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What has changed in GDB?(Organized release by release)*** Changes since GDB 5.0:* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.* The MI enabled.The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has beenrevised and enabled.* New native configurationsAlpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]** New targets* OBSOLETE configurations and filesx86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*WDC 65816 w65-*-*Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv newsISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/Astuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release havebeen commented out. Unless there is activity to revive theseconfigurations, the next release of GDB will have their sourcespermanently REMOVED.* REMOVED configurations and filesAltos 3068 m68*-altos-*Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*Pyramid pyramid-*-*ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)Tahoe tahoe-*-*ser-ocd.c *-*-** Other news:* All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update thecontents of this file.* gdba.el deletedGUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.*** Changes in GDB 5.0:* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targetsUnified and much-improved support for debugging floating-pointprograms on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' nowdisplays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, withgreater level of detail.* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpointsIt is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, andbitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpointson x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address iswritten.* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDBThe distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary filesnecessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windowsmachines ``out of the box''.The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It ispossible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliversignals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signalwould kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardwareinterrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect theirstandard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, oreven close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee'sterminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, whichenables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-Calso works.DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported byGDB.It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their workingdirectory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number oftimes without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.* New native configurationsARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux** New targetsMotorola MCore mcore-*-*x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-** OBSOLETE configurationsAltos 3068 m68*-altos-*Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*Pyramid pyramid-*-*ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)Tahoe tahoe-*-*Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revivethese configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources willbe permanently REMOVED.* Gould support removedSupport for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.* New features for SVR4On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a processwithout first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate andload symbols from the running process's executable file.* Many C++ enhancementsC++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properlyin almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.* Remote targets can connect to a sub-programA popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts asub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicateswith that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax``|<program> <args>'' vis:(gdb) set remotedebug 1(gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args* MIPS 64 remote protocolA long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDBexpected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32instead of 64 bits has been fixed.The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has beenadded to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' familyinclude ``set remote P-packet''.* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' nowaccept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.* ``apropos'' command added.The ``apropos'' command searches through command names anddocumentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier totry to find a command that does what you are looking for.* New MI interfaceA new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. Thisinterface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separateprocess. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can beenabled by configuring with:.../configure --enable-gdbmi*** Changes in GDB-4.18:* New native configurationsHP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*M68K Linux m68*-*-linux** New targetsFujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-** OBSOLETE configurationsGould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revivethese configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources willbe permanently REMOVED.* ANSI/ISO CAs a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h andbuildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longercontaining any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems inuse today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC portavailable. If this is not true, please report the affectedconfiguration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file forinformation about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have onealready.* Readline 2.2GDB now uses readline 2.2.* set extension-languageYou can now control the mapping between filename extensions and sourcelanguages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by sayingset extension-language .c c++The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensionsand their associated languages.* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of thePowerPC family you are debugging. The commandset processor NAMEsets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about thefollowing PowerPC and RS6000 variants:ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level coders6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view403 IBM PowerPC 403403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC505 Motorola PowerPC 505860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850601 Motorola PowerPC 601602 Motorola PowerPC 602603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name thespecial-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affectedregisters are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command isonly useful for remote debugging in its present form.* HP-UX supportThanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has muchmore extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include sharedlibrary support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility modefor xdb and dbx commands.* CatchpointsHP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is ageneralization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possibleto catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.This means that the existing catch command has changed; its firstargument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See theoutput of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.* Debugging across forksOn HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happensin the inferior.* TUIHP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To getit, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for anyconfiguration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.* GDB remote protocol additionsA new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stubfails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain afull 64-bit address. The commandset remoteaddresssize 32can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubsthe change should not be noticed, as the additional address informationwill be discarded.In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenancecommand `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,maint packet heytheresends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy todisrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrongtime.The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on thetarget to what is in the executable file without uploading ordownloading, by comparing CRC checksums.* Tracing can collect general expressionsYou may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requiresfurther additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c anddoc/agentexpr.texi for further details.* mask-address variable for MipsFor Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits ofa 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainlyof interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.* Higher serial baud ratesGDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be ableto achieve all of these rates.)* i960 simulatorThe i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of abuiltin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.*** Changes in GDB-4.17:* New native configurationsAlpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv* New targetsArgonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-** New debugging protocolsARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabiPowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabiMacraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi* DWARF 2All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debuggingformat. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2information.* Java frontendGDB now includes basic Java language support. This support isonly useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-pathFor SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix forloading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path forlocating non-absolute shared library symbol files.