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author | Stu Grossman <grossman@cygnus> | 1992-10-23 08:49:17 +0000 |
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committer | Stu Grossman <grossman@cygnus> | 1992-10-23 08:49:17 +0000 |
commit | 5f5be54ce89622dec85bc6a598e426a7d2a52a4d (patch) | |
tree | a2a5f83a91cb0b616273ee3d11b0c789deab11c3 | |
parent | 79d47bd0972bd78ed69e294e7c010e28b748545d (diff) | |
download | gdb-5f5be54ce89622dec85bc6a598e426a7d2a52a4d.zip gdb-5f5be54ce89622dec85bc6a598e426a7d2a52a4d.tar.gz gdb-5f5be54ce89622dec85bc6a598e426a7d2a52a4d.tar.bz2 |
Update NEWS, remove refs to UDI and Energize/Cadillac from ChangeLog.
-rw-r--r-- | gdb/NEWS | 129 |
1 files changed, 115 insertions, 14 deletions
@@ -3,21 +3,122 @@ *** Changes in GDB-4.7: -auto demangling style -improved dwarf support? -redundant SO fix... -hppa cross host -better c++ support? -apollo 68b host -remote.c improved (new T message) -improved 29k support -host/native/target split -bugs bugs bugs -sparc-stub.c -rs6000 cleanups... cross host - -==>Sun Aug 30 21:32:17 1992 Ian Lance Taylor (ian@cygnus.com) + * New native hosts +some 386 support + + * New cross target hosts + +HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) + + * New cross targets + +Fujitsu SparcLite - This is a Sparc without floating-point intended for +imbedded applications. + + * G++/C++ support + +As always, G++ support keeps on impoving. We now deal with Cfront style +name mangling, and can even extract type info from mangled symbols. + +Calling of virtual functions and inferior methods has been improved as well. + +GDB can now automatically figure out which symbol mangling style your C++ +compiler uses. + + * Major bug fixes + +The crash that was occuring when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries has +been fixed. This was due mishandling of the extra SO stabs that the +compiler was outputting. + +We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 up and running in house, and were able to +really fix core file support! + +It was discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so slow on all +of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was that we were trying +to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal purposes on every instruction +that was being stepped through. Changing the name of that symbol so that it +couldn't be mistaken for a C++ mangled symbol sped things up a great deal. + +We also sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter about +when symbol mangling was necessary. + + * 29k support + +A bunch of work has been done to improve the general 29k support. In +particular, a new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can be +used to specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB needs to +call a function in the target. This was necessary because the usual method +of putting the scratch area on the stack was not feasible for systems that +have seperate instruction and data spaces. + +We also did a bunch of work on the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger Interface) +code, but at the last minute we discovered that we didn't have all of the +appropriate copyright paperwork, and had to yank it all out. We are working +with AMD to resolve this, and hope to have it available soon. + + * Remote stuff + +We have made some improvements in the remote serial line protocol which should +speed up things a great deal (especially for targets with lots of registers). +The remote code now supports a new `expedited status' ('T') message which +replaces the old 'S' status message. This message has a much more flexible +format which allows the remote stub to send an arbitrary set of registers +whenever the stub takes control. This greatly speeds up stepping, as the +stub can supply only the registers GDB requires during this process. It +eliminates the need to fetch the entire register set for each instruction being +stepped through. + +GDB was also made a bit smarter about reading registers from the target. It +now makes much more use of the cache. In effect, it now implements a +write-through cache, and only reads the registers when if the target has run. + +There is also a new remote stub for Sparc processors. You can find it in +gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the SparcLite product, +but actually contains no SparcLite specific code. It should run on any +stand-alone Sparc processor with a serial port that can be dedicated to GDB +for remote debugging. + + * Host/native/target split + +GDB has had some major internal surgery recently in order to untangle some +of the mess related to supporting hosts and remote targets. Now, when you +configure GDB for a remote target, it may no longer load in all of the host +support for debugging local programs. This means that if you make a GDB to +debug a remote vxWorks target from a Sun4 host, you will no longer get +ptrace() or Sun4 core file support. This surgery was necessary to ensure +that arbitrary host/target combinations were possible. In particular, it +makes it much more practical to build new configurations for remote targets +that in the past were only hosts. + +The primary concept behind the detanglement was to seperate the code into +one of three categories. The host category is for code that is host +specific, and can only be compiled for a particular host configuration. +The target category is for code which is target specific, but can be +compiled on any host. The native category is for the situation where the +host and target are the same system (this usually means that you are going +to debug an inferior process). + + * General + +There is a new opcodes library which will contain all of the disassembly +routines, and opcode tables at some point in the future. At present, it +only contains Sparc and Z8000 routines. This was done in order to get the +assembler and the debugger to share these routines. + +The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete reference +to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far as we know) +the only published document on this fascinating topic. + +There are now pre-command hooks that are used to attach arbitrary commands +to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed prior to the +users command. You can creat a hook which will be executed whenever the +program stops. + +BFD now supports the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. + +And, of course, many bugs have been fixed. *** Changes in GDB-4.6: |