Add support for auto-loading scripts from .debug_gdb_scripts section.
[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 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
7
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
14
15 * New remote packets
16
17 qGetTIBAddr
18
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
20
21 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
22 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
23 a directory.
24
25 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
26
27 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
28 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
29
30 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
31 it understands register description.
32
33 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
34
35 * X86 general purpose registers
36
37 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
38 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
39 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
40 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
41 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
42
43 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
44 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
45 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
46 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
47 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
48 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
49
50 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
51 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
52 in the specified file.
53
54 * New commands
55
56 save breakpoints <filename>
57 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
58 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
59 definitions, use the `source' command.
60
61 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
62 is now deprecated.
63
64 * Python scripting
65
66 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
67 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks.
68
69 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
70 gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
71
72 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
73
74 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
75 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
76 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
77
78 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
79 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
80 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
81 regular breakpoints.
82
83 * New targets
84
85 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
86
87 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
88
89 * C++ Improvements
90
91 ** Namespace Support
92
93 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
94 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
95 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
96 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
97 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
98
99 ** Bug Fixes
100
101 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
102 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
103 qualified name.
104
105 ** Cast Operators
106
107 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
108 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
109
110 * New targets
111
112 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
113 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
114
115 * New Simulators
116
117 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
118 Renesas RX rx
119
120 * Multi-program debugging.
121
122 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
123 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
124 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
125 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
126 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
127 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
128 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
129 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
130
131 * New tracing features
132
133 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
134
135 ** Trace state variables
136
137 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
138 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
139 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
140 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
141 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
142 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
143 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
144 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
145 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
146 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
147
148 ** Fast tracepoints
149
150 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
151 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
152 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
153 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
154 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
155 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
156 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
157 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
158 the regular trace command.
159
160 ** Disconnected tracing
161
162 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
163 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
164 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
165 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
166 connection is lost unexpectedly.
167
168 ** Trace files
169
170 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
171 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
172 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
173 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
174 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
175 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
176 <name>".
177
178 ** Circular trace buffer
179
180 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
181 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
182 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
183 not be available for all target agents.
184
185 * Changed commands
186
187 disassemble
188 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
189 the arguments to be comma-separated.
190
191 info variables
192 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
193 which only declare a variable are not shown.
194
195 source
196 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
197 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
198 support.
199
200 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
201 "set script-extension" (see below).
202
203 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
204
205 record save [<FILENAME>]
206 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
207 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
208
209 record restore <FILENAME>
210 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
211 earlier time, for replay debugging.
212
213 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
214 Add a new inferior.
215
216 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
217 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
218 inferior has loaded.
219
220 remove-inferior ID
221 Remove an inferior.
222
223 maint info program-spaces
224 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
225
226 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
227 show remote interrupt-sequence
228 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
229 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
230 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
231 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
232 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
233
234 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
235 show remote interrupt-on-connect
236 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
237 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
238 Linux kernel.
239
240 set remotebreak [on | off]
241 show remotebreak
242 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
243
244 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
245 Create or modify a trace state variable.
246
247 info tvariables
248 List trace state variables and their values.
249
250 delete tvariable $NAME ...
251 Delete one or more trace state variables.
252
253 teval EXPR, ...
254 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
255 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
256
257 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
258 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
259
260 * New expression syntax
261
262 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
263 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
264
265 * New options
266
267 set follow-exec-mode new|same
268 show follow-exec-mode
269 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
270 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
271 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
272
273 set default-collect EXPR, ...
274 show default-collect
275 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
276 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
277 such as registers or a critical global variable.
278
279 set disconnected-tracing
280 show disconnected-tracing
281 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
282 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
283 upon disconnection.
284
285 set circular-trace-buffer
286 show circular-trace-buffer
287 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
288 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
289 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
290 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
291
292 set script-extension off|soft|strict
293 show script-extension
294 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
295 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
296 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
297 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
298 evaluation failed.
299 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
300
301 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
302 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
303 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
304 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
305 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
306 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
307 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
308 is on.
309
310 * Python API Improvements
311
312 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
313 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
314 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
315
316 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
317 `is_base_class' attribute.
318
319 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
320
321 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
322 evaluate an expression.
323
324 * New remote packets
325
326 QTDV
327 Define a trace state variable.
328
329 qTV
330 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
331
332 QTDisconnected
333 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
334
335 QTBuffer:circular
336 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
337
338 qTfP, qTsP
339 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
340
341 * Bug fixes
342
343 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
344
345 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
346 much more reliable. In particular:
347 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
348 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
349 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
350 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
351 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
352 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
353 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
354 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
355 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
356 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
357 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
358 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
359 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
360 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
361 non-threaded programs.
362
363 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
364 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
365 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
366 executable program.
367
368 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
369
370 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
371 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
372 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
373 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
374 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
375
376 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
377 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
378 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
379 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
380 for tracepoint actions.
381
382 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
383 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
384
385 * Process record and replay
386
387 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
388 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
389 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
390 execute commands.
391
392 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
393 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
394 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
395 reverse execution.
396
397 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
398 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
399 2.6.28 or later.
400
401 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
402 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
403 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
404 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
405 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
406 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
407 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
408 the installation instructions for more information.
409
410 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
411 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
412 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
413 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
414
415 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
416 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
417
418 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
419 now complete on file names.
420
421 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
422 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
423 For instance, consider:
424
425 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
426 # struct example variable;
427 (gdb) p variable.
428
429 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
430 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
431
432 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
433 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
434
435 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
436 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
437 macros.
438
439 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
440 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
441 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
442
443 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
444 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
445 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
446 and simulator targets may also provide them.
447
448 * New remote packets
449
450 qSearch:memory:
451 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
452
453 QStartNoAckMode
454 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
455 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
456 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
457
458 vKill
459 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
460 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
461
462 qXfer:osdata:read
463 Obtains additional operating system information
464
465 qXfer:siginfo:read
466 qXfer:siginfo:write
467 Read or write additional signal information.
468
469 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
470
471 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
472 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
473 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
474
475 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
476 source+assembly.
477
478 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
479 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
480
481 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
482 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
483 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
484
485 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
486 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
487
488 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
489
490 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
491
492 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
493 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
494
495 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
496 list of section offsets.
497
498 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
499 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
500 have also been fixed.
