval EXPR, ...
187 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
188 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
189
190 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
191 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
192
193 * New expression syntax
194
195 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
196 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
197
198 * New options
199
200 set follow-exec-mode new|same
201 show follow-exec-mode
202 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
203 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
204 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
205
206 set default-collect EXPR, ...
207 show default-collect
208 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
209 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
210 such as registers or a critical global variable.
211
212 set disconnected-tracing
213 show disconnected-tracing
214 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
215 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
216 upon disconnection.
217
218 set script-extension off|soft|strict
219 show script-extension
220 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
221 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
222 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
223 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
224 evaluation failed.
225 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
226
227 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
228 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
229 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
230 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
231 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
232 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
233 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
234 is on.
235
236 * Python API Improvements
237
238 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
239 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
240 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
241
242 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
243 `is_base_class' attribute.
244
245 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
246
247 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
248 evaluate an expression.
249
250 * New remote packets
251
252 QTDV
253 Define a trace state variable.
254
255 qTV
256 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
257
258 QTDisconnected
259 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
260
261 qTfP, qTsP
262 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
263
264 * Bug fixes
265
266 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
267
268 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
269 much more reliable. In particular:
270 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
271 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
272 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
273 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
274 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
275 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
276 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
277 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
278 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
279 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
280 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
281 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
282 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
283 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
284 non-threaded programs.
285
286 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
287 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
288 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
289 executable program.
290
291 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
292
293 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
294 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
295 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
296 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
297 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
298
299 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
300 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
301 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
302 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
303 for tracepoint actions.
304
305 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
306 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
307
308 * Process record and replay
309
310 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
311 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
312 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
313 execute commands.
314
315 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
316 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
317 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
318 reverse execution.
319
320 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
321 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
322 2.6.28 or later.
323
324 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
325 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
326 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
327 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
328 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
329 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
330 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
331 the installation instructions for more information.
332
333 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
334 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
335 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
336 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
337
338 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
339 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
340
341 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
342 now complete on file names.
343
344 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
345 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
346 For instance, consider:
347
348 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
349 # struct example variable;
350 (gdb) p variable.
351
352 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
353 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
354
355 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
356 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
357
358 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
359 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
360 macros.
361
362 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
363 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
364 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
365
366 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
367 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
368 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
369 and simulator targets may also provide them.
370
371 * New remote packets
372
373 qSearch:memory:
374 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
375
376 QStartNoAckMode
377 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
378 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
379 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
380
381 vKill
382 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
383 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
384
385 qXfer:osdata:read
386 Obtains additional operating system information
387
388 qXfer:siginfo:read
389 qXfer:siginfo:write
390 Read or write additional signal information.
391
392 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
393
394 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
395 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
396 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
397
398 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
399 source+assembly.
400
401 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
402 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
403
404 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
405 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
406 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
407
408 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
409 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
410
411 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
412
413 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
414
415 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
416 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
417
418 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
419 list of section offsets.
420
421 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
422 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
423 have also been fixed.
424
425 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
426 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
427 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
428
429 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
430 example, given:
431
432 template<typename T> class C { };
433 C<char const *> c;
434
435 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
436
437 ptype C<char const *>
438 ptype C<char const*>
439 ptype C<const char *>
440 ptype C<const char*>
441
442 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
443
444 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
445 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
446
447 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
448 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
449 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
450
451 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
452 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
453
454 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
455 gdbserver.
456
457 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
458 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
459
460 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
461 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
462 as appropriate.
463
464 * Python scripting
465
466 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
467 available is determined at configure time.
468
469 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
470
471 * Ada tasking support
472
473 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
474 been introduced:
475
476 info tasks
477 Print the list of Ada tasks.
478 info task N
479 Print detailed information about task number N.
480 task
481 Print the task number of the current task.
482 task N
483 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
484
485 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
486 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
487
488 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
489
490 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
491 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
492 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
493 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
494 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
495 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
496 below.
497
498 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
499 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
500 information.
501
502 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
503 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
504 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
505 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
506 more information.
507
508 * Multi-architecture debugging.
509
510 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
511 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
512 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
513 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
514 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
515
516 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
517 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
518 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
519 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
520 --enable-targets configure option.
521
522 * Non-stop mode debugging.
523
524 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
525 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
526 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
527 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
528 section in the user manual for more information.
529
530 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
531 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
532 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
533 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
534 extensions on linux targets.
535
536 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
537
538 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
539 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
540 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
541 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
542 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
543 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
544 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
545 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
546 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
547
548 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
549 val1 [, val2, ...]
550 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
551
552 maint set python print-stack
553 maint show python print-stack
554 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
555
556 python [CODE]
557 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
558
559 macro define
560 macro list
561 macro undef
562 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
563 interactively.
564
565 info os processes
566 Show operating system information about processes.
567
568 info inferiors
569 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
570
571 inferior NUM
572 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
573
574 detach inferior NUM
575 Detach from inferior number NUM.
576
577 kill inferior NUM
578 Kill inferior number NUM.
579
580 * New options
581
582 set spu stop-on-load
583 show spu stop-on-load
584 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
585
586 set spu auto-flush-cache
587 show spu auto-flush-cache
588 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
589 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
590
591 set sh calling-convention
592 show sh calling-convention
593 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
594
595 set debug timestamp
596 show debug timestamp
597 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
598
599 set disassemble-next-line
600 show disassemble-next-line
601 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
602 the debuggee stops.
603
604 set remote noack-packet
605 show remote noack-packet
606 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
607 under "New remote packets."
608
609 set remote query-attached-packet
610 show remote query-attached-packet
611 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
612
613 set remote read-siginfo-object
614 show remote read-siginfo-object
615 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
616 packet.
617
618 set remote write-siginfo-object
619 show remote write-siginfo-object
620 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
621 packet.