* Live range splittingGDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed liverange splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS formore details on the expected format of the stabs information.* Hurd supportGDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has beenupdated to work with current versions of the Hurd.* ARM Thumb supportGDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bitinstruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumbinstructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracingaccordingly.* MIPS16 supportGDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bitinstruction set.* Overlay supportGDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has beenlinked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDBwill decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose tocontrol the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implementadditional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bringin the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.* info symbolThe command "info symbol <address>" displays information aboutthe symbol at the specified address.* Trace supportThe standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allowsasynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requiresextensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing modeincludes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see thefile tracepoint.c for more details.* MIPS simulatorConfigurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributedby Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction setsof most MIPS variants.* Sparc simulatorSparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributedby the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built intoSparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.* set architectureFor target configurations that may include multiple variants of abasic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set thearchitecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" liststhe possible architectures.*** Changes in GDB-4.16:* New native configurationsWindows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4** New targetsARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*I960 with MON960 i960-*-coffMIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-** PowerPC simulatorThe powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not onlybasic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unitperformance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.* Solaris 2.5GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.* Windows 95/NT nativeGDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.Further information, binaries, and sources are available atftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.* dont-repeat commandIf a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then thecommand will not be repeated if the user just types return. This isuseful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidentalextra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.* Send break instead of ^CThe standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a breakrather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.* Remote protocol timeoutThe standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up tryingto read from the target. The default value is 2.* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they areloaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `setstop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferiorwhen shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpointsin shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should workautomatically on hpux10.* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint supportIrix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, youmay set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by settingthe `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignoreevery character. The default value is 1050.* Recording and replaying remote debug sessionsIf you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to ita recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then bereplayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README fordetails. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doingremote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send itto someone else, who can then recreate the problem.* Speedups for remote debuggingGDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems usingthe IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,and more efficient S-record downloading.* Memory use reductions and statistics collectionGDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.*** Changes in GDB-4.15:* Psymtabs for XCOFFThe symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. Thiscan greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.* Remote targets use cachingRemote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with theremote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results becauseit doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible todebug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecacheoff' turns the the data cache off.* Remote targets may have threadsThe standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threadsin the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. Seegdb/remote.c for details.* NetROM supportIf GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will includesupport for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROMacts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you canwrite into it over the network. GDB's support consists only ofsupport for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must useanother protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usualsequence is something liketarget nrom <netrom-hostname>load <prog>target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235* Macintosh hostGDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. Itmay be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, andit can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands areavailable, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as thedevice type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the maindirectory for more information on how to build. The MPW configurationscripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only themips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.* AutoconfGDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,but does simplify configuration and building.* hpux10GDB now supports hpux10.*** Changes in GDB-4.14:* New native configurationsx86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsdx86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsdNS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsdSparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd* New targetsA29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworksHP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elfWDC 65816 w65-*-** Alpha OSF/1 support for procfsGDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes itpossible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /procfilesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determinesthe availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problemsif /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.* Arguments to user-defined commandsUser commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. Atrivial example:define adderprint $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2To execute the command use:adder 1 2 3Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.* New `if' and `while' commandsThis makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-definedcommands. Both commands take a single argument, which is theexpression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands toexecute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list beingterminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed onlyif the expression is zero.* Fortran source language modeGDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognizeFortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, butvariables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will workwith G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by otherFortran compilers.* Better HPUX supportMost debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAsrunning hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linkedprocesses, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, sofor instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To changethat behavior do the following before running the program:adb -w a.out__dld_flags?W 0x5control-dThis will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.To revert to the normal behavior, do this:adb -w a.out__dld_flags?W 0x4control-dYou cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until afterthe library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not haveexternal linkage.GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler onHPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).* Target byte order now dynamically selectableYou can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via thecommands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see thecurrent setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte orderassociated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPSconfigurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.* New DOS host serial codeThis version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so youno longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected toa PC's serial port.*** Changes in GDB-4.13:* New "complete" commandThis lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if itwere to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.* Trailing space optional in prompt"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. Thisallows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.* Breakpoint hit counts"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpointhas been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; youcan ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint infoto see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring oneless than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit ofthat breakpoint.