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3ddcdc59 SG |
1 | What has changed since GDB-3.5? |
2 | (Organized release by release) | |
3 | ||
76ba9b5b SG |
4 | *** Changes in GDB-4.7: |
5 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
6 | * Host/native/target split |
7 | ||
8 | GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for | |
9 | hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote | |
10 | target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging | |
11 | local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will | |
12 | ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible. | |
13 | ||
14 | The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in | |
15 | GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB | |
16 | is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific | |
17 | code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on | |
18 | any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be | |
19 | built when the host and target are the same system. Child process | |
20 | handling and core file support are two common `native' examples. | |
21 | ||
22 | GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner. | |
23 | It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector, | |
24 | plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc. | |
25 | ||
26 | * New hosts supported | |
27 | ||
28 | HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd | |
29 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd | |
30 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco | |
31 | ||
32 | * New targets supported | |
76ba9b5b | 33 | |
c00d8242 JG |
34 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
35 | 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-* | |
5f5be54c | 36 | |
c00d8242 | 37 | * New native hosts supported |
5f5be54c | 38 | |
c00d8242 JG |
39 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd |
40 | (386bsd is not well tested yet) | |
41 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco | |
5f5be54c | 42 | |
c00d8242 | 43 | * New file formats supported |
5f5be54c | 44 | |
c00d8242 JG |
45 | BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It |
46 | supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out | |
47 | format extended with minimal information about multiple sections. | |
5f5be54c | 48 | |
c00d8242 | 49 | * New commands |
5f5be54c | 50 | |
c00d8242 JG |
51 | `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'. |
52 | `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'. | |
53 | These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work. | |
5f5be54c | 54 | |
c00d8242 | 55 | `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'. |
5f5be54c | 56 | |
c00d8242 JG |
57 | You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command |
58 | scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed | |
59 | prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be | |
60 | executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo. | |
61 | ||
62 | * C++ improvements | |
63 | ||
64 | We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type | |
65 | info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which | |
66 | symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses. | |
67 | ||
68 | Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well. | |
5f5be54c SG |
69 | |
70 | * Major bug fixes | |
71 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
72 | The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is |
73 | fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output | |
74 | by the compiler. | |
5f5be54c | 75 | |
c00d8242 JG |
76 | We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file |
77 | support, with help from a dozen people on the net. | |
78 | ||
79 | John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so | |
80 | slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was | |
81 | that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal | |
82 | purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing | |
83 | the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++ | |
84 | mangled symbol sped things up a great deal. | |
85 | ||
86 | Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter | |
87 | about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol | |
88 | completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as | |
89 | we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6. | |
90 | ||
91 | * AMD 29k support | |
5f5be54c | 92 | |
c00d8242 JG |
93 | A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can |
94 | specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB | |
95 | calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the | |
96 | usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work | |
97 | in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces. | |
98 | ||
99 | We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger | |
100 | Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all | |
101 | of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to | |
102 | resolve this, and hope to have it available soon. | |
103 | ||
104 | * Remote interfaces | |
105 | ||
106 | We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets | |
107 | with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T') | |
108 | message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message. | |
109 | This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB | |
110 | needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional | |
111 | breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for | |
112 | each instruction being stepped through. | |
113 | ||
114 | The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for | |
115 | registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run. | |
116 | ||
117 | There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can | |
118 | find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the | |
119 | Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC | |
120 | processor with a serial port. | |
121 | ||
122 | * Configuration | |
123 | ||
124 | Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new | |
125 | `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are | |
126 | supported, and what files each one uses. | |
127 | ||
128 | * Library changes | |
129 | ||
130 | There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the | |
131 | disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains | |
132 | Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and | |
133 | disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines. | |
134 | ||
135 | The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General | |
136 | Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++ | |
137 | can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License | |
138 | grants all the rights from the General Public License. | |
139 | ||
140 | * Documentation | |
141 | ||
142 | The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete | |
143 | reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far | |
144 | as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We | |
145 | encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your | |
146 | system, and send improvements on the document in general (to | |
147 | [email protected]). | |
5f5be54c SG |
148 | |
149 | And, of course, many bugs have been fixed. | |
76ba9b5b | 150 | |
c00d8242 | 151 | |
3ddcdc59 SG |
152 | *** Changes in GDB-4.6: |
153 | ||
154 | * Better support for C++ function names | |
155 | ||
156 | GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function | |
157 | names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names | |
158 | (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of | |
159 | single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'. | |
160 | Make use of command completion, it is your friend. | |
161 | ||
162 | GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are | |
163 | the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style. | |
164 | You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu, | |
165 | lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo' | |
166 | for the list of formats. | |
167 | ||
168 | * G++ symbol mangling problem | |
169 | ||
170 | Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for | |
171 | C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this | |
172 | directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you | |