501
502 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
503 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
504 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
505
506 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
507 example, given:
508
509 template<typename T> class C { };
510 C<char const *> c;
511
512 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
513
514 ptype C<char const *>
515 ptype C<char const*>
516 ptype C<const char *>
517 ptype C<const char*>
518
519 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
520
521 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
522 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
523
524 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
525 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
526 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
527
528 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
529 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
530
531 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
532 gdbserver.
533
534 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
535 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
536
537 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
538 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
539 as appropriate.
540
541 * Python scripting
542
543 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
544 available is determined at configure time.
545
546 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
547
548 * Ada tasking support
549
550 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
551 been introduced:
552
553 info tasks
554 Print the list of Ada tasks.
555 info task N
556 Print detailed information about task number N.
557 task
558 Print the task number of the current task.
559 task N
560 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
561
562 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
563 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
564
565 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
566
567 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
568 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
569 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
570 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
571 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
572 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
573 below.
574
575 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
576 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
577 information.
578
579 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
580 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
581 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
582 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
583 more information.
584
585 * Multi-architecture debugging.
586
587 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
588 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
589 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
590 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
591 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
592
593 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
594 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
595 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
596 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
597 --enable-targets configure option.
598
599 * Non-stop mode debugging.
600
601 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
602 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
603 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
604 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
605 section in the user manual for more information.
606
607 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
608 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
609 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
610 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
611 extensions on linux targets.
612
613 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
614
615 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
616 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
617 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
618 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
619 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
620 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
621 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
622 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
623 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
624
625 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
626 val1 [, val2, ...]
627 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
628
629 maint set python print-stack
630 maint show python print-stack
631 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
632
633 python [CODE]
634 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
635
636 macro define
637 macro list
638 macro undef
639 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
640 interactively.
641
642 info os processes
643 Show operating system information about processes.
644
645 info inferiors
646 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
647
648 inferior NUM
649 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
650
651 detach inferior NUM
652 Detach from inferior number NUM.
653
654 kill inferior NUM
655 Kill inferior number NUM.
656
657 * New options
658
659 set spu stop-on-load
660 show spu stop-on-load
661 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
662
663 set spu auto-flush-cache
664 show spu auto-flush-cache
665 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
666 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
667
668 set sh calling-convention
669 show sh calling-convention
670 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
671
672 set debug timestamp
673 show debug timestamp
674 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
675
676 set disassemble-next-line
677 show disassemble-next-line
678 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
679 the debuggee stops.
680
681 set remote noack-packet
682 show remote noack-packet
683 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
684 under "New remote packets."
685
686 set remote query-attached-packet
687 show remote query-attached-packet
688 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
689
690 set remote read-siginfo-object
691 show remote read-siginfo-object
692 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
693 packet.
694
695 set remote write-siginfo-object
696 show remote write-siginfo-object
697 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
698 packet.
699
700 set remote reverse-continue
701 show remote reverse-continue
702 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
703
704 set remote reverse-step
705 show remote reverse-step
706 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
707
708 set displaced-stepping
709 show displaced-stepping
710 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
711 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
712 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
713
714 set debug displaced
715 show debug displaced
716 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
717
718 maint set internal-error
719 maint show internal-error
720 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
721
722 maint set internal-warning
723 maint show internal-warning
724 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
725
726 set exec-wrapper
727 show exec-wrapper
728 unset exec-wrapper
729 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
730
731 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
732 show multiple-symbols
733 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
734 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
735 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
736
737 set breakpoint always-inserted
738 show breakpoint always-inserted
739 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
740 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
741 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
742
743 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
744 show arm fallback-mode
745 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
746 show arm force-mode
747 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
748 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
749 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
750 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
751
752 set disable-randomization
753 show disable-randomization
754 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
755 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
756 multiple debugging sessions.
757
758 set non-stop
759 show non-stop
760 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
761 a breakpoint.
762
763 set target-async
764 show target-async
765 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
766 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
767 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
768 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
769
770 set target-wide-charset
771 show target-wide-charset
772 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
773 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
774
775 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
776 show tcp auto-retry
777 set tcp connect-timeout
778 show tcp connect-timeout
779 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
780 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
781 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
782
783 set libthread-db-search-path
784 show libthread-db-search-path
785 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
786 libthread_db.
787
788 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
789 show schedule-multiple
790 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
791 the current process.
792
793 set stack-cache
794 show stack-cache
795 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
796 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
797 affecting correctness.
798
799 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
800 show interactive-mode
801 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
802 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
803 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
804 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
805 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
806
807 * Removed commands
808
809 info forks
810 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
811 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
812 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
813 command.
814
815 fork NUM
816 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
817 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
818 alias for the `fork' command.
819
820 process PID
821 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
822 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
823 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
824
825 delete fork NUM
826 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
827 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
828 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
829 fork' command.
830
831 detach fork NUM
832 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
833 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
834 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
835 fork' command.
836
837 * New native configurations
838
839 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
840
841 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
842
843 * New targets
844
845 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
846 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
847 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
848 S+core 3 score-*-*
849
850 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
851 (mingw32ce) debugging.
852
853 * Removed commands
854
855 catch load
856 catch unload
857 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
858
859 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
860
861 * New native configurations
862
863 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
864 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
865
866 * New targets
867
868 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
869 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
870
871 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
872
873 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
874 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
875 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
876 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
877
878 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
879 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
880
881 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
882 is resolved.
883
884 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
885 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
886 and in inlined functions.
887
888 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
889 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
890 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
891
892 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
893
894 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
895 registers on PowerPC targets.
896
897 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
898 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
899
900 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
901 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
902
903 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
904 extended-remote mode.
905
906 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
907 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
908 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
909 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
910
911 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
912 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
913 target architectures.
914
915 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
916 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
917 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
918 stored in two consecutive float registers.
919
920 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
921 breakpoints now.
922
923 * Improved support for debugging Ada
924 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
925 include:
926 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
927 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
928 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
929 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
930 of an assignment
931 - Improved command completion in Ada
932 - Several bug fixes
933
934 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
935 process.
936
937 * New commands
938
939 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
940 show print frame-arguments
941 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
942 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
943
944 remote put
945 remote get
946 remote delete
947 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
948
949 * New MI commands
950
951 -target-file-put
952 -target-file-get
953 -target-file-delete
954 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
955
956 * New remote packets
957
958 vFile:open:
959 vFile:close:
960 vFile:pread:
961 vFile:pwrite:
962 vFile:unlink:
963 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
964
965 vAttach
966 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
967 mode.
