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NEWS.GDB
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1996-04-23
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What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
* New native configurations
Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
* New targets
ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
MIPS 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 simulator
The 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 only
basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
* Solaris 2.5
GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
* Windows 95/NT native
GDB 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 at
ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
* dont-repeat command
If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
* Send break instead of ^C
The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
rather 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 timeout
The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
to 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 are
loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
in 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 work
automatically on hpux10.
* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
every character. The default value is 1050.
* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
* Speedups for remote debugging
GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
and more efficient S-record downloading.
* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
GDB 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 XCOFF
The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
* Remote targets use caching
Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
off' turns the the data cache off.
* Remote targets may have threads
The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
gdb/remote.c for details.
* NetROM support
If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
sequence is something like
target nrom <netrom-hostname>
load <prog>
target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
* Macintosh host
GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
* Autoconf
GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
but does simplify configuration and building.
* hpux10
GDB now supports hpux10.
*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
* New native configurations
x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
* New targets
A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
WDC 65816 w65-*-*
* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
* Arguments to user-defined commands
User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
trivial example:
define adder
print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
To execute the command use:
adder 1 2 3
Defines 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' commands
This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
if the expression is zero.
* Fortran source language mode
GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
Fortran compilers.
* Better HPUX support
Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
running hpux9 or later