* Ability to stop printing at NULL character"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters ofan array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when largearrays actually contain only short strings.* Shared library breakpointsIn SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now setbreakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.* Hardware watchpointsThere is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclitetargets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.* AnnotationsAnnotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.* Improved Irix 5 supportGDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.* Improved HPPA supportGDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.* New native configurationsSequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos** New targetsOS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9kMIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}Sparc64 sparc64-*-** Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE supportThere is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.* FixesAs usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both genericand configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.*** Changes in GDB-4.12:* Irix 5 is now supported* HPPA supportGDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unableto debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC andGAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major releaseof GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.*** Changes in GDB-4.11:* User visible changes:* Remote DebuggingThe "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remotetarget, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD'sdebug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now aninteger specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means moredebugging info for the mips target).* DEC Alpha native supportGDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usabledebug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and shouldwork with a future GCC release. See the README file for a fewAlpha-specific notes.* Preliminary thread implementationGDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.* LynxOS native and target support for 386This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configuredto remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/READMEfor details).* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in namemangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,call methods, ...etc.*** Changes in GDB-4.10:* User visible changes:Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol nowsupports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have someother way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put itsomewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.Filename completion now works.When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes thearrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" printsaddresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, calledvxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdbshould wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this ifyour vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happensto be on the far side of a thin network line.* DEC alpha supportThis release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host forcross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.*** Changes in GDB-4.9:* TestsuiteThis is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be availablevia ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.* C++ demangling'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, toemphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ AnnotatedReference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despitedisclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting touse gdb with AT&T cfront.* SimulatorsGDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, theHitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.* New targets supportedH8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hmsH8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hmsSH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or shZ8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksimIDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoffCross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a customversion of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with theGO32 memory extender.* New remote protocolsMIPS remote debugging protocol.* New source languages supportedThis version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like languageused by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integratedinto the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.*** Changes in GDB-4.8:* HP Precision Architecture supportedGDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminaryversion of this support was available as a set of patches from theUniversity of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programscompiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their fileformat. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.* Faster and better demanglingWe have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU styledemangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Widecharacter types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is nowonly done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderateincrease in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup insymbol lookups.`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was writtenfrom the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T'scompiler does not actually implement.* G++ multiple inheritance compiler problemIn the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multipleinheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. Werecently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in avery subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc tocircumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a completefix.The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.* Improved configure scriptThe `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type ifyou don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying ahost system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic isdone in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF'sversion. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.We hope to make this the default in a future release.* Documentation improvementsThere's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how toproduce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read itbefore submitting changes.The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcaneM4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available ina future texinfo-X.Y release.*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it hasbeen seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to workaround this problem.* New featuresGDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in bythe user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd inthe target program.The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrateshow the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.* New native hosts supportedHP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4* New targets supportedAMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k* New file formats supportedBFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.* Major bug fixesAttaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused byprintf_filtered("%s") problems.We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header filesfor VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. Thiswill cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptorsfor reading symbols from object files and libraries. This wasespecially a problem for programs that used many (~100) sharedlibraries.The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line numberinformation for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there wasany debugging information about the routine. This avoids problemswhen using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.* Internal improvementsGDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to supportdebugging of multiple languages in the future.GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partialsymbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbolscontain a common subset of information, making it easier to writeshared code that handles any of them.* New command line optionsWe now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.* Mmalloc licensingThe memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU LibraryGeneral Public License.*** Changes in GDB-4.7:* Host/native/target splitGDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support forhosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remotetarget, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugginglocal programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this willensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code inGDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDBis compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specificcode relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled onany host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only bebuilt when the host and target are the same system. Child processhandling and core file support are two common `native' examples.GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.* New hosts supportedHP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco* New targets supportedFujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-** New native hosts supported386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd(386bsd is not well tested yet)386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco* New file formats supportedBFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. Itsupports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.outformat extended with minimal information about multiple sections.