173 | can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The | |
174 | usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains | |
175 | about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has | |
176 | this problem.) | |
177 | ||
178 | * New 'maintenance' command | |
179 | ||
180 | All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of | |
181 | the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This | |
182 | can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made: | |
183 | ||
184 | dump-me -> maintenance dump-me | |
185 | info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints | |
186 | printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms | |
187 | printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles | |
188 | printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols | |
189 | printsyms -> maintenance print symbols | |
190 | ||
191 | The following commands are new: | |
192 | ||
193 | maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to | |
194 | demangle a C++ link name and prints the result. | |
195 | maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol | |
196 | ||
197 | * Change to .gdbinit file processing | |
198 | ||
199 | We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments | |
200 | (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to | |
201 | be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still | |
202 | read after argv processing. | |
203 | ||
204 | * New hosts supported | |
205 | ||
206 | Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2 | |
207 | ||
208 | Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux | |
209 | ||
210 | We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This | |
211 | is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it | |
212 | for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or | |
213 | masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the | |
214 | fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option. | |
215 | It costs extra. | |
216 | ||
217 | * New targets supported | |
218 | ||
219 | Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms | |
220 | ||
221 | * More smarts about finding #include files | |
222 | ||
223 | GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for | |
224 | all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This | |
225 | greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files, | |
226 | especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from | |
227 | the one that contains your sources. | |
228 | ||
229 | We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting | |
230 | breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to | |
231 | try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.) | |
232 | ||
233 | * Interesting infernals change | |
234 | ||
235 | GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each | |
236 | section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the | |
237 | target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded | |
238 | stabs used by Solaris-2.0. | |
239 | ||
240 | * Bug fixes (of course!) | |
241 | ||
242 | There have been loads of fixes for the following things: | |
243 | mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k, | |
244 | i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc... | |
245 | ||
246 | See the ChangeLog for details. | |
247 | ||
248 | *** Changes in GDB-4.5: | |
249 | ||
250 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
251 | ||
252 | IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000 | |
253 | ||
254 | SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4 | |
255 | ||
256 | * New malloc package | |
257 | ||
258 | GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc. | |
259 | Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also | |
260 | capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later. | |
261 | This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a | |
262 | pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For | |
263 | more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi. | |
264 | ||
265 | * info proc | |
266 | ||
267 | The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See | |
268 | 'help info proc' for details. | |
269 | ||
270 | * MIPS ecoff symbol table format | |
271 | ||
272 | The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts. | |
273 | Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this | |
274 | possible. | |
275 | ||
276 | * File name changes for MS-DOS | |
277 | ||
278 | Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to | |
279 | support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name | |
280 | conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32 | |
281 | environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note | |
282 | that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations | |
283 | in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging. | |
284 | ||
285 | * Cross byte order fixes | |
286 | ||
287 | Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS | |
288 | targets from hosts whose byte order differs. | |
289 | ||
290 | * New -mapped and -readnow options | |
291 | ||
292 | If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap' | |
293 | system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or | |
294 | `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your | |
295 | program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is | |
296 | called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'. | |
297 | Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file, | |
298 | and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading | |
299 | the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped' | |
300 | option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as | |
301 | starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option. | |
302 | ||
303 | You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using | |
304 | the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table | |
305 | information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command | |
306 | slower, but makes future operations faster. | |
307 | ||
308 | The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to | |
309 | build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information. | |
310 | A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future | |
311 | use is: | |
312 | ||
313 | gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname | |
314 | ||
315 | The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run. | |
316 | It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be | |
317 | shared across multiple host platforms. | |
318 | ||
319 | * longjmp() handling | |
320 | ||
321 | GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and | |
322 | siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to | |
323 | all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based | |
324 | platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4. | |
325 | ||
326 | * Solaris 2.0 | |
327 | ||
328 | Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At | |
329 | this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of | |
330 | reading symbols. | |
331 | ||
332 | * Bug fixes | |
333 | ||
334 | As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread. | |
335 | People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious | |
336 | crashes and trashed symbol tables. | |
337 | ||
338 | *** Changes in GDB-4.4: | |
339 | ||
340 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
341 | ||
342 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
343 | (except core files) | |
344 | BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd | |
345 | Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix | |
346 | ||
347 | * New machines supported (target) | |
348 | ||
349 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none | |
350 | ||
351 | * C++ support | |
352 | ||
353 | GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better. | |
354 | The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as | |
355 | per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide. | |
356 | ||
357 | GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS | |
358 | `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily | |
359 | extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a | |
360 | good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option | |
