1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB-4.18:
8 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
9 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
10 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
12 * OBSOLETE configurations
14 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
18 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
20 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
21 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
22 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
23 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
25 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
26 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
28 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
30 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
31 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
32 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
34 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
35 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
37 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
39 * New native configurations
41 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
42 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
43 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
47 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
48 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
49 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
51 * OBSOLETE configurations
53 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
55 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
56 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
57 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
58 be permanently REMOVED.
62 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
63 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
64 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
65 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
66 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
67 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
68 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
73 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
75 * set extension-language
77 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
78 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
79 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
80 set extension-language .c c++
81 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
82 and their associated languages.
84 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
86 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
87 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
88 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
92 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
93 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
95 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
96 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
98 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
99 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
100 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
101 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
102 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
103 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
104 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
105 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
107 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
108 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
109 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
110 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
114 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
115 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
116 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
117 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
118 for xdb and dbx commands.
122 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
123 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
124 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
126 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
127 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
128 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
130 * Debugging across forks
132 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
137 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
138 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
139 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
141 * GDB remote protocol additions
143 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
144 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
145 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
146 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
148 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
149 full 64-bit address. The command
151 set remoteaddresssize 32
153 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
154 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
157 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
158 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
160 maint packet heythere
162 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
163 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
166 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
167 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
168 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
170 * Tracing can collect general expressions
172 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
173 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
174 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
176 * mask-address variable for Mips
178 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
179 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
180 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
182 * Higher serial baud rates
184 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
185 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
186 to achieve all of these rates.)
190 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
191 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
194 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
196 * New native configurations
198 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
199 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
200 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
201 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
202 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
203 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
204 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
208 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
209 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
210 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
211 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
212 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
213 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
214 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
215 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
216 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
217 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
218 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
220 * New debugging protocols
222 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
223 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
224 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
225 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
226 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
227 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
231 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
232 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
237 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
238 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
240 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
242 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
243 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
244 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
246 * Live range splitting
248 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
249 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
250 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
254 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
255 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
259 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
260 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
261 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
266 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
271 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
272 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
273 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
274 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
275 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
276 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
280 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
281 the symbol at the specified address.
285 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
286 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
287 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
288 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
289 file tracepoint.c for more details.
293 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
294 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
295 of most MIPS variants.
299 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
300 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
301 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
305 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
306 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
307 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
308 the possible architectures.
310 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
312 * New native configurations
314 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
315 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
316 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
317 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
318 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
319 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
323 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
324 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
325 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
326 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
327 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
329 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
333 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
334 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
335 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
336 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
337 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
341 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
343 * Windows 95/NT native
345 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
346 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
347 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
348 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
349 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
351 * dont-repeat command
353 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
354 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
355 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
356 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
358 * Send break instead of ^C
360 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
361 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
362 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
364 * Remote protocol timeout
366 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
367 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
368 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
370 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
372 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
373 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
374 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
375 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
376 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
378 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
379 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
380 automatically on hpux10.
382 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
384 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
386 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
388 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
389 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
390 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
391 every character. The default value is 1050.
393 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
395 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
396 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
397 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
398 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
399 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
400 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
402 * Speedups for remote debugging
404 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
405 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
406 and more efficient S-record downloading.
408 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
410 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
411 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
413 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
417 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
418 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
420 * Remote targets use caching
422 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
423 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
424 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
425 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
426 off' turns the the data cache off.
428 * Remote targets may have threads
430 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
431 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
432 gdb/remote.c for details.
436 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
437 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
438 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
439 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
440 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
441 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
442 sequence is something like
444 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
446 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
450 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
451 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
452 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
453 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
454 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
455 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
456 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
457 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
461 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
462 but does simplify configuration and building.
466 GDB now supports hpux10.
468 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
470 * New native configurations
472 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
473 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
474 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
475 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
479 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
480 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
481 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
482 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
485 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
487 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
488 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
489 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
490 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
491 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
493 * Arguments to user-defined commands
495 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
496 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
499 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
501 To execute the command use:
504 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
505 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
506 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
508 * New `if' and `while' commands
510 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
511 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
512 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
513 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
514 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
515 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
516 if the expression is zero.