968
969 vRun
970 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
971
972 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
973
974 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
975 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
976 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
977
978 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
979 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
980 -Bsymbolic linker option.
981
982 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
983 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
984 is not supported.
985
986 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
987 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
988
989 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
990 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
991
992 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
993
994 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
995 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
996 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
997
998 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
999 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1000
1001 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1002 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1003 as strings.
1004
1005 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1006 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1007 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1008
1009 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1010 iWMMXt coprocessor.
1011
1012 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1013 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1014 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1015
1016 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1017
1018 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1019
1020 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1021 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1022 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1023
1024 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1025 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1026
1027 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1028 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1029 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1030 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1031 Windows and SymbianOS).
1032
1033 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1034 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1035
1036 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1037 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1038
1039 * New commands
1040
1041 set remoteflow
1042 show remoteflow
1043 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1044 when debugging using remote targets.
1045
1046 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1047 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1048 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1049 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1050 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1051 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1052 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1053
1054 set breakpoint auto-hw
1055 show breakpoint auto-hw
1056 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1057 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1058 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1059 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1060 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1061 including "next" and "finish".
1062
1063 catch exception
1064 catch exception unhandled
1065 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1066
1067 catch assert
1068 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1069
1070 set sysroot
1071 show sysroot
1072 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1073 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1074 an alias to "set sysroot".
1075
1076 info spu
1077 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1078 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1079 architecture.
1080
1081 * New native configurations
1082
1083 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1084
1085 set tdesc filename
1086 unset tdesc filename
1087 show tdesc filename
1088 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1089 not query the target for its built-in description.
1090
1091 * New targets
1092
1093 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1094 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1095 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1096
1097 * New remote packets
1098
1099 QPassSignals:
1100 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1101 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1102
1103 qXfer:features:read:
1104 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1105 features.
1106
1107 qXfer:spu:read:
1108 qXfer:spu:write:
1109 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1110 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1111
1112 qXfer:libraries:read:
1113 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1114 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1115 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1116 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1117
1118 * Removed targets
1119
1120 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1121
1122 alpha*-*-osf1*
1123 alpha*-*-osf2*
1124 d10v-*-*
1125 hppa*-*-hiux*
1126 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1127 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1128 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1129 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1130 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1131 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1132 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1133 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1134 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1135 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1136 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1137 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1138 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1139 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1140 m68*-cisco*-*
1141 m68*-tandem-*
1142 mips*-*-pe
1143 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1144 sh*-*-pe
1145
1146 * Other removed features
1147
1148 target abug
1149 target cpu32bug
1150 target est
1151 target rom68k
1152
1153 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1154
1155 target hms
1156 target e7000
1157 target sh3
1158 target sh3e
1159
1160 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1161 H8/300.
1162
1163 target ocd
1164
1165 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1166 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1167 interfaces.
1168
1169 DWARF 1 support
1170
1171 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1172 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1173
1174 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1175
1176 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1177 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1178 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1179 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1180
1181 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1182
1183 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1184 in debugging information.
1185
1186 Scheme support
1187
1188 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1189 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1190
1191 set mips stack-arg-size
1192 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1193
1194 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1195
1196 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1197
1198 * New targets
1199
1200 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1201 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1202
1203 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1204 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1205 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1206
1207 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1208 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1209 supported.
1210
1211 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1212 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1213
1214 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1215 stub provides the required support.
1216
1217 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1218 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1219
1220 * New commands
1221
1222 set substitute-path
1223 unset substitute-path
1224 show substitute-path
1225 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1226 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1227 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1228 between compilation and debugging.
1229
1230 set trace-commands
1231 show trace-commands
1232 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1233 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1234 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1235
1236 * REMOVED features
1237
1238 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1239
1240 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1241 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1242
1243 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1244
1245 * New remote packets
1246
1247 qSupported:
1248 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1249 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1250 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1251 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1252 target.
1253
1254 qXfer:auxv:read:
1255 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1256 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1257
1258 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1259 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1260 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1261
1262 vFlashErase:
1263 vFlashWrite:
1264 vFlashDone:
1265 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1266
1267 * Removed remote packets
1268
1269 qPart:auxv:read:
1270 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1271 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1272
1273 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1274
1275 * New targets
1276
1277 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1278
1279 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1280
1281 * New commands
1282
1283 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1284 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1285
1286 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1287
1288 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1289
1290 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1291 previously saved state.
1292
1293 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1294
1295 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1296
1297 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1298 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1299
1300 info forks List forks of the user program that
1301 are available to be debugged.
1302
1303 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1304 forks of the user program that are
1305 available to be debugged.
1306
1307 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1308 that are available to be debugged (and
1309 kill the forked process).
1310
1311 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1312 that are available to be debugged (and
1313 allow the process to continue).
1314
1315 * New architecture
1316
1317 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1318
1319 * Improved Windows host support
1320
1321 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1322 native console support, and remote communications using either
1323 network sockets or serial ports.
1324
1325 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1326
1327 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1328 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1329 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1330 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1331 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1332 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1333
1334 * REMOVED features
1335
1336 The ARM rdi-share module.
1337
1338 The Netware NLM debug server.
1339
1340 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1341
1342 * New native configurations
1343
1344 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1345 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1346
1347 * New targets
1348
1349 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1350
1351 * New command line options
1352
1353 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1354 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1355 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1356 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1357 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1358 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1359 with the --command (-x) option.
1360
1361 * Deprecated commands removed
1362
1363 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1364 removed:
1365
1366 Command Replacement
1367 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1368 othernames set arm disassembler
1369 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1370 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1371 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1372 regs info registers
1373
1374 * New BSD user-level threads support
1375
1376 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1377 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1378 configurations are:
1379
1380 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1381 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1382 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1383
1384 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1385 are not yet supported.
1386
1387 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1388 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1389
1390 * REMOVED configurations and files
1391
1392 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1393 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1394 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1395
1396 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1397
1398 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1399 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1400 behavior.
1401
1402 * VAX floating point support
1403
1404 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1405
1406 * User-defined command support
1407
1408 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1409 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1410 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1411
1412 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1413
1414 * New command line option
1415
1416 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1417 debugging.
