Declare Gould configuration obsolete:
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB-4.17:
5
6 * New native configurations
7
8 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
9 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
10 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
11
12 * New targets
13
14 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
15 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
16
17 * OBSOLETE configurations
18
19 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
20
21 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
22 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
23 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
24 be permanently REMOVED.
25
26 * Readline 2.2
27
28 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
29
30 ** The PowerPC and RS6000 targets now have a `set processor' command.
31
32 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
33 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
34 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
35
36 set processor NAME
37
38 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
39 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
40
41 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
42 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
43 403 IBM PowerPC 403
44 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
45 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
46 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
47 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
48 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
49 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
50 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
51 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
52
53 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
54 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
55 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
56 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
57
58 * HP-UX Support
59
60 Thanks to a major code donation from HP, GDB now has much more
61 extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared library
62 support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00, support
63 for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and compatibility mode for xdb
64 commands.
65
66 * Catchpoints
67
68 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
69 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
70 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
71
72 * Debugging Across Forks
73
74 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
75 in the inferior.
76
77 * TUI
78
79 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
80 it, build with --enable-tui.
81
82 * GDB Remote protocol
83
84 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
85 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
86 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
87 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
88
89 For 64 bit targets, the memory packets ("M" and "m") can now contain a
90 full 64 bit address. The class-obscure gdb command:
91 set targetaddresssize 32
92 can be used to revert to the old behavour. For existing remote stubs
93 the change should not be noticed as the additional address information
94 will be discarded.
95
96 * Changes to particular targets
97
98 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
99
100 * New native configurations
101
102 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
103 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
104 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
105 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
106 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
107 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
108 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
109
110 * New targets
111
112 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
113 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
114 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
115 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
116 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
117 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
118 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
119 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
120 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
121 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
122 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
123
124 * New debugging protocols
125
126 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
127 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
128 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
129 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
130 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
131 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
132
133 * DWARF 2
134
135 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
136 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
137 information.
138
139 start-sanitize-java
140 * Java frontend
141
142 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
143 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
144
145 end-sanitize-java
146 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
147
148 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
149 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
150 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
151
152 * Live range splitting
153
154 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
155 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
156 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
157
158 * Hurd support
159
160 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
161 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
162
163 * ARM Thumb support
164
165 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
166 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
167 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
168 accordingly.
169
170 * MIPS16 support
171
172 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
173 instruction set.
174
175 * Overlay support
176
177 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
178 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
179 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
180 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
181 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
182 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
183
184 * info symbol
185
186 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
187 the symbol at the specified address.
188
189 * Trace support
190
191 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
192 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
193 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
194 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
195 file tracepoint.c for more details.
196
197 * MIPS simulator
198
199 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
200 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
201 of most MIPS variants.
202
203 * Sparc simulator
204
205 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
206 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
207 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
208
209 * set architecture
210
211 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
212 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
213 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
214 the possible architectures.
215
216 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
217
218 * New native configurations
219
220 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
221 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
222 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
223 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
224 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
225 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
226
227 * New targets
228
229 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
230 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
231 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
232 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
233 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
234 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
235 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
236
237 * PowerPC simulator
238
239 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
240 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
241 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
242 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
243 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
244
245 * Solaris 2.5
246
247 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
248
249 * Windows 95/NT native
250
251 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
252 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
253 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
254 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
255 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
256
257 * dont-repeat command
258
259 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
260 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
261 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
262 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
263
264 * Send break instead of ^C
265
266 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
267 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
268 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
269
270 * Remote protocol timeout
271
272 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
273 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
274 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
275
276 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
277
278 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
279 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
280 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
281 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
282 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
283
284 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
285 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
286 automatically on hpux10.
287
288 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
289
290 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
291
292 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
293
294 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
295 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
296 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
297 every character. The default value is 1050.
298
299 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
300
301 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
302 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
303 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
304 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
305 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
306 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
307
308 * Speedups for remote debugging
309
310 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
311 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
312 and more efficient S-record downloading.
313
314 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
315
316 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
317 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
318
319 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
320
321 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
322
323 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
324 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
325
326 * Remote targets use caching
327
328 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
329 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
330 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
331 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
332 off' turns the the data cache off.
333
334 * Remote targets may have threads
335
336 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
337 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
338 gdb/remote.c for details.
339
340 * NetROM support
341
342 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
343 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
344 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
345 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
346 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
347 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
348 sequence is something like
349
350 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
351 load <prog>
352 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
353
354 * Macintosh host
355
356 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
357 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
358 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
359 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
360 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
361 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
362 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
363 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
364
365 * Autoconf
366
367 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
368 but does simplify configuration and building.