622
623 set remote reverse-continue
624 show remote reverse-continue
625 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
626
627 set remote reverse-step
628 show remote reverse-step
629 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
630
631 set displaced-stepping
632 show displaced-stepping
633 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
634 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
635 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
636
637 set debug displaced
638 show debug displaced
639 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
640
641 maint set internal-error
642 maint show internal-error
643 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
644
645 maint set internal-warning
646 maint show internal-warning
647 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
648
649 set exec-wrapper
650 show exec-wrapper
651 unset exec-wrapper
652 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
653
654 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
655 show multiple-symbols
656 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
657 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
658 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
659
660 set breakpoint always-inserted
661 show breakpoint always-inserted
662 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
663 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
664 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
665
666 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
667 show arm fallback-mode
668 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
669 show arm force-mode
670 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
671 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
672 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
673 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
674
675 set disable-randomization
676 show disable-randomization
677 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
678 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
679 multiple debugging sessions.
680
681 set non-stop
682 show non-stop
683 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
684 a breakpoint.
685
686 set target-async
687 show target-async
688 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
689 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
690 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
691 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
692
693 set target-wide-charset
694 show target-wide-charset
695 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
696 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
697
698 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
699 show tcp auto-retry
700 set tcp connect-timeout
701 show tcp connect-timeout
702 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
703 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
704 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
705
706 set libthread-db-search-path
707 show libthread-db-search-path
708 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
709 libthread_db.
710
711 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
712 show schedule-multiple
713 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
714 the current process.
715
716 set stack-cache
717 show stack-cache
718 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
719 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
720 affecting correctness.
721
722 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
723 show interactive-mode
724 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
725 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
726 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
727 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
728 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
729
730 * Removed commands
731
732 info forks
733 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
734 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
735 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
736 command.
737
738 fork NUM
739 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
740 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
741 alias for the `fork' command.
742
743 process PID
744 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
745 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
746 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
747
748 delete fork NUM
749 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
750 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
751 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
752 fork' command.
753
754 detach fork NUM
755 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
756 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
757 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
758 fork' command.
759
760 * New native configurations
761
762 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
763
764 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
765
766 * New targets
767
768 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
769 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
770 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
771 S+core 3 score-*-*
772
773 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
774 (mingw32ce) debugging.
775
776 * Removed commands
777
778 catch load
779 catch unload
780 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
781
782 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
783
784 * New native configurations
785
786 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
787 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
788
789 * New targets
790
791 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
792 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
793
794 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
795
796 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
797 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
798 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
799 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
800
801 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
802 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
803
804 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
805 is resolved.
806
807 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
808 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
809 and in inlined functions.
810
811 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
812 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
813 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
814
815 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
816
817 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
818 registers on PowerPC targets.
819
820 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
821 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
822
823 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
824 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
825
826 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
827 extended-remote mode.
828
829 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
830 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
831 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
832 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
833
834 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
835 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
836 target architectures.
837
838 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
839 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
840 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
841 stored in two consecutive float registers.
842
843 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
844 breakpoints now.
845
846 * Improved support for debugging Ada
847 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
848 include:
849 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
850 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
851 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
852 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
853 of an assignment
854 - Improved command completion in Ada
855 - Several bug fixes
856
857 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
858 process.
859
860 * New commands
861
862 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
863 show print frame-arguments
864 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
865 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
866
867 remote put
868 remote get
869 remote delete
870 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
871
872 * New MI commands
873
874 -target-file-put
875 -target-file-get
876 -target-file-delete
877 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
878
879 * New remote packets
880
881 vFile:open:
882 vFile:close:
883 vFile:pread:
884 vFile:pwrite:
885 vFile:unlink:
886 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
887
888 vAttach
889 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
890 mode.
891
892 vRun
893 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
894
895 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
896
897 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
898 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
899 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
900
901 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
902 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
903 -Bsymbolic linker option.
904
905 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
906 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
907 is not supported.
908
909 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
910 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
911
912 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
913 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
914
915 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
916
917 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
918 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
919 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
920
921 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
922 automatically displayed as character or string data.
923
924 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
925 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
926 as strings.
927
928 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
929 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
930 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
931
932 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
933 iWMMXt coprocessor.
934
935 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
936 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
937 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
938
939 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
940
941 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
942
943 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
944 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
945 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
946
947 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
948 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
949
950 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
951 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
952 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
953 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
954 Windows and SymbianOS).
955
956 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
957 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
958
959 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
960 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
961
962 * New commands
963
964 set remoteflow
965 show remoteflow
966 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
967 when debugging using remote targets.
968
969 set mem inaccessible-by-default
970 show mem inaccessible-by-default
971 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
972 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
973 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
974 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
975 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
976
977 set breakpoint auto-hw
978 show breakpoint auto-hw
979 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
980 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
981 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
982 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
983 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
984 including "next" and "finish".
985
986 catch exception
987 catch exception unhandled
988 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
989
990 catch assert
991 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
992
993 set sysroot
994 show sysroot
995 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
996 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
997 an alias to "set sysroot".
998
999 info spu
1000 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1001 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1002 architecture.
1003
1004 * New native configurations
1005
1006 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1007
1008 set tdesc filename
1009 unset tdesc filename
1010 show tdesc filename
1011 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1012 not query the target for its built-in description.
1013
1014 * New targets
1015
1016 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1017 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1018 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1019
1020 * New remote packets
1021
1022 QPassSignals:
1023 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1024 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1025
1026 qXfer:features:read:
1027 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1028 features.
1029
1030 qXfer:spu:read:
1031 qXfer:spu:write:
1032 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1033 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1034
1035 qXfer:libraries:read:
1036 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1037 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1038 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1039 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1040
1041 * Removed targets
1042
1043 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1044
1045 alpha*-*-osf1*
1046 alpha*-*-osf2*
1047 d10v-*-*
1048 hppa*-*-hiux*
1049 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1050 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1051 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1052 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1053 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1054 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1055 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1056 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1057 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1058 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1059 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1060 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1061 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1062 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1063 m68*-cisco*-*
1064 m68*-tandem-*
1065 mips*-*-pe
1066 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1067 sh*-*-pe
1068
1069 * Other removed features
1070
1071 target abug
1072 target cpu32bug
1073 target est
1074 target rom68k
1075
1076 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1077
1078 target hms
1079 target e7000
1080 target sh3
1081 target sh3e
1082
1083 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1084 H8/300.