518 * Fortran source language mode
520 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
521 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
522 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
523 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
526 * Better HPUX support
528 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
529 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
530 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
531 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
532 that behavior do the following before running the program:
538 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
539 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
545 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
546 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
549 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
550 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
552 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
554 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
555 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
556 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
557 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
558 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
559 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
561 * New DOS host serial code
563 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
564 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
567 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
569 * New "complete" command
571 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
572 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
574 * Trailing space optional in prompt
576 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
577 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
579 * Breakpoint hit counts
581 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
582 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
583 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
584 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
585 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
588 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
590 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
591 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
592 arrays actually contain only short strings.
594 * Shared library breakpoints
596 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
597 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
599 * Hardware watchpoints
601 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
602 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
604 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
608 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
609 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
611 * Improved Irix 5 support
613 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
615 * Improved HPPA support
617 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
619 * New native configurations
621 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
622 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
623 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
624 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
628 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
629 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
632 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
634 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
635 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
639 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
640 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
642 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
644 * Irix 5 is now supported
648 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
649 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
650 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
651 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
652 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
655 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
657 * User visible changes:
661 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
662 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
663 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
664 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
665 debugging info for the mips target).
667 * DEC Alpha native support
669 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
670 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
671 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
672 Alpha-specific notes.
674 * Preliminary thread implementation
676 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
678 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
680 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
681 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
684 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
686 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
687 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
688 call methods, ...etc.
690 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
692 * User visible changes:
694 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
695 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
696 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
697 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
699 Filename completion now works.
701 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
702 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
703 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
705 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
706 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
707 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
708 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
709 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
713 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
714 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
717 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
721 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
722 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
723 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
727 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
728 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
729 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
730 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
731 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
735 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
736 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
737 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
739 * New targets supported
741 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
742 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
743 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
744 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
745 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
747 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
748 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
749 GO32 memory extender.
751 * New remote protocols
753 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
755 * New source languages supported
757 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
758 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
759 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
762 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
764 * HP Precision Architecture supported
766 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
767 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
768 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
769 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
770 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
771 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
773 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
775 * Faster and better demangling
777 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
778 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
779 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
780 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
781 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
782 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
785 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
786 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
787 compiler does not actually implement.
789 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
791 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
792 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
793 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
794 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
795 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
796 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
799 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
800 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
802 * Improved configure script
804 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
805 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
806 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
807 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
809 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
810 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
811 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
812 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
813 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
814 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
816 * Documentation improvements
818 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
819 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
820 before submitting changes.
822 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
823 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
824 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
825 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
826 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
828 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
829 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
830 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
831 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
832 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
837 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
838 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
839 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
842 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
843 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
845 * New native hosts supported
847 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
848 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
850 * New targets supported
852 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
854 * New file formats supported
856 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
857 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
861 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
863 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
864 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
866 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
867 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
868 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
870 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
871 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
873 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
874 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
875 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
878 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
879 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
880 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
881 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
882 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
884 * Internal improvements
886 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
887 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
889 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
890 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
891 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
892 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
893 shared code that handles any of them.
895 * New command line options
897 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
901 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
902 General Public License.
904 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
906 * Host/native/target split
908 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
909 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
910 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
911 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
912 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
914 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
915 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
916 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
917 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
918 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
919 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
920 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
922 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
923 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
924 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
926 * New hosts supported
928 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
929 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
930 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
932 * New targets supported
934 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
935 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
937 * New native hosts supported
939 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
940 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
941 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
943 * New file formats supported
945 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
946 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
947 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
951 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
952 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
953 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
955 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
957 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
958 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
959 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
960 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
964 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
965 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
966 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
968 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
972 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
973 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
976 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
977 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
979 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
980 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
981 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
982 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
983 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
984 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
986 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
987 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
988 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
989 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
993 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
994 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
995 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
996 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
997 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
999 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1000 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1001 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1002 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1006 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1007 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1008 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1009 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1010 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1011 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1012 each instruction being stepped through.
1014 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1015 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1017 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1018 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1019 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1020 processor with a serial port.
1024 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1025 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1026 supported, and what files each one uses.
1030 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1031 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1032 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1033 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1035 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1036 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1037 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1038 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1042 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1043 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1044 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1045 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1046 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1047 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1049 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1052 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1054 * Better support for C++ function names
1056 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1057 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1058 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1059 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1060 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1062 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1063 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1064 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1065 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1066 for the list of formats.
1068 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1070 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1071 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1072 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1073 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1074 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1075 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1078 * New 'maintenance' command
1080 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1081 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1082 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1084 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1085 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1086 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1087 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1088 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1089 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1091 The following commands are new:
1093 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1094 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1095 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1097 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1099 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1100 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1101 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1102 read after argv processing.