361 | will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is | |
362 | released. | |
363 | ||
364 | * New features for SVR4 | |
365 | ||
366 | GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS | |
367 | shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present | |
368 | only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs. | |
369 | ||
370 | The `info proc' command will print out information about any process | |
371 | on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment, | |
372 | it prints the address mappings of the process. | |
373 | ||
374 | If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to | |
375 | [email protected] to let us know what changes were reqired (if any). | |
376 | ||
377 | * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS | |
378 | ||
379 | Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols | |
380 | now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic | |
381 | skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which | |
382 | make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the | |
383 | same code linked statically. | |
384 | ||
385 | * New Getopt | |
386 | ||
387 | GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This | |
388 | version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will | |
389 | continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well. | |
390 | Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity | |
391 | added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the | |
392 | future by other options that begin with the same letter. | |
393 | ||
394 | * Bugs fixed | |
395 | ||
396 | The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
397 | Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
398 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
399 | ||
400 | ||
401 | *** Changes in GDB-4.3: | |
402 | ||
403 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
404 | ||
405 | Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix | |
406 | NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000 | |
407 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 | |
408 | ||
409 | * Almost SCO Unix support | |
410 | ||
411 | We had hoped to support: | |
412 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
413 | (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release | |
414 | that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry | |
415 | about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes. | |
416 | ||
417 | * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support | |
418 | ||
419 | GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle | |
420 | debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support | |
421 | is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please | |
422 | send mail to [email protected] to let us know what changes were | |
423 | reqired (if any). | |
424 | ||
425 | * New Readline | |
426 | ||
427 | GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change | |
428 | is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously | |
429 | required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?). | |
430 | ||
431 | * Bugs fixed | |
432 | ||
433 | The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
434 | Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
435 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
436 | ||
437 | * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered): | |
438 | ||
439 | GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers | |
440 | supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These | |
441 | symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses. | |
442 | ||
443 | Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called | |
444 | mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level | |
445 | debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship | |
446 | mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc | |
447 | version 2. | |
448 | ||
449 | Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not | |
450 | really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get | |
451 | line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local | |
452 | variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the | |
453 | situation somewhat. | |
454 | ||
455 | When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck. | |
456 | However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and | |
457 | methods. | |
458 | ||
459 | We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on | |
460 | DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff | |
461 | encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet. | |
462 | ||
463 | ||
464 | *** Changes in GDB-4.2: | |
465 | ||
466 | * Improved configuration | |
467 | ||
468 | Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying. | |
469 | Porting BFD is simpler. | |
470 | ||
471 | * Stepping improved | |
472 | ||
473 | The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction | |
474 | of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur | |
475 | in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a | |
476 | function that has debugging information is called within the line. | |
477 | ||
478 | * Bug fixing | |
479 | ||
480 | Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain. | |
481 | ||
482 | * New host supported (not target) | |
483 | ||
484 | Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach | |
485 | ||
486 | ||
487 | *** Changes in GDB-4.1: | |
488 | ||
489 | * Multiple source language support | |
490 | ||
491 | GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages. | |
492 | It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension, | |
493 | and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the | |
494 | language of the function in the currently selected stack frame. | |
495 | You can also specifically set the language to be used, with | |
496 | `set language c' or `set language modula-2'. | |
497 | ||
498 | * GDB and Modula-2 | |
499 | ||
500 | GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler, | |
501 | currently under development at the State University of New York at | |
502 | Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will | |
503 | continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992. | |
504 | ||
505 | Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to | |
506 | debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the | |
507 | symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though! | |
508 | ||
509 | There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking, | |
510 | in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work. | |
511 | ||
512 | * set write on/off | |
513 | ||
514 | GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch | |
515 | a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify | |
516 | the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g. | |
517 | by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take | |
518 | effect immediately. | |
519 | ||
520 | * Automatic SunOS shared library reading | |
521 | ||
522 | When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its | |
523 | shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols. | |
524 | The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when | |
525 | examining core files. | |
526 | ||
527 | * set listsize | |
528 | ||
529 | You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows. | |
530 | The default is 10. | |
531 | ||
532 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
533 | ||
534 | SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris | |
535 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news | |
536 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3 | |
537 | ||
538 | * New hosts supported (not targets) | |
539 | ||
540 | IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc | |
541 | ||
542 | * New targets supported (not hosts) | |
543 | ||
544 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff | |
545 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout | |
546 | Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern | |
547 | ||
548 | * New remote interfaces | |
549 | ||
550 | AMD 29000 Adapt | |
551 | AMD 29000 Minimon | |
552 | ||
553 | ||
554 | *** Changes in GDB-4.0: | |
555 | ||
556 | * New Facilities | |
557 | ||
558 | Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable. | |
559 | ||
560 | Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a | |