1085
1086 target ocd
1087
1088 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1089 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1090 interfaces.
1091
1092 DWARF 1 support
1093
1094 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1095 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1096
1097 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1098
1099 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1100 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1101 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1102 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1103
1104 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1105
1106 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1107 in debugging information.
1108
1109 Scheme support
1110
1111 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1112 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1113
1114 set mips stack-arg-size
1115 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1116
1117 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1118
1119 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1120
1121 * New targets
1122
1123 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1124 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1125
1126 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1127 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1128 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1129
1130 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1131 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1132 supported.
1133
1134 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1135 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1136
1137 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1138 stub provides the required support.
1139
1140 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1141 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1142
1143 * New commands
1144
1145 set substitute-path
1146 unset substitute-path
1147 show substitute-path
1148 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1149 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1150 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1151 between compilation and debugging.
1152
1153 set trace-commands
1154 show trace-commands
1155 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1156 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1157 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1158
1159 * REMOVED features
1160
1161 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1162
1163 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1164 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1165
1166 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1167
1168 * New remote packets
1169
1170 qSupported:
1171 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1172 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1173 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1174 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1175 target.
1176
1177 qXfer:auxv:read:
1178 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1179 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1180
1181 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1182 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1183 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1184
1185 vFlashErase:
1186 vFlashWrite:
1187 vFlashDone:
1188 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1189
1190 * Removed remote packets
1191
1192 qPart:auxv:read:
1193 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1194 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1195
1196 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1197
1198 * New targets
1199
1200 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1201
1202 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1203
1204 * New commands
1205
1206 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1207 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1208
1209 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1210
1211 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1212
1213 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1214 previously saved state.
1215
1216 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1217
1218 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1219
1220 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1221 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1222
1223 info forks List forks of the user program that
1224 are available to be debugged.
1225
1226 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1227 forks of the user program that are
1228 available to be debugged.
1229
1230 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1231 that are available to be debugged (and
1232 kill the forked process).
1233
1234 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1235 that are available to be debugged (and
1236 allow the process to continue).
1237
1238 * New architecture
1239
1240 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1241
1242 * Improved Windows host support
1243
1244 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1245 native console support, and remote communications using either
1246 network sockets or serial ports.
1247
1248 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1249
1250 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1251 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1252 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1253 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1254 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1255 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1256
1257 * REMOVED features
1258
1259 The ARM rdi-share module.
1260
1261 The Netware NLM debug server.
1262
1263 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1264
1265 * New native configurations
1266
1267 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1268 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1269
1270 * New targets
1271
1272 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1273
1274 * New command line options
1275
1276 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1277 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1278 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1279 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1280 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1281 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1282 with the --command (-x) option.
1283
1284 * Deprecated commands removed
1285
1286 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1287 removed:
1288
1289 Command Replacement
1290 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1291 othernames set arm disassembler
1292 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1293 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1294 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1295 regs info registers
1296
1297 * New BSD user-level threads support
1298
1299 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1300 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1301 configurations are:
1302
1303 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1304 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1305 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1306
1307 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1308 are not yet supported.
1309
1310 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1311 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1312
1313 * REMOVED configurations and files
1314
1315 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1316 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1317 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1318
1319 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1320
1321 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1322 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1323 behavior.
1324
1325 * VAX floating point support
1326
1327 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1328
1329 * User-defined command support
1330
1331 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1332 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1333 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1334
1335 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1336
1337 * New command line option
1338
1339 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1340 debugging.
1341
1342 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1343
1344 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1345 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1346 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1347 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1348 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1349
1350 * Internationalization
1351
1352 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1353 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1354 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1355
1356 * Ada
1357
1358 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1359 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1360 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1361
1362 * New native configurations
1363
1364 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1365
1366 * Remote 'p' packet
1367
1368 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1369 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1370
1371 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1372
1373 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1374 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1375 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1376 i386 application).
1377
1378 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1379 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1380 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1381 configurations:
1382
1383 hppa-*-hpux
1384 ia64-*-aix
1385 mips-*-irix*
1386 *-*-lynx
1387 mips-*-linux-gnu
1388 sds protocol
1389 xdr protocol
1390 powerpc bdm protocol
1391
1392 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1393 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1394
1395 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1396
1397 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1398 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1399 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1400 permanently REMOVED.
1401
1402 h8300-*-*
1403 mcore-*-*
1404 mn10300-*-*
1405 ns32k-*-*
1406 sh64-*-*
1407 v850-*-*
1408
1409 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1410
1411 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1412
1413 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1414 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1415 been fixed.
1416
1417 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1418
1419 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1420 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1421 IRIX long double values).
1422
1423 * VAX and "next"
1424
1425 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1426 command. This problem has been fixed.
1427
1428 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1429
1430 * Fix for ``many threads''
1431
1432 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1433 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1434 error message:
1435
1436 ptrace: No such process.
1437 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1438
1439 This problem has been fixed.
1440
1441 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1442
1443 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1444 GDB to dump core).
1445
1446 * New ``start'' command.
1447
1448 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1449
1450 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1451
1452 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1453 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1454 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1455
1456 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1457 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1458 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1459 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1460 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1461 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1462 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1463 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1464 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1465
1466 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1467
1468 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1469 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1470 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1471 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1472 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1473
1474 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1475 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1476 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1477
1478 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1479
1480 * New native configurations
1481
1482 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1483 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1484 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1485 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1486 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1487 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1488 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1489
1490 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1491
1492 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1493 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1494 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1495 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1496 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1497 work, was also included.