369
370 * hpux10
371
372 GDB now supports hpux10.
373
374 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
375
376 * New native configurations
377
378 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
379 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
380 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
381 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
382
383 * New targets
384
385 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
386 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
387 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
388 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
389 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
390
391 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
392
393 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
394 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
395 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
396 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
397 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
398
399 * Arguments to user-defined commands
400
401 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
402 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
403 trivial example:
404 define adder
405 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
406
407 To execute the command use:
408 adder 1 2 3
409
410 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
411 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
412 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
413
414 * New `if' and `while' commands
415
416 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
417 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
418 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
419 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
420 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
421 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
422 if the expression is zero.
423
424 * Fortran source language mode
425
426 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
427 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
428 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
429 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
430 Fortran compilers.
431
432 * Better HPUX support
433
434 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
435 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
436 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
437 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
438 that behavior do the following before running the program:
439
440 adb -w a.out
441 __dld_flags?W 0x5
442 control-d
443
444 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
445 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
446
447 adb -w a.out
448 __dld_flags?W 0x4
449 control-d
450
451 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
452 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
453 external linkage.
454
455 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
456 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
457
458 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
459
460 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
461 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
462 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
463 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
464 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
465 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
466
467 * New DOS host serial code
468
469 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
470 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
471 a PC's serial port.
472
473 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
474
475 * New "complete" command
476
477 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
478 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
479
480 * Trailing space optional in prompt
481
482 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
483 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
484
485 * Breakpoint hit counts
486
487 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
488 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
489 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
490 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
491 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
492 that breakpoint.
493
494 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
495
496 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
497 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
498 arrays actually contain only short strings.
499
500 * Shared library breakpoints
501
502 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
503 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
504
505 * Hardware watchpoints
506
507 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
508 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
509
510 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
511
512 * Annotations
513
514 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
515 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
516
517 * Improved Irix 5 support
518
519 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
520
521 * Improved HPPA support
522
523 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
524
525 * New native configurations
526
527 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
528 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
529 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
530 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
531
532 * New targets
533
534 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
535 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
536 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
537
538 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
539
540 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
541 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
542
543 * Fixes
544
545 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
546 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
547
548 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
549
550 * Irix 5 is now supported
551
552 * HPPA support
553
554 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
555 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
556 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
557 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
558 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
559
560
561 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
562
563 * User visible changes:
564
565 * Remote Debugging
566
567 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
568 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
569 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
570 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
571 debugging info for the mips target).
572
573 * DEC Alpha native support
574
575 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
576 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
577 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
578 Alpha-specific notes.
579
580 * Preliminary thread implementation
581
582 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
583
584 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
585
586 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
587 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
588 for details).
589
590 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
591
592 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
593 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
594 call methods, ...etc.
595
596 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
597
598 * User visible changes:
599
600 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
601 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
602 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
603 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
604
605 Filename completion now works.
606
607 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
608 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
609 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
610
611 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
612 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
613 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
614 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
615 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
616
617 * DEC alpha support
618
619 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
620 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
621
622
623 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
624
625 * Testsuite
626
627 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
628 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
629 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
630
631 * C++ demangling
632
633 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
634 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
635 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
636 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
637 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
638
639 * Simulators
640
641 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
642 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
643 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
644
645 * New targets supported
646
647 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
648 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
649 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
650 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
651 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
652
653 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
654 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
655 GO32 memory extender.
656
657 * New remote protocols
658
659 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
660
661 * New source languages supported
662
663 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
664 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
665 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
666
667
668 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
669
670 * HP Precision Architecture supported
671
672 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
673 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
674 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
675 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
676 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
677 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
678
679 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
680
681 * Faster and better demangling
682
683 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
684 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
685 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
686 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
687 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
688 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
689 symbol lookups.
690
691 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
692 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
693 compiler does not actually implement.
694
695 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
696
697 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
698 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
699 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
700 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
701 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
702 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
703 fix.
704
705 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
706 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
707
708 * Improved configure script
709
710 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
711 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
712 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
713 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
714
715 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
716 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
717 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
718 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
719 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
720 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
721
722 * Documentation improvements
723
724 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
725 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
726 before submitting changes.
727
728 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
729 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
730 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
731 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
732 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
733
734 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
735 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
736 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
737 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
738 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
739 around this problem.
740
741 * New features
742
743 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
744 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
745 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
746 the target program.