1418
1419 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1420
1421 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1422 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1423 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1424 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1425 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1426
1427 * Internationalization
1428
1429 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1430 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1431 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1432
1433 * Ada
1434
1435 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1436 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1437 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1438
1439 * New native configurations
1440
1441 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1442
1443 * Remote 'p' packet
1444
1445 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1446 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1447
1448 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1449
1450 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1451 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1452 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1453 i386 application).
1454
1455 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1456 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1457 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1458 configurations:
1459
1460 hppa-*-hpux
1461 ia64-*-aix
1462 mips-*-irix*
1463 *-*-lynx
1464 mips-*-linux-gnu
1465 sds protocol
1466 xdr protocol
1467 powerpc bdm protocol
1468
1469 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1470 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1471
1472 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1473
1474 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1475 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1476 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1477 permanently REMOVED.
1478
1479 h8300-*-*
1480 mcore-*-*
1481 mn10300-*-*
1482 ns32k-*-*
1483 sh64-*-*
1484 v850-*-*
1485
1486 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1487
1488 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1489
1490 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1491 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1492 been fixed.
1493
1494 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1495
1496 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1497 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1498 IRIX long double values).
1499
1500 * VAX and "next"
1501
1502 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1503 command. This problem has been fixed.
1504
1505 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1506
1507 * Fix for ``many threads''
1508
1509 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1510 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1511 error message:
1512
1513 ptrace: No such process.
1514 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1515
1516 This problem has been fixed.
1517
1518 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1519
1520 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1521 GDB to dump core).
1522
1523 * New ``start'' command.
1524
1525 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1526
1527 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1528
1529 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1530 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1531 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1532
1533 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1534 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1535 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1536 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1537 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1538 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1539 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1540 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1541 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1542
1543 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1544
1545 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1546 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1547 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1548 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1549 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1550
1551 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1552 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1553 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1554
1555 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1556
1557 * New native configurations
1558
1559 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1560 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1561 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1562 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1563 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1564 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1565 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1566
1567 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1568
1569 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1570 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1571 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1572 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1573 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1574 work, was also included.
1575
1576 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1577 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1578
1579 h8300-*-*
1580 mcore-*-*
1581 mn10300-*-*
1582 ns32k-*-*
1583 sh64-*-*
1584 v850-*-*
1585 xstormy16-*-*
1586
1587 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1588 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1589
1590 * REMOVED configurations and files
1591
1592 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1593 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1594 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1595 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1596 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1597 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1598 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1599 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1600 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1601 sonymips mips-sony-*
1602 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1603
1604 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1605
1606 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1607
1608 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1609 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1610 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1611 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1612 with GDB".
1613
1614 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1615
1616 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1617 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1618 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1619 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1620 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1621 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1622 are created.
1623
1624 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1625
1626 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1627
1628 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1629 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1630 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1631
1632 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1633
1634 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1635 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1636
1637 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1638
1639 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1640 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1641 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1642
1643 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1644
1645 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1646 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1647
1648 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1649
1650 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1651 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1652 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1653
1654 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1655
1656 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1657 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1658 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1659
1660 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1661
1662 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1663
1664 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1665 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1666
1667 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1668
1669 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1670 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1671 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1672 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1673
1674 * Revised SPARC target
1675
1676 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1677 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1678 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1679 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1680 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1681
1682 * New C++ demangler
1683
1684 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1685 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1686 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1687 programs.
1688
1689 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1690
1691 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1692 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1693 encountered these.
1694
1695 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1696
1697 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1698 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1699 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1700 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1701 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1702 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1703 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1704 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1705 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1706
1707 * New native configurations
1708
1709 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1710 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1711 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1712 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1713 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1714
1715 * New debugging protocols
1716
1717 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1718
1719 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1720
1721 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1722 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1723 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1724
1725 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1726
1727 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1728 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1729 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1730 permanently REMOVED.
1731
1732 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1733 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1734 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1735 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1736 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1737 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1738 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1739 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1740 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1741 sonymips mips-sony-*
1742 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1743
1744 * REMOVED configurations and files
1745
1746 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1747 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1748 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1749 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1750 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1751 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1752 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1753 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1754 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1755 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1756 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1757 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1758 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1759 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1760 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1761 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1762 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1763
1764 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1765
1766 * Objective-C
1767
1768 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1769 integrated into GDB.
1770
1771 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1772
1773 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1774 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1775 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1776 backtraces.
1777
1778 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1779 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1780 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1781
1782 * Hosted file I/O.
1783
1784 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1785 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1786 remote protocol documentation for details.
1787
1788 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1789
1790 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1791 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1792 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1793 ppc32 on ppc64).
1794
1795 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1796
1797 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1798 per-thread variables.
1799
1800 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1801
1802 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1803 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1804
1805 * Separate debug info.
1806
1807 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1808 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1809 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1810 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1811 and optional debug files.
1812
1813 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1814
1815 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1816 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1817 debugger.
1818
1819 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1820 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1821
1822 * Java
1823
1824 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1825 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1826 considered "useable".
1827
1828 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1829
1830 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1831 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1832 kernel.
1833
1834 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1835
1836 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1837 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1838
1839 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1840
1841 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1842 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1843 command.
1844
1845 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1846
1847 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1848 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1849
1850 * Profiling support
1851
1852 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1853 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1854 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1855 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1856 data, for more informative profiling results.
1857
1858 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1859
1860 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1861 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1862 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1863
1864 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1865 removed.
1866
1867 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1868 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1869 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1870 in a subsequent -var-update.
1871
1872 * New native configurations.
1873
1874 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1875
1876 * Multi-arched targets.
1877
1878 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1879 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1880
1881 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1882
1883 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1884 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1885 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1886 permanently REMOVED.
1887
1888 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1889 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1890 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1891 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1892 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1893 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1894 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1895 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1896 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1897 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1898 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1899 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1900
1901 * REMOVED configurations and files
1902
1903 V850EA ISA
1904 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1905 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1906 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1907 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1908 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1909 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1910 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1911 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1912 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1913 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1914 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1915 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1916 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1917
1918 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1919
1920 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1921 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1922 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1923 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1924 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1925
1926 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1927
1928 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1929
1930 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1931 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1932 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1933 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1934 shared libs like mad''.
1935
1936 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1937
1938 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1939 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1940 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1941 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1942
1943 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1944
1945 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1946 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1947 they expand.
1948
1949 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1950 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1951
1952 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1953 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1954
1955 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1956 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1957 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1958 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1959
1960 * Multi-arched targets.