1498
1499 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1500 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1501
1502 h8300-*-*
1503 mcore-*-*
1504 mn10300-*-*
1505 ns32k-*-*
1506 sh64-*-*
1507 v850-*-*
1508 xstormy16-*-*
1509
1510 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1511 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1512
1513 * REMOVED configurations and files
1514
1515 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1516 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1517 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1518 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1519 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1520 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1521 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1522 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1523 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1524 sonymips mips-sony-*
1525 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1526
1527 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1528
1529 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1530
1531 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1532 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1533 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1534 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1535 with GDB".
1536
1537 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1538
1539 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1540 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1541 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1542 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1543 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1544 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1545 are created.
1546
1547 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1548
1549 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1550
1551 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1552 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1553 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1554
1555 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1556
1557 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1558 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1559
1560 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1561
1562 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1563 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1564 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1565
1566 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1567
1568 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1569 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1570
1571 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1572
1573 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1574 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1575 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1576
1577 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1578
1579 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1580 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1581 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1582
1583 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1584
1585 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1586
1587 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1588 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1589
1590 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1591
1592 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1593 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1594 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1595 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1596
1597 * Revised SPARC target
1598
1599 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1600 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1601 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1602 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1603 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1604
1605 * New C++ demangler
1606
1607 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1608 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1609 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1610 programs.
1611
1612 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1613
1614 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1615 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1616 encountered these.
1617
1618 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1619
1620 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1621 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1622 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1623 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1624 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1625 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1626 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1627 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1628 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1629
1630 * New native configurations
1631
1632 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1633 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1634 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1635 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1636 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1637
1638 * New debugging protocols
1639
1640 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1641
1642 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1643
1644 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1645 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1646 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1647
1648 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1649
1650 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1651 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1652 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1653 permanently REMOVED.
1654
1655 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1656 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1657 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1658 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1659 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1660 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1661 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1662 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1663 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1664 sonymips mips-sony-*
1665 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1666
1667 * REMOVED configurations and files
1668
1669 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1670 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1671 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1672 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1673 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1674 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1675 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1676 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1677 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1678 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1679 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1680 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1681 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1682 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1683 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1684 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1685 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1686
1687 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1688
1689 * Objective-C
1690
1691 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1692 integrated into GDB.
1693
1694 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1695
1696 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1697 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1698 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1699 backtraces.
1700
1701 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1702 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1703 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1704
1705 * Hosted file I/O.
1706
1707 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1708 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1709 remote protocol documentation for details.
1710
1711 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1712
1713 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1714 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1715 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1716 ppc32 on ppc64).
1717
1718 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1719
1720 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1721 per-thread variables.
1722
1723 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1724
1725 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1726 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1727
1728 * Separate debug info.
1729
1730 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1731 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1732 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1733 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1734 and optional debug files.
1735
1736 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1737
1738 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1739 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1740 debugger.
1741
1742 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1743 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1744
1745 * Java
1746
1747 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1748 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1749 considered "useable".
1750
1751 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1752
1753 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1754 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1755 kernel.
1756
1757 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1758
1759 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1760 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1761
1762 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1763
1764 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1765 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1766 command.
1767
1768 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1769
1770 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1771 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1772
1773 * Profiling support
1774
1775 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1776 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1777 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1778 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1779 data, for more informative profiling results.
1780
1781 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1782
1783 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1784 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1785 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1786
1787 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1788 removed.
1789
1790 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1791 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1792 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1793 in a subsequent -var-update.
1794
1795 * New native configurations.
1796
1797 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1798
1799 * Multi-arched targets.
1800
1801 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1802 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1803
1804 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1805
1806 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1807 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1808 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1809 permanently REMOVED.
1810
1811 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1812 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1813 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1814 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1815 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1816 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1817 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1818 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1819 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1820 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1821 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1822 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1823
1824 * REMOVED configurations and files
1825
1826 V850EA ISA
1827 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1828 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1829 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1830 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1831 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1832 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1833 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1834 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1835 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1836 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1837 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1838 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1839 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1840
1841 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1842
1843 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1844 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1845 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1846 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1847 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1848
1849 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1850
1851 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1852
1853 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1854 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1855 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1856 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1857 shared libs like mad''.
1858
1859 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1860
1861 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1862 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1863 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1864 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1865
1866 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1867
1868 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1869 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1870 they expand.
1871
1872 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1873 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1874
1875 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1876 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1877
1878 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1879 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1880 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1881 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1882
1883 * Multi-arched targets.
1884
1885 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1886 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1887 NEC V850 v850-*-*
1888 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1889 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1890 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1891
1892 * New targets.
1893
1894 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1895
1896
1897 * New native configurations
1898
1899 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1900 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1901 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1902 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1903
1904 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1905
1906 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1907 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1908 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1909 permanently REMOVED.
1910
1911 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1912 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1913 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1914 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1915 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1916 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1917 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1918 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1919 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1920 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1921 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1922 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1923 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1924
1925 * OBSOLETE languages
1926
1927 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1928
1929 * REMOVED configurations and files
1930
1931 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1932 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1933 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1934 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1935 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1936
1937 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1938
1939 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1940
1941 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1942 commands. The default is 1024.
1943
1944 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1945
1946 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1947
1948 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1949
1950 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1951 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1952 from a file into memory (restore).
1953
1954 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1955
1956 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1957 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1958 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1959
1960 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1961
1962 * New targets.
1963
1964 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1965
1966 * Bug fixes
1967
1968 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1969 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1970 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1971
1972 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1973 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1974 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1975
1976 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1977 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1978 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1979
1980 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1981 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1982 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1983
1984 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1985
1986 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1987
1988 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1989 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1990 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1991 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1992 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1993 (notably embedded) targets.
1994
1995 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1996
1997 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1998 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1999 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2000 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2001
2002 * New command line option
2003
2004 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2005
2006 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2007
2008 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2009 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2010 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2011 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2012 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2013 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2014 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2015 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2016 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2017 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2018
2019 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2020
2021 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2022 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2023
2024 * New native configurations
2025
2026 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2027 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2028 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2029 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2030
2031 * New targets
2032
2033 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2034
2035 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2036
2037 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2038 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2039 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2040 permanently REMOVED.