1104 * New hosts supported
1106 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1108 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1110 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1111 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1112 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1113 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1114 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1117 * New targets supported
1119 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1121 * More smarts about finding #include files
1123 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1124 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1125 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1126 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1127 the one that contains your sources.
1129 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1130 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1131 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1133 * Interesting infernals change
1135 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1136 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1137 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1138 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1140 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1142 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1143 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1144 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1146 See the ChangeLog for details.
1148 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1150 * New machines supported (host and target)
1152 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1154 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1156 * New malloc package
1158 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1159 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1160 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1161 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1162 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1163 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1167 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1168 'help info proc' for details.
1170 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1172 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1173 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1176 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1178 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1179 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1180 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1181 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1182 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1183 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1185 * Cross byte order fixes
1187 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1188 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1190 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1192 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1193 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1194 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1195 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1196 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1197 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1198 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1199 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1200 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1201 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1203 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1204 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1205 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1206 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1208 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1209 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1210 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1213 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1215 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1216 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1217 shared across multiple host platforms.
1219 * longjmp() handling
1221 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1222 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1223 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1224 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1228 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1229 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1234 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1235 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1236 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1238 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1240 * New machines supported (host and target)
1242 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1244 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1245 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1247 * New machines supported (target)
1249 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1253 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1254 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1255 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1257 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1258 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1259 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1260 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1261 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1264 * New features for SVR4
1266 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1267 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1268 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1270 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1271 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1272 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1274 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1275 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1277 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1279 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1280 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1281 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1282 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1283 same code linked statically.
1287 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1288 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1289 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1290 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1291 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1292 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1296 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1297 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1298 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1301 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1303 * New machines supported (host and target)
1305 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1306 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1307 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1309 * Almost SCO Unix support
1311 We had hoped to support:
1312 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1313 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1314 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1315 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1317 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1319 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1320 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1321 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1322 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1327 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1328 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1329 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1333 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1334 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1335 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1337 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1339 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1340 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1341 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1343 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1344 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1345 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1346 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1349 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1350 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1351 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1352 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1355 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1356 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1359 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1360 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1361 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1364 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1366 * Improved configuration
1368 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1369 Porting BFD is simpler.
1373 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1374 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1375 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1376 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1380 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1382 * New host supported (not target)
1384 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1387 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1389 * Multiple source language support
1391 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1392 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1393 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1394 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1395 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1396 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1400 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1401 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1402 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1403 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1405 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1406 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1407 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1409 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1410 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1414 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1415 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1416 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1417 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1420 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1422 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1423 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1424 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1425 examining core files.
1429 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1432 * New machines supported (host and target)
1434 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1435 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1436 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1438 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1440 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1442 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1444 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1445 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1446 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1448 * New remote interfaces
1454 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1458 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1460 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1461 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1462 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1463 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1464 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1465 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1466 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1467 stub on the target system.
1469 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1471 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1472 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1473 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1475 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1476 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1479 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1481 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1482 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1484 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1485 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1486 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1488 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1489 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1490 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1491 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1493 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1494 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1495 it is already running. Default is ON.
1497 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1498 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1499 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1500 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1503 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1504 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1505 or the value of the environment variable
1508 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1509 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1512 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1513 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1514 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1516 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1517 history expansion will be performed on
1518 command line input. The default is OFF.
1520 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1521 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1522 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1524 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1525 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1526 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1529 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1530 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1531 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1534 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1535 ``set width'' instead.
1537 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1538 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1539 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1540 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1542 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1545 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1548 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1551 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1554 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1556 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1557 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1558 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1562 * Support for Shared Libraries
1564 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1565 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1566 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1567 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1568 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1569 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1570 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1571 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1573 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1574 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1575 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1577 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1582 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1583 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1584 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1585 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1586 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1587 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1589 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1591 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1593 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1594 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1595 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1598 * C++ multiple inheritance
1600 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1603 * C++ exception handling
1605 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1606 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1607 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1610 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1611 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1612 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1614 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1615 current stack frame.
1618 * Minor command changes
1620 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1621 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1622 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1624 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1625 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1626 frames without printing.
1628 * New directory command
1630 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1631 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1632 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1633 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1634 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1636 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1638 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1641 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1642 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1643 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1644 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / platform / upstream / binutils.git / blob