1961
1962 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1963 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1964 NEC V850 v850-*-*
1965 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1966 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1967 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1968
1969 * New targets.
1970
1971 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1972
1973
1974 * New native configurations
1975
1976 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1977 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1978 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1979 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1980
1981 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1982
1983 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1984 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1985 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1986 permanently REMOVED.
1987
1988 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1989 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1990 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1991 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1992 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1993 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1994 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1995 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1996 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1997 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1998 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1999 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2000 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2001
2002 * OBSOLETE languages
2003
2004 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2005
2006 * REMOVED configurations and files
2007
2008 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2009 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2010 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2011 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2012 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2013
2014 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2015
2016 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2017
2018 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2019 commands. The default is 1024.
2020
2021 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2022
2023 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2024
2025 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2026
2027 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2028 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2029 from a file into memory (restore).
2030
2031 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2032
2033 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2034 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2035 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2036
2037 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2038
2039 * New targets.
2040
2041 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2042
2043 * Bug fixes
2044
2045 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2046 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2047 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2048
2049 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2050 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2051 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2052
2053 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2054 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2055 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2056
2057 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2058 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2059 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2060
2061 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2062
2063 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2064
2065 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2066 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2067 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2068 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2069 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2070 (notably embedded) targets.
2071
2072 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2073
2074 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2075 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2076 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2077 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2078
2079 * New command line option
2080
2081 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2082
2083 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2084
2085 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2086 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2087 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2088 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2089 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2090 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2091 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2092 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2093 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2094 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2095
2096 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2097
2098 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2099 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2100
2101 * New native configurations
2102
2103 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2104 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2105 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2106 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2107
2108 * New targets
2109
2110 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2111
2112 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2113
2114 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2115 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2116 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2117 permanently REMOVED.
2118
2119 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2120 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2121 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2122 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2123 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2124
2125 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2126
2127 * REMOVED configurations and files
2128
2129 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2130 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2131 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2132 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2133 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2134 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2135 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2136 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2137 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2138 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2139 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2140 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2141 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2142
2143 * Changes to command line processing
2144
2145 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2146 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2147
2148 * Changes to key bindings
2149
2150 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2151
2152 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2153
2154 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2155
2156 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2157 corrupted.
2158
2159 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2160
2161 Numerous documentation fixes.
2162
2163 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2164
2165 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2166
2167 * New native configurations
2168
2169 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2170 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2171 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2172 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2173 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2174 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2175
2176 * New targets
2177
2178 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2179 CRIS cris-axis
2180 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2181
2182 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2183
2184 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2185 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2186 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2187 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2188 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2189 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2190 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2191 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2192 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2193 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2194 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2195 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2196 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2197 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2198
2199 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2200 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2201
2202 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2203 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2204 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2205 permanently REMOVED.
2206
2207 * REMOVED configurations and files
2208
2209 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2210 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2211 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2212 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2213 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2214 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2215
2216 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2217
2218 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2219 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2220 present.
2221
2222 * Other news:
2223
2224 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2225
2226 * The MI enabled by default.
2227
2228 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2229 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2230 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2231 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2232 which is now deprecated.
2233
2234 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2235
2236 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2237 main features are supported:
2238
2239 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2240
2241 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2242 extension;
2243
2244 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2245
2246 - a Pascal expression parser.
2247
2248 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2249
2250 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2251
2252 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2253
2254 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2255 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2256
2257 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2258
2259 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2260
2261 * Changes in completion.
2262
2263 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2264 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2265 users expect at the shell prompt.
2266
2267 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2268 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2269 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2270 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2271 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2272 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2273 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2274
2275 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2276
2277 * New platform-independent commands:
2278
2279 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2280 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2281 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2282
2283 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2284
2285 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2286 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2287 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2288
2289 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2290
2291 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2292 multi-threaded programs though.
2293
2294 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2295
2296 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2297
2298 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2299 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2300 supported.)
2301
2302 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2303
2304 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2305 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2306 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2307 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2308 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2309 registers.
2310
2311 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2312 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2313 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2314
2315 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2316
2317 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2318 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2319
2320 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2321 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2322 IDT.
2323
2324 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2325 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2326 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2327 a given linear address.
2328
2329 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2330 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2331 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2332
2333 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2334
2335 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2336
2337 * Changes in documentation.
2338
2339 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2340 Documentation License.
2341
2342 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2343 manual.
2344
2345 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2346
2347 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2348 manual.
2349
2350 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2351 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2352 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2353
2354 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2355
2356 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2357 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2358 contents of this file.
2359
2360 * gdba.el deleted
2361
2362 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2363
2364 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2365
2366 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2367
2368 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2369 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2370 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2371 greater level of detail.
2372
2373 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2374
2375 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2376 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2377 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2378 written.
2379
2380 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2381
2382 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2383 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2384 machines ``out of the box''.
2385
2386 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2387 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2388 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2389 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2390 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2391
2392 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2393 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2394 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2395 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2396 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2397
2398 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2399 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2400 also works.
2401
2402 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2403 GDB.
2404
2405 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2406 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2407 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2408 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2409
2410 * New native configurations
2411
2412 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2413 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2414
2415 * New targets
2416
2417 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2418 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2419 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2420 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2421
2422 * OBSOLETE configurations
2423
2424 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2425 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2426 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2427 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2428 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2429
2430 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2431 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2432 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2433 be permanently REMOVED.
2434
2435 * Gould support removed
2436
2437 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2438
2439 * New features for SVR4
2440
2441 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2442 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2443 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2444
2445 * Many C++ enhancements
2446
2447 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2448 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2449
2450 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2451
2452 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2453 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2454 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2455 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2456
2457 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2458 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2459
2460 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2461
2462 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2463 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2464 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2465
2466 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2467 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2468
2469 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2470
2471 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2472 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2473 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2474
2475 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2476
2477 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2478 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2479 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2480
2481 * ``apropos'' command added.
2482
2483 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2484 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2485 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2486
2487 * New MI interface
2488
2489 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2490 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2491 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2492 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2493 enabled by configuring with:
2494
2495 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2496
2497 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2498
2499 * New native configurations
2500
2501 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2502 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2503 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2504
2505 * New targets
2506
2507 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2508 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2509 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2510
2511 * OBSOLETE configurations
2512
2513 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2514
2515 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2516 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2517 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2518 be permanently REMOVED.