2041
2042 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2043 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2044 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2045 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2046 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2047
2048 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2049
2050 * REMOVED configurations and files
2051
2052 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2053 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2054 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2055 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2056 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2057 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2058 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2059 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2060 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2061 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2062 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2063 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2064 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2065
2066 * Changes to command line processing
2067
2068 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2069 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2070
2071 * Changes to key bindings
2072
2073 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2074
2075 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2076
2077 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2078
2079 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2080 corrupted.
2081
2082 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2083
2084 Numerous documentation fixes.
2085
2086 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2087
2088 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2089
2090 * New native configurations
2091
2092 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2093 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2094 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2095 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2096 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2097 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2098
2099 * New targets
2100
2101 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2102 CRIS cris-axis
2103 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2104
2105 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2106
2107 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2108 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2109 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2110 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2111 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2112 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2113 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2114 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2115 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2116 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2117 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2118 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2119 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2120 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2121
2122 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2123 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2124
2125 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2126 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2127 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2128 permanently REMOVED.
2129
2130 * REMOVED configurations and files
2131
2132 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2133 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2134 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2135 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2136 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2137 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2138
2139 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2140
2141 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2142 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2143 present.
2144
2145 * Other news:
2146
2147 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2148
2149 * The MI enabled by default.
2150
2151 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2152 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2153 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2154 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2155 which is now deprecated.
2156
2157 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2158
2159 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2160 main features are supported:
2161
2162 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2163
2164 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2165 extension;
2166
2167 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2168
2169 - a Pascal expression parser.
2170
2171 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2172
2173 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2174
2175 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2176
2177 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2178 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2179
2180 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2181
2182 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2183
2184 * Changes in completion.
2185
2186 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2187 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2188 users expect at the shell prompt.
2189
2190 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2191 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2192 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2193 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2194 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2195 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2196 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2197
2198 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2199
2200 * New platform-independent commands:
2201
2202 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2203 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2204 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2205
2206 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2207
2208 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2209 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2210 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2211
2212 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2213
2214 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2215 multi-threaded programs though.
2216
2217 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2218
2219 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2220
2221 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2222 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2223 supported.)
2224
2225 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2226
2227 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2228 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2229 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2230 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2231 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2232 registers.
2233
2234 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2235 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2236 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2237
2238 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2239
2240 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2241 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2242
2243 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2244 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2245 IDT.
2246
2247 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2248 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2249 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2250 a given linear address.
2251
2252 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2253 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2254 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2255
2256 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2257
2258 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2259
2260 * Changes in documentation.
2261
2262 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2263 Documentation License.
2264
2265 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2266 manual.
2267
2268 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2269
2270 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2271 manual.
2272
2273 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2274 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2275 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2276
2277 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2278
2279 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2280 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2281 contents of this file.
2282
2283 * gdba.el deleted
2284
2285 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2286
2287 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2288
2289 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2290
2291 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2292 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2293 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2294 greater level of detail.
2295
2296 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2297
2298 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2299 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2300 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2301 written.
2302
2303 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2304
2305 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2306 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2307 machines ``out of the box''.
2308
2309 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2310 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2311 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2312 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2313 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2314
2315 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2316 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2317 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2318 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2319 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2320
2321 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2322 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2323 also works.
2324
2325 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2326 GDB.
2327
2328 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2329 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2330 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2331 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2332
2333 * New native configurations
2334
2335 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2336 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2337
2338 * New targets
2339
2340 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2341 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2342 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2343 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2344
2345 * OBSOLETE configurations
2346
2347 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2348 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2349 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2350 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2351 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2352
2353 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2354 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2355 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2356 be permanently REMOVED.
2357
2358 * Gould support removed
2359
2360 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2361
2362 * New features for SVR4
2363
2364 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2365 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2366 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2367
2368 * Many C++ enhancements
2369
2370 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2371 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2372
2373 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2374
2375 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2376 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2377 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2378 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2379
2380 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2381 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2382
2383 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2384
2385 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2386 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2387 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2388
2389 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2390 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2391
2392 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2393
2394 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2395 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2396 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2397
2398 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2399
2400 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2401 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2402 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2403
2404 * ``apropos'' command added.
2405
2406 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2407 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2408 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2409
2410 * New MI interface
2411
2412 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2413 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2414 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2415 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2416 enabled by configuring with:
2417
2418 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2419
2420 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2421
2422 * New native configurations
2423
2424 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2425 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2426 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2427
2428 * New targets
2429
2430 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2431 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2432 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2433
2434 * OBSOLETE configurations
2435
2436 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2437
2438 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2439 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2440 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2441 be permanently REMOVED.
2442
2443 * ANSI/ISO C
2444
2445 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2446 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2447 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2448 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2449 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2450 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2451 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2452 already.
2453
2454 * Readline 2.2
2455
2456 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2457
2458 * set extension-language
2459
2460 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2461 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2462 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2463 set extension-language .c c++
2464 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2465 and their associated languages.
2466
2467 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2468
2469 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2470 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2471 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2472
2473 set processor NAME
2474
2475 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2476 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2477
2478 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2479 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2480 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2481 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2482 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2483 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2484 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2485 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2486 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2487 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2488 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2489
2490 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2491 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2492 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2493 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2494
2495 * HP-UX support
2496
2497 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2498 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2499 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2500 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2501 for xdb and dbx commands.
2502
2503 * Catchpoints
2504
2505 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2506 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2507 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2508
2509 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2510 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2511 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2512
2513 * Debugging across forks
2514
2515 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2516 in the inferior.
2517
2518 * TUI
2519
2520 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2521 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2522 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2523
2524 * GDB remote protocol additions
2525
2526 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2527 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2528 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2529 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2530
2531 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2532 full 64-bit address. The command
2533
2534 set remoteaddresssize 32
2535
2536 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2537 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2538 will be discarded.