* New commands`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary commandscripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executedprior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will beexecuted whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.* C++ improvementsWe now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract typeinfo from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out whichsymbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.* Major bug fixesThe crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries isfixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs outputby the compiler.We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core filesupport, with help from a dozen people on the net.John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was soslow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) wasthat we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internalpurposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changingthe name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarterabout when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbolcompletion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast aswe'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.* AMD 29k supportA new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' canspecify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDBcalls a function in the target. This is necessary because theusual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not workin systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal DebuggerInterface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have allof the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD toresolve this, and hope to have it available soon.* Remote interfacesWe have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targetswith lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDBneeds to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditionalbreakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set foreach instruction being stepped through.The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache forregisters, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You canfind it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support theFujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARCprocessor with a serial port.* ConfigurationConfigure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations aresupported, and what files each one uses.* Library changesThere is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of thedisassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only containsSparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, anddisassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library GeneralPublic License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library Licensegrants all the rights from the General Public License.* DocumentationThe file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) completereference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as faras we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. Weencourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on yoursystem, and send improvements on the document in general (tobug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.*** Changes in GDB-4.6:* Better support for C++ function namesGDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded functionnames and member function names, and can do command completion on such names(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair ofsingle quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.Make use of command completion, it is your friend.GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They arethe GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'for the list of formats.* G++ symbol mangling problemRecent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information forC++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in thisdirectory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if youcan't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. Theusual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complainsabout the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC hasthis problem.)* New 'maintenance' commandAll of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out ofthe main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. Thiscan also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:dump-me -> maintenance dump-meinfo all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpointsprintmsyms -> maintenance print msymsprintobjfiles -> maintenance print objfilesprintpsyms -> maintenance print psymbolsprintsyms -> maintenance print symbolsThe following commands are new:maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine todemangle a C++ link name and prints the result.maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol* Change to .gdbinit file processingWe now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters tobe set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is stillread after argv processing.* New hosts supportedSolaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linuxWe are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. Thisis almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build itfor this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (ormasochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with thefact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.It costs extra.* New targets supportedHitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms* More smarts about finding #include filesGDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and forall files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). Thisgreatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different fromthe one that contains your sources.We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and settingbreakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had totry twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)* Interesting infernals changeGDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for eachsection must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in thetarget's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embeddedstabs used by Solaris-2.0.* Bug fixes (of course!)There have been loads of fixes for the following things:mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...See the ChangeLog for details.*** Changes in GDB-4.5:* New machines supported (host and target)IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4* New malloc packageGDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is alsocapable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using apre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. Formore details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.* info procThe 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See'help info proc' for details.* MIPS ecoff symbol table formatThe code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make thispossible.* File name changes for MS-DOSMany files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier tosupport GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file nameconventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Notethat debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitationsin the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.* Cross byte order fixesMany fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPStargets from hosts whose byte order differs.* New -mapped and -readnow optionsIf memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from yourprogram into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging iscalled `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than readingthe symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect asstarting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by usingthe '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol tableinformation (or on the GDB command line). This makes the commandslower, but makes future operations faster.The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order tobuild a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for futureuse is:gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programnameThe `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot beshared across multiple host platforms.* longjmp() handlingGDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), andsiglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported toall systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-basedplatforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.* Solaris 2.0Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. Atthis time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable ofreading symbols.* Bug fixesAs always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysteriouscrashes and trashed symbol tables.*** Changes in GDB-4.4:* New machines supported (host and target)SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco(except core files)BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsdUltrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix* New machines supported (target)AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none* C++ supportGDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled asper the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easilyextensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be agood way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This optionwill be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it isreleased.* New features for SVR4GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOSshared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should presentonly minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.The `info proc' command will print out information about any processon an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,it prints the address mappings of the process.If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail tobug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).* Better dynamic linking support in SunOSReading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbolsnow works properly. However, there remain issues such as automaticskipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, whichmake it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug thesame code linked statically.