2519
2520 * ANSI/ISO C
2521
2522 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2523 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2524 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2525 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2526 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2527 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2528 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2529 already.
2530
2531 * Readline 2.2
2532
2533 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2534
2535 * set extension-language
2536
2537 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2538 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2539 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2540 set extension-language .c c++
2541 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2542 and their associated languages.
2543
2544 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2545
2546 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2547 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2548 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2549
2550 set processor NAME
2551
2552 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2553 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2554
2555 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2556 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2557 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2558 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2559 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2560 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2561 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2562 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2563 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2564 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2565 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2566
2567 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2568 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2569 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2570 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2571
2572 * HP-UX support
2573
2574 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2575 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2576 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2577 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2578 for xdb and dbx commands.
2579
2580 * Catchpoints
2581
2582 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2583 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2584 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2585
2586 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2587 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2588 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2589
2590 * Debugging across forks
2591
2592 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2593 in the inferior.
2594
2595 * TUI
2596
2597 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2598 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2599 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2600
2601 * GDB remote protocol additions
2602
2603 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2604 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2605 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2606 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2607
2608 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2609 full 64-bit address. The command
2610
2611 set remoteaddresssize 32
2612
2613 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2614 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2615 will be discarded.
2616
2617 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2618 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2619
2620 maint packet heythere
2621
2622 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2623 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2624 time.
2625
2626 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2627 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2628 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2629
2630 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2631
2632 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2633 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2634 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2635
2636 * mask-address variable for Mips
2637
2638 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2639 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2640 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2641
2642 * Higher serial baud rates
2643
2644 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2645 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2646 to achieve all of these rates.)
2647
2648 * i960 simulator
2649
2650 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2651 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2652
2653
2654 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2655
2656 * New native configurations
2657
2658 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2659 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2660 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2661 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2662 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2663 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2664 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2665
2666 * New targets
2667
2668 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2669 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2670 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2671 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2672 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2673 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2674 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2675 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2676 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2677 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2678 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2679
2680 * New debugging protocols
2681
2682 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2683 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2684 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2685 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2686 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2687 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2688
2689 * DWARF 2
2690
2691 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2692 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2693 information.
2694
2695 * Java frontend
2696
2697 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2698 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2699
2700 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2701
2702 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2703 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2704 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2705
2706 * Live range splitting
2707
2708 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2709 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2710 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2711
2712 * Hurd support
2713
2714 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2715 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2716
2717 * ARM Thumb support
2718
2719 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2720 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2721 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2722 accordingly.
2723
2724 * MIPS16 support
2725
2726 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2727 instruction set.
2728
2729 * Overlay support
2730
2731 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2732 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2733 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2734 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2735 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2736 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2737
2738 * info symbol
2739
2740 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2741 the symbol at the specified address.
2742
2743 * Trace support
2744
2745 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2746 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2747 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2748 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2749 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2750
2751 * MIPS simulator
2752
2753 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2754 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2755 of most MIPS variants.
2756
2757 * Sparc simulator
2758
2759 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2760 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2761 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2762
2763 * set architecture
2764
2765 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2766 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2767 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2768 the possible architectures.
2769
2770 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2771
2772 * New native configurations
2773
2774 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2775 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2776 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2777 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2778 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2779 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2780
2781 * New targets
2782
2783 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2784 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2785 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2786 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2787 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2788 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2789 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2790
2791 * PowerPC simulator
2792
2793 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2794 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2795 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2796 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2797 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2798
2799 * Solaris 2.5
2800
2801 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2802
2803 * Windows 95/NT native
2804
2805 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2806 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2807 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2808 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2809 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2810
2811 * dont-repeat command
2812
2813 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2814 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2815 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2816 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2817
2818 * Send break instead of ^C
2819
2820 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2821 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2822 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2823
2824 * Remote protocol timeout
2825
2826 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2827 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2828 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2829
2830 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2831
2832 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2833 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2834 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2835 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2836 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2837
2838 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2839 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2840 automatically on hpux10.
2841
2842 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2843
2844 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2845
2846 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2847
2848 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2849 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2850 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2851 every character. The default value is 1050.
2852
2853 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2854
2855 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2856 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2857 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2858 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2859 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2860 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2861
2862 * Speedups for remote debugging
2863
2864 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2865 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2866 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2867
2868 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2869
2870 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2871 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2872
2873 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2874
2875 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2876
2877 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2878 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2879
2880 * Remote targets use caching
2881
2882 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2883 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2884 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2885 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2886 off' turns the the data cache off.
2887
2888 * Remote targets may have threads
2889
2890 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2891 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2892 gdb/remote.c for details.
2893
2894 * NetROM support
2895
2896 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2897 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2898 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2899 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2900 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2901 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2902 sequence is something like
2903
2904 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2905 load <prog>
2906 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2907
2908 * Macintosh host
2909
2910 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2911 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2912 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2913 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2914 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2915 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2916 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2917 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2918
2919 * Autoconf
2920
2921 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2922 but does simplify configuration and building.
2923
2924 * hpux10
2925
2926 GDB now supports hpux10.
2927
2928 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2929
2930 * New native configurations
2931
2932 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2933 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2934 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2935 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2936
2937 * New targets
2938
2939 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2940 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2941 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2942 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2943 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2944
2945 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2946
2947 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2948 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2949 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2950 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2951 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2952
2953 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2954
2955 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2956 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2957 trivial example:
2958 define adder
2959 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2960
2961 To execute the command use:
2962 adder 1 2 3
2963
2964 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2965 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2966 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2967
2968 * New `if' and `while' commands
2969
2970 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2971 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2972 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2973 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2974 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2975 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2976 if the expression is zero.
2977
2978 * Fortran source language mode
2979
2980 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2981 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2982 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2983 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2984 Fortran compilers.
2985
2986 * Better HPUX support
2987
2988 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2989 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2990 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2991 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2992 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2993
2994 adb -w a.out
2995 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2996 control-d
2997
2998 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2999 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3000
3001 adb -w a.out
3002 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3003 control-d
3004
3005 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3006 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3007 external linkage.
3008
3009 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3010 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3011
3012 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3013
3014 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3015 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3016 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3017 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3018 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3019 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3020
3021 * New DOS host serial code
3022
3023 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3024 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3025 a PC's serial port.