2539
2540 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2541 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2542
2543 maint packet heythere
2544
2545 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2546 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2547 time.
2548
2549 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2550 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2551 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2552
2553 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2554
2555 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2556 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2557 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2558
2559 * mask-address variable for Mips
2560
2561 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2562 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2563 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2564
2565 * Higher serial baud rates
2566
2567 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2568 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2569 to achieve all of these rates.)
2570
2571 * i960 simulator
2572
2573 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2574 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2575
2576
2577 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2578
2579 * New native configurations
2580
2581 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2582 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2583 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2584 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2585 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2586 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2587 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2588
2589 * New targets
2590
2591 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2592 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2593 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2594 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2595 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2596 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2597 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2598 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2599 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2600 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2601 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2602
2603 * New debugging protocols
2604
2605 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2606 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2607 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2608 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2609 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2610 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2611
2612 * DWARF 2
2613
2614 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2615 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2616 information.
2617
2618 * Java frontend
2619
2620 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2621 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2622
2623 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2624
2625 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2626 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2627 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2628
2629 * Live range splitting
2630
2631 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2632 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2633 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2634
2635 * Hurd support
2636
2637 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2638 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2639
2640 * ARM Thumb support
2641
2642 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2643 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2644 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2645 accordingly.
2646
2647 * MIPS16 support
2648
2649 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2650 instruction set.
2651
2652 * Overlay support
2653
2654 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2655 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2656 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2657 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2658 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2659 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2660
2661 * info symbol
2662
2663 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2664 the symbol at the specified address.
2665
2666 * Trace support
2667
2668 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2669 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2670 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2671 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2672 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2673
2674 * MIPS simulator
2675
2676 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2677 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2678 of most MIPS variants.
2679
2680 * Sparc simulator
2681
2682 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2683 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2684 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2685
2686 * set architecture
2687
2688 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2689 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2690 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2691 the possible architectures.
2692
2693 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2694
2695 * New native configurations
2696
2697 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2698 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2699 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2700 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2701 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2702 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2703
2704 * New targets
2705
2706 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2707 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2708 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2709 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2710 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2711 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2712 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2713
2714 * PowerPC simulator
2715
2716 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2717 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2718 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2719 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2720 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2721
2722 * Solaris 2.5
2723
2724 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2725
2726 * Windows 95/NT native
2727
2728 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2729 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2730 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2731 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2732 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2733
2734 * dont-repeat command
2735
2736 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2737 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2738 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2739 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2740
2741 * Send break instead of ^C
2742
2743 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2744 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2745 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2746
2747 * Remote protocol timeout
2748
2749 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2750 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2751 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2752
2753 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2754
2755 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2756 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2757 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2758 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2759 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2760
2761 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2762 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2763 automatically on hpux10.
2764
2765 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2766
2767 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2768
2769 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2770
2771 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2772 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2773 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2774 every character. The default value is 1050.
2775
2776 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2777
2778 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2779 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2780 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2781 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2782 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2783 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2784
2785 * Speedups for remote debugging
2786
2787 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2788 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2789 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2790
2791 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2792
2793 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2794 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2795
2796 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2797
2798 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2799
2800 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2801 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2802
2803 * Remote targets use caching
2804
2805 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2806 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2807 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2808 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2809 off' turns the the data cache off.
2810
2811 * Remote targets may have threads
2812
2813 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2814 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2815 gdb/remote.c for details.
2816
2817 * NetROM support
2818
2819 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2820 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2821 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2822 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2823 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2824 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2825 sequence is something like
2826
2827 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2828 load <prog>
2829 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2830
2831 * Macintosh host
2832
2833 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2834 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2835 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2836 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2837 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2838 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2839 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2840 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2841
2842 * Autoconf
2843
2844 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2845 but does simplify configuration and building.
2846
2847 * hpux10
2848
2849 GDB now supports hpux10.
2850
2851 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2852
2853 * New native configurations
2854
2855 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2856 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2857 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2858 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2859
2860 * New targets
2861
2862 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2863 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2864 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2865 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2866 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2867
2868 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2869
2870 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2871 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2872 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2873 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2874 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2875
2876 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2877
2878 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2879 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2880 trivial example:
2881 define adder
2882 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2883
2884 To execute the command use:
2885 adder 1 2 3
2886
2887 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2888 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2889 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2890
2891 * New `if' and `while' commands
2892
2893 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2894 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2895 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2896 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2897 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2898 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2899 if the expression is zero.
2900
2901 * Fortran source language mode
2902
2903 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2904 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2905 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2906 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2907 Fortran compilers.
2908
2909 * Better HPUX support
2910
2911 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2912 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2913 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2914 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2915 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2916
2917 adb -w a.out
2918 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2919 control-d
2920
2921 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2922 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2923
2924 adb -w a.out
2925 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2926 control-d
2927
2928 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2929 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2930 external linkage.
2931
2932 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2933 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2934
2935 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2936
2937 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2938 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2939 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2940 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2941 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2942 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2943
2944 * New DOS host serial code
2945
2946 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2947 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2948 a PC's serial port.
2949
2950 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2951
2952 * New "complete" command
2953
2954 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2955 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2956
2957 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2958
2959 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2960 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2961
2962 * Breakpoint hit counts
2963
2964 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2965 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2966 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2967 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2968 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2969 that breakpoint.
2970
2971 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2972
2973 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2974 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2975 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2976
2977 * Shared library breakpoints
2978
2979 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2980 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2981
2982 * Hardware watchpoints
2983
2984 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2985 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2986
2987 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2988
2989 * Annotations
2990
2991 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2992 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2993
2994 * Improved Irix 5 support
2995
2996 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2997
2998 * Improved HPPA support
2999
3000 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3001
3002 * New native configurations
3003
3004 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3005 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3006 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3007 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3008
3009 * New targets
3010
3011 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3012 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3013 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3014
3015 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3016
3017 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3018 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3019
3020 * Fixes
3021
3022 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3023 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3024
3025 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3026
3027 * Irix 5 is now supported
3028
3029 * HPPA support
3030
3031 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3032 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3033 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3034 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3035 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3036
3037
3038 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3039
3040 * User visible changes:
3041
3042 * Remote Debugging
3043
3044 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3045 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3046 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3047 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3048 debugging info for the mips target).
