--- /dev/null
+ What has changed since GDB-3.5?
+ (Organized release by release)
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
+
+ * Better support for C++ function names
+
+GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
+names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
+(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
+single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
+Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
+
+GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
+the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
+You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
+lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
+for the list of formats.
+
+ * G++ symbol mangling problem
+
+Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
+C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
+directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
+can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
+usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
+about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
+this problem.)
+
+ * New 'maintenance' command
+
+All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
+the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
+can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
+
+ dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
+ info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
+ printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
+ printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
+ printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
+ printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
+
+The following commands are new:
+
+ maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
+ demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
+ maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
+
+ * Change to .gdbinit file processing
+
+We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
+(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
+be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
+read after argv processing.
+
+ * New hosts supported
+
+Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
+
+Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
+
+We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
+is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
+for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
+masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
+fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
+It costs extra.
+
+ * New targets supported
+
+Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
+
+ * More smarts about finding #include files
+
+GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
+all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
+greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
+especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
+the one that contains your sources.
+
+We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
+breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
+try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
+
+ * Interesting infernals change
+
+GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
+section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
+target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
+stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
+
+ * Bug fixes (of course!)
+
+There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
+ mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
+ i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
+
+See the ChangeLog for details.
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
+
+ * New machines supported (host and target)
+
+IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
+
+SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
+
+ * New malloc package
+
+GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
+Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
+capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
+This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
+pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
+more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
+
+ * info proc
+
+The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
+'help info proc' for details.
+
+ * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
+
+The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
+Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
+possible.
+
+ * File name changes for MS-DOS
+
+Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
+support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
+conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
+environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
+that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
+in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
+
+ * Cross byte order fixes
+
+Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
+targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
+
+ * New -mapped and -readnow options
+
+If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
+system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
+`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
+program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
+called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
+Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
+and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
+the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
+option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
+starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
+
+You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
+the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
+information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
+slower, but makes future operations faster.
+
+The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
+build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
+A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
+use is:
+
+ gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
+
+The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
+It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
+shared across multiple host platforms.
+
+ * longjmp() handling
+
+GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
+siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
+all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
+platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
+
+ * Solaris 2.0
+
+Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
+this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
+reading symbols.
+
+ * Bug fixes
+
+As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
+People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
+crashes and trashed symbol tables.
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
+
+ * New machines supported (host and target)
+
+SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
+ (except core files)
+BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
+Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
+
+ * New machines supported (target)
+
+AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
+
+ * C++ support
+
+GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
+The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
+per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
+
+GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
+`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
+extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
+good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
+will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
+released.
+
+ * New features for SVR4
+
+GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
+shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
+only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
+
+The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
+on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
+it prints the address mappings of the process.
+
+If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
+bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
+
+ * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
+
+Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
+now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
+skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
+make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
+same code linked statically.
+
+ * New Getopt
+
+GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
+version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
+continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
+Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
+added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
+future by other options that begin with the same letter.
+
+ * Bugs fixed
+
+The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
+Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
+See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
+
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
+
+ * New machines supported (host and target)
+
+Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
+NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
+Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
+
+ * Almost SCO Unix support
+
+We had hoped to support:
+SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
+(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
+that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
+about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
+
+ * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
+
+GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
+debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
+is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
+send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
+reqired (if any).
+
+ * New Readline
+
+GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
+is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
+required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
+
+ * Bugs fixed
+
+The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
+Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
+See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
+
+ * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
+
+GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
+supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
+symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
+
+Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
+mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
+debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
+mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
+version 2.
+
+Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
+really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
+line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
+variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
+situation somewhat.
+
+When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
+However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
+methods.
+
+We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
+DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
+encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
+
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
+
+ * Improved configuration
+
+Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
+Porting BFD is simpler.
+
+ * Stepping improved
+
+The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
+of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
+in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
+function that has debugging information is called within the line.
+
+ * Bug fixing
+
+Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
+
+ * New host supported (not target)
+
+Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
+
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
+
+ * Multiple source language support
+
+GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
+It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
+and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
+language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
+You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
+`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
+
+ * GDB and Modula-2
+
+GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
+currently under development at the State University of New York at
+Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
+continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
+
+Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
+debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
+symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
+
+There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
+in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
+
+ * set write on/off
+
+GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
+a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
+the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
+by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
+effect immediately.
+
+ * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
+
+When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
+shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
+The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
+examining core files.
+
+ * set listsize
+
+You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
+The default is 10.
+
+ * New machines supported (host and target)
+
+SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
+Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
+Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
+
+ * New hosts supported (not targets)
+
+IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
+
+ * New targets supported (not hosts)
+
+AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
+AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
+Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
+
+ * New remote interfaces
+
+AMD 29000 Adapt
+AMD 29000 Minimon
+
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
+
+ * New Facilities
+
+Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
+
+Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
+target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
+is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
+remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
+remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
+also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
+using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
+stub on the target system.
+
+New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
+
+GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
+library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
+object file types such as a.out and coff.
+
+There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
+refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
+
+
+ * Control-Variable user interface simplified
+
+All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
+by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
+
+For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
+``Show prompt'' produces the response:
+Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
+
+What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
+print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
+will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
+all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
+
+confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
+ hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
+ it is already running. Default is ON.
+
+editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
+ of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
+ control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
+ you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
+ Default is ON.
+
+history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
+ will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
+ or the value of the environment variable
+ GDBHISTFILE.
+
+history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
+ default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
+ HISTSIZE.
+
+history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
+ be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
+ file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
+
+history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
+ history expansion will be performed on
+ command line input. The default is OFF.
+
+radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
+ to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
+ in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
+
+height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
+ is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
+ setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
+ variable TERM.
+
+width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
+ Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
+ setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
+ variable TERM.
+
+Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
+``set width'' instead.
+
+print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
+ such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
+ more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
+ ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
+
+print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
+ is OFF.
+
+print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
+ "raw" form if off.
+
+print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
+ like instructions.
+
+print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
+
+
+ * Support for Epoch Environment.
+
+The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
+new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
+are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
+window.
+
+
+ * Support for Shared Libraries
+
+GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
+Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
+before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
+happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
+At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
+from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
+shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
+It can be abbreviated ``share''.
+
+sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
+ matching a unix regular expression. No argument
+ indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
+
+info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
+
+
+ * Watchpoints
+
+A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
+expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
+tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
+quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
+problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
+more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
+
+watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
+
+info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
+
+delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
+disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
+enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
+
+
+ * C++ multiple inheritance
+
+When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
+for C++ programs.
+
+ * C++ exception handling
+
+Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
+ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
+the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
+handler's context).
+
+catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
+ set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
+ Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
+
+info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
+ current stack frame.
+
+
+ * Minor command changes
+
+The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
+command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
+is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
+
+The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
+at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
+frames without printing.
+
+ * New directory command
+
+'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
+The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
+about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
+with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
+find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
+
+ * Configuring GDB for compilation
+
+For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
+for more details.
+
+GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
+two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
+Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
+where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / commitdiff