747
748 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
749 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
750
751 * New native hosts supported
752
753 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
754 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
755
756 * New targets supported
757
758 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
759
760 * New file formats supported
761
762 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
763 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
764
765 * Major bug fixes
766
767 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
768
769 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
770 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
771
772 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
773 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
774 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
775
776 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
777 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
778
779 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
780 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
781 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
782 libraries.
783
784 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
785 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
786 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
787 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
788 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
789
790 * Internal improvements
791
792 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
793 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
794
795 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
796 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
797 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
798 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
799 shared code that handles any of them.
800
801 * New command line options
802
803 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
804
805 * Mmalloc licensing
806
807 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
808 General Public License.
809
810 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
811
812 * Host/native/target split
813
814 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
815 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
816 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
817 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
818 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
819
820 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
821 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
822 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
823 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
824 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
825 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
826 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
827
828 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
829 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
830 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
831
832 * New hosts supported
833
834 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
835 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
836 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
837
838 * New targets supported
839
840 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
841 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
842
843 * New native hosts supported
844
845 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
846 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
847 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
848
849 * New file formats supported
850
851 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
852 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
853 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
854
855 * New commands
856
857 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
858 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
859 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
860
861 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
862
863 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
864 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
865 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
866 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
867
868 * C++ improvements
869
870 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
871 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
872 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
873
874 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
875
876 * Major bug fixes
877
878 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
879 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
880 by the compiler.
881
882 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
883 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
884
885 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
886 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
887 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
888 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
889 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
890 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
891
892 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
893 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
894 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
895 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
896
897 * AMD 29k support
898
899 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
900 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
901 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
902 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
903 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
904
905 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
906 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
907 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
908 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
909
910 * Remote interfaces
911
912 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
913 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
914 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
915 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
916 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
917 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
918 each instruction being stepped through.
919
920 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
921 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
922
923 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
924 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
925 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
926 processor with a serial port.
927
928 * Configuration
929
930 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
931 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
932 supported, and what files each one uses.
933
934 * Library changes
935
936 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
937 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
938 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
939 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
940
941 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
942 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
943 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
944 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
945
946 * Documentation
947
948 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
949 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
950 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
951 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
952 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
953 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
954
955 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
956
957
958 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
959
960 * Better support for C++ function names
961
962 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
963 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
964 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
965 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
966 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
967
968 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
969 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
970 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
971 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
972 for the list of formats.
973
974 * G++ symbol mangling problem
975
976 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
977 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
978 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
979 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
980 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
981 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
982 this problem.)
983
984 * New 'maintenance' command
985
986 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
987 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
988 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
989
990 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
991 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
992 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
993 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
994 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
995 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
996
997 The following commands are new:
998
999 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1000 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1001 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1002
1003 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1004
1005 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1006 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1007 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1008 read after argv processing.
1009
1010 * New hosts supported
1011
1012 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1013
1014 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1015
1016 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1017 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1018 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1019 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1020 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1021 It costs extra.
1022
1023 * New targets supported
1024
1025 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1026
1027 * More smarts about finding #include files
1028
1029 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1030 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1031 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1032 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1033 the one that contains your sources.
1034
1035 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1036 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1037 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1038
1039 * Interesting infernals change
1040
1041 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1042 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1043 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1044 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1045
1046 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1047
1048 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1049 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1050 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1051
1052 See the ChangeLog for details.
1053
1054 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1055
1056 * New machines supported (host and target)
1057
1058 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1059
1060 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1061
1062 * New malloc package
1063
1064 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1065 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1066 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1067 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1068 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1069 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1070
1071 * info proc
1072
1073 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1074 'help info proc' for details.
1075
1076 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1077
1078 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1079 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1080 possible.
1081
1082 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1083
1084 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1085 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1086 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1087 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1088 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1089 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1090
1091 * Cross byte order fixes
1092
1093 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1094 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1095
1096 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1097
1098 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1099 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1100 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1101 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1102 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1103 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1104 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1105 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1106 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1107 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1108
1109 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1110 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1111 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1112 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1113
1114 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1115 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1116 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1117 use is:
1118
1119 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1120
1121 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1122 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1123 shared across multiple host platforms.
1124
1125 * longjmp() handling
1126
1127 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1128 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1129 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1130 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1131
1132 * Solaris 2.0
1133
1134 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1135 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1136 reading symbols.
1137
1138 * Bug fixes
1139
1140 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1141 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1142 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1143
1144 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1145
1146 * New machines supported (host and target)
1147
1148 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1149 (except core files)
1150 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1151 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1152
1153 * New machines supported (target)
1154
1155 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1156
1157 * C++ support
1158
1159 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1160 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1161 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1162
1163 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1164 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1165 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1166 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1167 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1168 released.