* New GetoptGDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. Thisversion accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB willcontinue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicityadded to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in thefuture by other options that begin with the same letter.* Bugs fixedThe `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.*** Changes in GDB-4.3:* New machines supported (host and target)Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amixNCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88* Almost SCO Unix supportWe had hoped to support:SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the releasethat it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorryabout that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.* Preliminary ELF and DWARF supportGDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handledebugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This supportis preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, pleasesend mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes werereqired (if any).* New ReadlineGDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible changeis that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previouslyrequired typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).* Bugs fixedThe `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.* State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilerssupplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. Thesesymbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor calledmips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-leveldebugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not shipmips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gccversion 2.Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does notreally support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to getline numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or localvariables.) With some work it should be possible to improve thesituation somewhat.When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance andmethods.We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output onDECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoffencapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.*** Changes in GDB-4.2:* Improved configurationOnly one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.Porting BFD is simpler.* Stepping improvedThe `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instructionof a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occurin switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if afunction that has debugging information is called within the line.* Bug fixingLots of small bugs fixed. More remain.* New host supported (not target)Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach*** Changes in GDB-4.1:* Multiple source language supportGDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match thelanguage of the function in the currently selected stack frame.You can also specifically set the language to be used, with`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.* GDB and Modula-2GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,currently under development at the State University of New York atBuffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler willcontinue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting todebug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as thesymbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.* set write on/offGDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patcha variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specifythe file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications takeeffect immediately.* Automatic SunOS shared library readingWhen you run your program, GDB automatically determines where itsshared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works whenexamining core files.* set listsizeYou can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.The default is 10.* New machines supported (host and target)SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or irisSony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or newsUltracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3* New hosts supported (not targets)IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc* New targets supported (not hosts)AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coffAMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aoutUltracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern* New remote interfacesAMD 29000 AdaptAMD 29000 Minimon*** Changes in GDB-4.0:* New FacilitiesWide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to atarget machine of another type. Communication with the target systemis over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to theremote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into theremote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdbalso supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debuggerstub on the target system.New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multipleobject file types such as a.out and coff.There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targetsrefcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).* Control-Variable user interface simplifiedAll variables that control the operation of the debugger can be setby the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.``Show prompt'' produces the response:Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' willprint a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will showall of the variable descriptions and their current settings.confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that arehard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program whileit is already running. Default is ON.editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editingof input. Previous lines can be recalled withcontrol-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,you can search for commands with control-R, etc.Default is ON.history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command historywill be stored. The default is .gdb_history,or the value of the environment variableGDBHISTFILE.history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. Thedefault is 256, or the value of the environment variableHISTSIZE.history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file willbe saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, thefile will not be saved. The default is OFF.history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-likehistory expansion will be performed oncommand line input. The default is OFF.radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be setto 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpretedin the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Defaultis 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''setting from the termcap entry matching the environmentvariable TERM.width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''setting from the termcap entry matching the environmentvariable TERM.Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and``set width'' instead.print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looksmore ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Defaultis OFF.print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,"raw" form if off.print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printoutslike instructions.print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.* Support for Epoch Environment.The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. Onenew command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if youare running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its ownwindow.* Support for Shared LibrariesGDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.Symbols from a shared library cannot be referencedbefore the shared library has been linked with the program (thishappens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).At any time after this linking (including when examining core filesfrom dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from eachshared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.It can be abbreviated ``share''.sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for filesmatching a unix regular expression. No argumentindicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.* WatchpointsA watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of anexpression changes. Checking for this slows down executiontremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but isquite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuseproblems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing thismore quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).* C++ multiple inheritanceWhen used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritancefor C++ programs.* C++ exception handlingGdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existingability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint onthe raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to thehandler's context).catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in thecurrent stack frame.* Minor command changesThe command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the printcommand, except it does not print or save a value if the function's resultis void. This is similar to dbx usage.The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end upat; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to changeframes without printing.* New directory command'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug informationabout the directory in which they were compiled can be found evenwith an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can'tfind your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".* Configuring GDB for compilationFor normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfofor more details.GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging betweentwo different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machinewhere the program that you are debugging will run.