3026
3027 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3028
3029 * New "complete" command
3030
3031 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3032 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3033
3034 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3035
3036 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3037 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3038
3039 * Breakpoint hit counts
3040
3041 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3042 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3043 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3044 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3045 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3046 that breakpoint.
3047
3048 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3049
3050 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3051 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3052 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3053
3054 * Shared library breakpoints
3055
3056 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3057 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3058
3059 * Hardware watchpoints
3060
3061 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3062 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3063
3064 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3065
3066 * Annotations
3067
3068 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3069 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3070
3071 * Improved Irix 5 support
3072
3073 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3074
3075 * Improved HPPA support
3076
3077 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3078
3079 * New native configurations
3080
3081 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3082 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3083 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3084 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3085
3086 * New targets
3087
3088 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3089 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3090 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3091
3092 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3093
3094 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3095 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3096
3097 * Fixes
3098
3099 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3100 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3101
3102 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3103
3104 * Irix 5 is now supported
3105
3106 * HPPA support
3107
3108 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3109 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3110 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3111 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3112 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3113
3114
3115 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3116
3117 * User visible changes:
3118
3119 * Remote Debugging
3120
3121 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3122 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3123 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3124 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3125 debugging info for the mips target).
3126
3127 * DEC Alpha native support
3128
3129 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3130 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3131 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3132 Alpha-specific notes.
3133
3134 * Preliminary thread implementation
3135
3136 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3137
3138 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3139
3140 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3141 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3142 for details).
3143
3144 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3145
3146 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3147 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3148 call methods, ...etc.
3149
3150 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3151
3152 * User visible changes:
3153
3154 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3155 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3156 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3157 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3158
3159 Filename completion now works.
3160
3161 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3162 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3163 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3164
3165 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3166 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3167 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3168 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3169 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3170
3171 * DEC alpha support
3172
3173 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3174 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3175
3176
3177 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3178
3179 * Testsuite
3180
3181 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3182 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3183 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3184
3185 * C++ demangling
3186
3187 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3188 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3189 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3190 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3191 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3192
3193 * Simulators
3194
3195 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3196 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3197 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3198
3199 * New targets supported
3200
3201 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3202 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3203 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3204 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3205 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3206
3207 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3208 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3209 GO32 memory extender.
3210
3211 * New remote protocols
3212
3213 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3214
3215 * New source languages supported
3216
3217 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3218 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3219 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3220
3221
3222 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3223
3224 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3225
3226 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3227 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3228 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3229 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3230 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3231 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3232
3233 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3234
3235 * Faster and better demangling
3236
3237 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3238 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3239 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3240 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3241 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3242 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3243 symbol lookups.
3244
3245 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3246 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3247 compiler does not actually implement.
3248
3249 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3250
3251 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3252 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3253 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3254 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3255 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3256 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3257 fix.
3258
3259 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3260 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3261
3262 * Improved configure script
3263
3264 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3265 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3266 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3267 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3268
3269 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3270 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3271 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3272 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3273 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3274 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3275
3276 * Documentation improvements
3277
3278 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3279 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3280 before submitting changes.
3281
3282 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3283 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3284 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3285 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3286 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3287
3288 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3289 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3290 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3291 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3292 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3293 around this problem.
3294
3295 * New features
3296
3297 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3298 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3299 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3300 the target program.
3301
3302 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3303 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3304
3305 * New native hosts supported
3306
3307 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3308 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3309
3310 * New targets supported
3311
3312 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3313
3314 * New file formats supported
3315
3316 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3317 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3318
3319 * Major bug fixes
3320
3321 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3322
3323 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3324 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3325
3326 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3327 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3328 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3329
3330 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3331 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3332
3333 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3334 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3335 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3336 libraries.
3337
3338 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3339 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3340 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3341 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3342 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3343
3344 * Internal improvements
3345
3346 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3347 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3348
3349 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3350 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3351 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3352 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3353 shared code that handles any of them.
3354
3355 * New command line options
3356
3357 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3358
3359 * Mmalloc licensing
3360
3361 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3362 General Public License.
3363
3364 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3365
3366 * Host/native/target split
3367
3368 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3369 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3370 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3371 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3372 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3373
3374 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3375 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3376 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3377 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3378 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3379 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3380 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3381
3382 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3383 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3384 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3385
3386 * New hosts supported
3387
3388 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3389 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3390 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3391
3392 * New targets supported
3393
3394 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3395 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3396
3397 * New native hosts supported
3398
3399 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3400 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3401 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3402
3403 * New file formats supported
3404
3405 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3406 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3407 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3408
3409 * New commands
3410
3411 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3412 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3413 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3414
3415 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3416
3417 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3418 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3419 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3420 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3421
3422 * C++ improvements
3423
3424 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3425 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3426 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3427
3428 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3429
3430 * Major bug fixes
3431
3432 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3433 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3434 by the compiler.
3435
3436 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3437 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3438
3439 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3440 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3441 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3442 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3443 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3444 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3445
3446 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3447 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3448 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3449 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3450
3451 * AMD 29k support
3452
3453 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3454 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3455 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3456 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3457 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3458
3459 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3460 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3461 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3462 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3463
3464 * Remote interfaces
3465
3466 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3467 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3468 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3469 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3470 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3471 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3472 each instruction being stepped through.
3473
3474 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3475 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3476
3477 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3478 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3479 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3480 processor with a serial port.
3481
3482 * Configuration
3483
3484 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3485 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3486 supported, and what files each one uses.
3487
3488 * Library changes
3489
3490 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3491 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3492 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3493 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3494
3495 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3496 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3497 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3498 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3499
3500 * Documentation
3501
3502 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3503 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3504 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3505 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3506 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3507 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3508
3509 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3510
3511
3512 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3513
3514 * Better support for C++ function names
3515
3516 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3517 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3518 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3519 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3520 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3521
3522 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3523 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3524 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3525 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3526 for the list of formats.
3527
3528 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3529
3530 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3531 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3532 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3533 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3534 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3535 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3536 this problem.)
3537
3538 * New 'maintenance' command
3539
3540 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3541 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3542 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3543
3544 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3545 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3546 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3547 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3548 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3549 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3550
3551 The following commands are new:
3552
3553 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3554 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3555 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3556
3557 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3558
3559 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3560 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3561 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3562 read after argv processing.
3563
3564 * New hosts supported
3565
3566 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3567
3568 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3569
3570 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3571 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3572 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3573 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3574 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3575 It costs extra.