1169
1170 * New features for SVR4
1171
1172 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1173 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1174 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1175
1176 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1177 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1178 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1179
1180 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1181 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1182
1183 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1184
1185 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1186 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1187 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1188 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1189 same code linked statically.
1190
1191 * New Getopt
1192
1193 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1194 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1195 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1196 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1197 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1198 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1199
1200 * Bugs fixed
1201
1202 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1203 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1204 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1205
1206
1207 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1208
1209 * New machines supported (host and target)
1210
1211 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1212 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1213 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1214
1215 * Almost SCO Unix support
1216
1217 We had hoped to support:
1218 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1219 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1220 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1221 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1222
1223 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1224
1225 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1226 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1227 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1228 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1229 reqired (if any).
1230
1231 * New Readline
1232
1233 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1234 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1235 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1236
1237 * Bugs fixed
1238
1239 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1240 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1241 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1242
1243 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1244
1245 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1246 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1247 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1248
1249 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1250 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1251 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1252 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1253 version 2.
1254
1255 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1256 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1257 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1258 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1259 situation somewhat.
1260
1261 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1262 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1263 methods.
1264
1265 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1266 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1267 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1268
1269
1270 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1271
1272 * Improved configuration
1273
1274 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1275 Porting BFD is simpler.
1276
1277 * Stepping improved
1278
1279 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1280 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1281 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1282 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1283
1284 * Bug fixing
1285
1286 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1287
1288 * New host supported (not target)
1289
1290 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1291
1292
1293 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1294
1295 * Multiple source language support
1296
1297 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1298 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1299 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1300 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1301 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1302 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1303
1304 * GDB and Modula-2
1305
1306 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1307 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1308 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1309 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1310
1311 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1312 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1313 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1314
1315 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1316 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1317
1318 * set write on/off
1319
1320 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1321 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1322 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1323 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1324 effect immediately.
1325
1326 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1327
1328 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1329 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1330 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1331 examining core files.
1332
1333 * set listsize
1334
1335 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1336 The default is 10.
1337
1338 * New machines supported (host and target)
1339
1340 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1341 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1342 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1343
1344 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1345
1346 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1347
1348 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1349
1350 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1351 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1352 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1353
1354 * New remote interfaces
1355
1356 AMD 29000 Adapt
1357 AMD 29000 Minimon
1358
1359
1360 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1361
1362 * New Facilities
1363
1364 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1365
1366 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1367 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1368 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1369 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1370 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1371 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1372 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1373 stub on the target system.
1374
1375 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1376
1377 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1378 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1379 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1380
1381 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1382 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1383
1384
1385 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1386
1387 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1388 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1389
1390 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1391 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1392 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1393
1394 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1395 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1396 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1397 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1398
1399 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1400 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1401 it is already running. Default is ON.
1402
1403 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1404 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1405 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1406 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1407 Default is ON.
1408
1409 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1410 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1411 or the value of the environment variable
1412 GDBHISTFILE.
1413
1414 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1415 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1416 HISTSIZE.
1417
1418 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1419 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1420 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1421
1422 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1423 history expansion will be performed on
1424 command line input. The default is OFF.
1425
1426 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1427 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1428 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1429
1430 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1431 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1432 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1433 variable TERM.
1434
1435 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1436 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1437 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1438 variable TERM.
1439
1440 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1441 ``set width'' instead.
1442
1443 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1444 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1445 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1446 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1447
1448 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1449 is OFF.
1450
1451 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1452 "raw" form if off.
1453
1454 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1455 like instructions.
1456
1457 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1458
1459
1460 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1461
1462 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1463 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1464 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1465 window.
1466
1467
1468 * Support for Shared Libraries
1469
1470 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1471 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1472 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1473 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1474 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1475 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1476 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1477 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1478
1479 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1480 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1481 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1482
1483 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1484
1485
1486 * Watchpoints
1487
1488 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1489 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1490 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1491 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1492 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1493 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1494
1495 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1496
1497 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1498
1499 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1500 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1501 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1502
1503
1504 * C++ multiple inheritance
1505
1506 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1507 for C++ programs.
1508
1509 * C++ exception handling
1510
1511 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1512 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1513 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1514 handler's context).
1515
1516 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1517 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1518 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1519
1520 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1521 current stack frame.
1522
1523
1524 * Minor command changes
1525
1526 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1527 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1528 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1529
1530 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1531 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1532 frames without printing.
1533
1534 * New directory command
1535
1536 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1537 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1538 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1539 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1540 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1541
1542 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1543
1544 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1545 for more details.
1546
1547 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1548 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1549 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1550 where the program that you are debugging will run.