3049
3050 * DEC Alpha native support
3051
3052 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3053 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3054 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3055 Alpha-specific notes.
3056
3057 * Preliminary thread implementation
3058
3059 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3060
3061 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3062
3063 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3064 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3065 for details).
3066
3067 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3068
3069 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3070 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3071 call methods, ...etc.
3072
3073 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3074
3075 * User visible changes:
3076
3077 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3078 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3079 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3080 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3081
3082 Filename completion now works.
3083
3084 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3085 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3086 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3087
3088 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3089 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3090 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3091 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3092 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3093
3094 * DEC alpha support
3095
3096 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3097 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3098
3099
3100 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3101
3102 * Testsuite
3103
3104 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3105 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3106 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3107
3108 * C++ demangling
3109
3110 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3111 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3112 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3113 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3114 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3115
3116 * Simulators
3117
3118 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3119 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3120 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3121
3122 * New targets supported
3123
3124 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3125 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3126 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3127 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3128 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3129
3130 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3131 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3132 GO32 memory extender.
3133
3134 * New remote protocols
3135
3136 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3137
3138 * New source languages supported
3139
3140 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3141 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3142 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3143
3144
3145 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3146
3147 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3148
3149 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3150 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3151 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3152 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3153 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3154 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3155
3156 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3157
3158 * Faster and better demangling
3159
3160 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3161 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3162 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3163 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3164 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3165 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3166 symbol lookups.
3167
3168 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3169 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3170 compiler does not actually implement.
3171
3172 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3173
3174 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3175 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3176 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3177 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3178 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3179 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3180 fix.
3181
3182 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3183 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3184
3185 * Improved configure script
3186
3187 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3188 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3189 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3190 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3191
3192 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3193 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3194 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3195 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3196 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3197 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3198
3199 * Documentation improvements
3200
3201 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3202 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3203 before submitting changes.
3204
3205 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3206 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3207 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3208 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3209 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3210
3211 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3212 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3213 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3214 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3215 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3216 around this problem.
3217
3218 * New features
3219
3220 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3221 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3222 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3223 the target program.
3224
3225 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3226 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3227
3228 * New native hosts supported
3229
3230 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3231 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3232
3233 * New targets supported
3234
3235 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3236
3237 * New file formats supported
3238
3239 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3240 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3241
3242 * Major bug fixes
3243
3244 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3245
3246 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3247 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3248
3249 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3250 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3251 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3252
3253 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3254 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3255
3256 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3257 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3258 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3259 libraries.
3260
3261 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3262 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3263 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3264 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3265 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3266
3267 * Internal improvements
3268
3269 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3270 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3271
3272 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3273 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3274 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3275 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3276 shared code that handles any of them.
3277
3278 * New command line options
3279
3280 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3281
3282 * Mmalloc licensing
3283
3284 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3285 General Public License.
3286
3287 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3288
3289 * Host/native/target split
3290
3291 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3292 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3293 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3294 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3295 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3296
3297 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3298 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3299 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3300 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3301 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3302 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3303 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3304
3305 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3306 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3307 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3308
3309 * New hosts supported
3310
3311 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3312 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3313 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3314
3315 * New targets supported
3316
3317 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3318 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3319
3320 * New native hosts supported
3321
3322 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3323 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3324 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3325
3326 * New file formats supported
3327
3328 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3329 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3330 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3331
3332 * New commands
3333
3334 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3335 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3336 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3337
3338 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3339
3340 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3341 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3342 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3343 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3344
3345 * C++ improvements
3346
3347 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3348 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3349 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3350
3351 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3352
3353 * Major bug fixes
3354
3355 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3356 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3357 by the compiler.
3358
3359 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3360 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3361
3362 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3363 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3364 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3365 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3366 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3367 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3368
3369 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3370 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3371 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3372 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3373
3374 * AMD 29k support
3375
3376 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3377 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3378 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3379 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3380 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3381
3382 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3383 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3384 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3385 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3386
3387 * Remote interfaces
3388
3389 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3390 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3391 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3392 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3393 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3394 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3395 each instruction being stepped through.
3396
3397 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3398 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3399
3400 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3401 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3402 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3403 processor with a serial port.
3404
3405 * Configuration
3406
3407 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3408 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3409 supported, and what files each one uses.
3410
3411 * Library changes
3412
3413 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3414 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3415 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3416 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3417
3418 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3419 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3420 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3421 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3422
3423 * Documentation
3424
3425 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3426 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3427 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3428 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3429 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3430 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3431
3432 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3433
3434
3435 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3436
3437 * Better support for C++ function names
3438
3439 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3440 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3441 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3442 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3443 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3444
3445 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3446 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3447 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3448 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3449 for the list of formats.
3450
3451 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3452
3453 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3454 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3455 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3456 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3457 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3458 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3459 this problem.)
3460
3461 * New 'maintenance' command
3462
3463 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3464 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3465 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3466
3467 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3468 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3469 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3470 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3471 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3472 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3473
3474 The following commands are new:
3475
3476 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3477 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3478 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3479
3480 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3481
3482 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3483 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3484 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3485 read after argv processing.
3486
3487 * New hosts supported
3488
3489 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3490
3491 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3492
3493 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3494 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3495 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3496 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3497 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3498 It costs extra.
3499
3500 * New targets supported
3501
3502 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3503
3504 * More smarts about finding #include files
3505
3506 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3507 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3508 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3509 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3510 the one that contains your sources.