3576
3577 * New targets supported
3578
3579 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3580
3581 * More smarts about finding #include files
3582
3583 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3584 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3585 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3586 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3587 the one that contains your sources.
3588
3589 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3590 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3591 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3592
3593 * Interesting infernals change
3594
3595 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3596 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3597 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3598 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3599
3600 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3601
3602 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3603 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3604 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3605
3606 See the ChangeLog for details.
3607
3608 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3609
3610 * New machines supported (host and target)
3611
3612 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3613
3614 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3615
3616 * New malloc package
3617
3618 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3619 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3620 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3621 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3622 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3623 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3624
3625 * info proc
3626
3627 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3628 'help info proc' for details.
3629
3630 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3631
3632 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3633 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3634 possible.
3635
3636 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3637
3638 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3639 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3640 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3641 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3642 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3643 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3644
3645 * Cross byte order fixes
3646
3647 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3648 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3649
3650 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3651
3652 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3653 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3654 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3655 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3656 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3657 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3658 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3659 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3660 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3661 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3662
3663 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3664 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3665 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3666 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3667
3668 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3669 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3670 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3671 use is:
3672
3673 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3674
3675 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3676 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3677 shared across multiple host platforms.
3678
3679 * longjmp() handling
3680
3681 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3682 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3683 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3684 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3685
3686 * Solaris 2.0
3687
3688 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3689 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3690 reading symbols.
3691
3692 * Bug fixes
3693
3694 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3695 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3696 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3697
3698 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3699
3700 * New machines supported (host and target)
3701
3702 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3703 (except core files)
3704 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3705 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3706
3707 * New machines supported (target)
3708
3709 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3710
3711 * C++ support
3712
3713 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3714 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3715 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3716
3717 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3718 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3719 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3720 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3721 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3722 released.
3723
3724 * New features for SVR4
3725
3726 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3727 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3728 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3729
3730 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3731 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3732 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3733
3734 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3735 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3736
3737 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3738
3739 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3740 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3741 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3742 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3743 same code linked statically.
3744
3745 * New Getopt
3746
3747 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3748 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3749 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3750 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3751 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3752 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3753
3754 * Bugs fixed
3755
3756 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3757 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3758 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3759
3760
3761 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3762
3763 * New machines supported (host and target)
3764
3765 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3766 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3767 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3768
3769 * Almost SCO Unix support
3770
3771 We had hoped to support:
3772 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3773 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3774 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3775 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3776
3777 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3778
3779 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3780 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3781 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3782 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3783 reqired (if any).
3784
3785 * New Readline
3786
3787 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3788 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3789 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3790
3791 * Bugs fixed
3792
3793 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3794 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3795 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3796
3797 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3798
3799 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3800 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3801 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3802
3803 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3804 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3805 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3806 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3807 version 2.
3808
3809 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3810 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3811 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3812 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3813 situation somewhat.
3814
3815 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3816 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3817 methods.
3818
3819 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3820 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3821 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3822
3823
3824 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3825
3826 * Improved configuration
3827
3828 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3829 Porting BFD is simpler.
3830
3831 * Stepping improved
3832
3833 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3834 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3835 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3836 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3837
3838 * Bug fixing
3839
3840 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3841
3842 * New host supported (not target)
3843
3844 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3845
3846
3847 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3848
3849 * Multiple source language support
3850
3851 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3852 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3853 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3854 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3855 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3856 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3857
3858 * GDB and Modula-2
3859
3860 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3861 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3862 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3863 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3864
3865 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3866 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3867 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3868
3869 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3870 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3871
3872 * set write on/off
3873
3874 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3875 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3876 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3877 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3878 effect immediately.
3879
3880 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3881
3882 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3883 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3884 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3885 examining core files.
3886
3887 * set listsize
3888
3889 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3890 The default is 10.
3891
3892 * New machines supported (host and target)
3893
3894 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3895 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3896 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3897
3898 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3899
3900 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3901
3902 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3903
3904 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3905 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3906 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3907
3908 * New remote interfaces
3909
3910 AMD 29000 Adapt
3911 AMD 29000 Minimon
3912
3913
3914 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3915
3916 * New Facilities
3917
3918 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3919
3920 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3921 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3922 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3923 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3924 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3925 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3926 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3927 stub on the target system.
3928
3929 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3930
3931 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3932 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3933 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3934
3935 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3936 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3937
3938
3939 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3940
3941 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3942 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3943
3944 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3945 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3946 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3947
3948 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3949 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3950 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3951 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3952
3953 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3954 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3955 it is already running. Default is ON.
3956
3957 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3958 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3959 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3960 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3961 Default is ON.
3962
3963 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3964 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3965 or the value of the environment variable
3966 GDBHISTFILE.
3967
3968 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3969 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3970 HISTSIZE.
3971
3972 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3973 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3974 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3975
3976 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3977 history expansion will be performed on
3978 command line input. The default is OFF.
3979
3980 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3981 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3982 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3983
3984 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3985 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3986 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3987 variable TERM.
3988
3989 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3990 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3991 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3992 variable TERM.
3993
3994 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3995 ``set width'' instead.
3996
3997 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3998 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3999 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4000 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4001
4002 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4003 is OFF.
4004
4005 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4006 "raw" form if off.
4007
4008 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4009 like instructions.
4010
4011 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4012
4013
4014 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4015
4016 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4017 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4018 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4019 window.
4020
4021
4022 * Support for Shared Libraries
4023
4024 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4025 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4026 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4027 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4028 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4029 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4030 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4031 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4032
4033 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4034 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4035 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4036
4037 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4038
4039
4040 * Watchpoints
4041
4042 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4043 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4044 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4045 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4046 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4047 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4048
4049 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4050
4051 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4052
4053 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4054 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4055 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4056
4057
4058 * C++ multiple inheritance
4059
4060 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4061 for C++ programs.
4062
4063 * C++ exception handling
4064
4065 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4066 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4067 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4068 handler's context).
4069
4070 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4071 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4072 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4073
4074 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4075 current stack frame.
4076
4077
4078 * Minor command changes
4079
4080 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4081 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4082 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4083
4084 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4085 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4086 frames without printing.
4087
4088 * New directory command
4089
4090 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4091 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4092 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4093 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4094 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4095
4096 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4097
4098 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4099 for more details.
4100
4101 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4102 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4103 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4104 where the program that you are debugging will run.