561 | target machine of another type. Communication with the target system | |
562 | is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the | |
563 | remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the | |
564 | remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb | |
565 | also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks, | |
566 | using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger | |
567 | stub on the target system. | |
568 | ||
569 | New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960. | |
570 | ||
571 | GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file'' | |
572 | library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple | |
573 | object file types such as a.out and coff. | |
574 | ||
575 | There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets | |
576 | refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it). | |
577 | ||
578 | ||
579 | * Control-Variable user interface simplified | |
580 | ||
581 | All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set | |
582 | by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command. | |
583 | ||
584 | For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>. | |
585 | ``Show prompt'' produces the response: | |
586 | Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>. | |
587 | ||
588 | What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will | |
589 | print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO'' | |
590 | will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show | |
591 | all of the variable descriptions and their current settings. | |
592 | ||
593 | confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are | |
594 | hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while | |
595 | it is already running. Default is ON. | |
596 | ||
597 | editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing | |
598 | of input. Previous lines can be recalled with | |
599 | control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B, | |
600 | you can search for commands with control-R, etc. | |
601 | Default is ON. | |
602 | ||
603 | history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history | |
604 | will be stored. The default is .gdb_history, | |
605 | or the value of the environment variable | |
606 | GDBHISTFILE. | |
607 | ||
608 | history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The | |
609 | default is 256, or the value of the environment variable | |
610 | HISTSIZE. | |
611 | ||
612 | history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will | |
613 | be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the | |
614 | file will not be saved. The default is OFF. | |
615 | ||
616 | history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like | |
617 | history expansion will be performed on | |
618 | command line input. The default is OFF. | |
619 | ||
620 | radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set | |
621 | to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted | |
622 | in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op. | |
623 | ||
624 | height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default | |
625 | is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#'' | |
626 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
627 | variable TERM. | |
628 | ||
629 | width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line. | |
630 | Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#'' | |
631 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
632 | variable TERM. | |
633 | ||
634 | Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and | |
635 | ``set width'' instead. | |
636 | ||
637 | print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays, | |
638 | such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks | |
639 | more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more | |
640 | ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON. | |
641 | ||
642 | print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default | |
643 | is OFF. | |
644 | ||
645 | print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on, | |
646 | "raw" form if off. | |
647 | ||
648 | print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts | |
649 | like instructions. | |
650 | ||
651 | print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF. | |
652 | ||
653 | ||
654 | * Support for Epoch Environment. | |
655 | ||
656 | The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One | |
657 | new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you | |
658 | are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own | |
659 | window. | |
660 | ||
661 | ||
662 | * Support for Shared Libraries | |
663 | ||
664 | GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries. | |
665 | Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced | |
666 | before the shared library has been linked with the program (this | |
667 | happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered). | |
668 | At any time after this linking (including when examining core files | |
669 | from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each | |
670 | shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command. | |
671 | It can be abbreviated ``share''. | |
672 | ||
673 | sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files | |
674 | matching a unix regular expression. No argument | |
675 | indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries. | |
676 | ||
677 | info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries. | |
678 | ||
679 | ||
680 | * Watchpoints | |
681 | ||
682 | A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an | |
683 | expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution | |
684 | tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is | |
685 | quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse | |
686 | problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this | |
687 | more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware. | |
688 | ||
689 | watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression. | |
690 | ||
691 | info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints. | |
692 | ||
693 | delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
694 | disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
695 | enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
696 | ||
697 | ||
698 | * C++ multiple inheritance | |
699 | ||
700 | When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance | |
701 | for C++ programs. | |
702 | ||
703 | * C++ exception handling | |
704 | ||
705 | Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing | |
706 | ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on | |
707 | the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the | |
708 | handler's context). | |
709 | ||
710 | catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope, | |
711 | set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there. | |
712 | Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught. | |
713 | ||
714 | info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the | |
715 | current stack frame. | |
716 | ||
717 | ||
718 | * Minor command changes | |
719 | ||
720 | The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print | |
721 | command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result | |
722 | is void. This is similar to dbx usage. | |
723 | ||
724 | The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up | |
725 | at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change | |
726 | frames without printing. | |
727 | ||
728 | * New directory command | |
729 | ||
730 | 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path. | |
731 | The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information | |
732 | about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even | |
733 | with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't | |
734 | find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .". | |
735 | ||
736 | * Configuring GDB for compilation | |
737 | ||
738 | For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo | |
739 | for more details. | |
740 | ||
741 | GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between | |
742 | two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''. | |
743 | Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine | |
744 | where the program that you are debugging will run. |