3511
3512 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3513 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3514 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3515
3516 * Interesting infernals change
3517
3518 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3519 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3520 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3521 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3522
3523 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3524
3525 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3526 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3527 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3528
3529 See the ChangeLog for details.
3530
3531 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3532
3533 * New machines supported (host and target)
3534
3535 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3536
3537 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3538
3539 * New malloc package
3540
3541 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3542 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3543 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3544 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3545 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3546 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3547
3548 * info proc
3549
3550 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3551 'help info proc' for details.
3552
3553 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3554
3555 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3556 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3557 possible.
3558
3559 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3560
3561 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3562 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3563 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3564 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3565 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3566 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3567
3568 * Cross byte order fixes
3569
3570 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3571 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3572
3573 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3574
3575 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3576 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3577 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3578 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3579 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3580 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3581 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3582 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3583 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3584 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3585
3586 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3587 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3588 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3589 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3590
3591 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3592 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3593 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3594 use is:
3595
3596 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3597
3598 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3599 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3600 shared across multiple host platforms.
3601
3602 * longjmp() handling
3603
3604 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3605 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3606 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3607 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3608
3609 * Solaris 2.0
3610
3611 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3612 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3613 reading symbols.
3614
3615 * Bug fixes
3616
3617 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3618 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3619 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3620
3621 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3622
3623 * New machines supported (host and target)
3624
3625 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3626 (except core files)
3627 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3628 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3629
3630 * New machines supported (target)
3631
3632 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3633
3634 * C++ support
3635
3636 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3637 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3638 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3639
3640 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3641 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3642 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3643 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3644 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3645 released.
3646
3647 * New features for SVR4
3648
3649 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3650 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3651 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3652
3653 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3654 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3655 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3656
3657 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3658 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3659
3660 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3661
3662 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3663 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3664 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3665 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3666 same code linked statically.
3667
3668 * New Getopt
3669
3670 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3671 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3672 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3673 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3674 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3675 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3676
3677 * Bugs fixed
3678
3679 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3680 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3681 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3682
3683
3684 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3685
3686 * New machines supported (host and target)
3687
3688 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3689 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3690 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3691
3692 * Almost SCO Unix support
3693
3694 We had hoped to support:
3695 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3696 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3697 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3698 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3699
3700 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3701
3702 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3703 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3704 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3705 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3706 reqired (if any).
3707
3708 * New Readline
3709
3710 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3711 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3712 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3713
3714 * Bugs fixed
3715
3716 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3717 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3718 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3719
3720 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3721
3722 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3723 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3724 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3725
3726 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3727 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3728 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3729 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3730 version 2.
3731
3732 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3733 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3734 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3735 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3736 situation somewhat.
3737
3738 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3739 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3740 methods.
3741
3742 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3743 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3744 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3745
3746
3747 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3748
3749 * Improved configuration
3750
3751 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3752 Porting BFD is simpler.
3753
3754 * Stepping improved
3755
3756 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3757 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3758 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3759 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3760
3761 * Bug fixing
3762
3763 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3764
3765 * New host supported (not target)
3766
3767 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3768
3769
3770 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3771
3772 * Multiple source language support
3773
3774 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3775 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3776 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3777 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3778 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3779 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3780
3781 * GDB and Modula-2
3782
3783 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3784 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3785 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3786 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3787
3788 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3789 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3790 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3791
3792 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3793 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3794
3795 * set write on/off
3796
3797 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3798 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3799 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3800 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3801 effect immediately.
3802
3803 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3804
3805 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3806 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3807 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3808 examining core files.
3809
3810 * set listsize
3811
3812 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3813 The default is 10.
3814
3815 * New machines supported (host and target)
3816
3817 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3818 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3819 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3820
3821 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3822
3823 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3824
3825 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3826
3827 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3828 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3829 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3830
3831 * New remote interfaces
3832
3833 AMD 29000 Adapt
3834 AMD 29000 Minimon
3835
3836
3837 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3838
3839 * New Facilities
3840
3841 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3842
3843 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3844 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3845 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3846 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3847 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3848 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3849 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3850 stub on the target system.
3851
3852 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3853
3854 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3855 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3856 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3857
3858 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3859 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3860
3861
3862 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3863
3864 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3865 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3866
3867 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3868 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3869 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3870
3871 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3872 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3873 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3874 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3875
3876 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3877 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3878 it is already running. Default is ON.
3879
3880 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3881 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3882 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3883 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3884 Default is ON.
3885
3886 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3887 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3888 or the value of the environment variable
3889 GDBHISTFILE.
3890
3891 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3892 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3893 HISTSIZE.
3894
3895 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3896 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3897 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3898
3899 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3900 history expansion will be performed on
3901 command line input. The default is OFF.
3902
3903 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3904 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3905 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3906
3907 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3908 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3909 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3910 variable TERM.
3911
3912 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3913 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3914 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3915 variable TERM.
3916
3917 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3918 ``set width'' instead.
3919
3920 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3921 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3922 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3923 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3924
3925 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3926 is OFF.
3927
3928 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3929 "raw" form if off.
3930
3931 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3932 like instructions.
3933
3934 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3935
3936
3937 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3938
3939 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3940 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3941 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3942 window.
3943
3944
3945 * Support for Shared Libraries
3946
3947 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3948 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3949 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3950 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3951 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3952 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3953 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3954 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3955
3956 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3957 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3958 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3959
3960 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3961
3962
3963 * Watchpoints
3964
3965 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3966 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3967 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3968 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3969 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3970 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3971
3972 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3973
3974 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3975
3976 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3977 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3978 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3979
3980
3981 * C++ multiple inheritance
3982
3983 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3984 for C++ programs.
3985
3986 * C++ exception handling
3987
3988 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3989 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3990 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3991 handler's context).
3992
3993 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3994 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3995 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3996
3997 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3998 current stack frame.
3999
4000
4001 * Minor command changes
4002
4003 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4004 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4005 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4006
4007 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4008 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4009 frames without printing.
4010
4011 * New directory command
4012
4013 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4014 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4015 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4016 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4017 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4018
4019 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4020
4021 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4022 for more details.
4023
4024 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4025 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4026 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4027 where the program that you are debugging will run.