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* GDB 6.2.1 released
@ 2004-09-08 14:41 Andrew Cagney
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From: Andrew Cagney @ 2004-09-08 14:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: gdb-announce

		    GDB update 6.2.1 released!

Update 6.2.1 of GDB, the GNU Debugger, is now available via anonymous
FTP.  GDB is a source-level debugger for C, C++, Java and many other
languages.  GDB can target (i.e., debug programs running on) more than
a dozen different processor architectures, and GDB itself can run on
most popular GNU/Linux, Unix and Microsoft Windows variants.

This update fixes the following serious problems:

* Improved i386 prologue analyzer

The i386 prologue analyzer was improved to deal better with the
prologues generated by GCC 3.3 and later.  As a result GDB should
produce better backtraces for code without DWARF Call Frame Info.

* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning

When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported.  This problem has
been fixed.

* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB

When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
fault.  The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
IRIX long double values).

* VAX and "next"

A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
command.  This problem has been fixed.

Thanks goes to Joel Brobecker and Mark Kettenis for these fixes.

You can download GDB from Project GNU's FTP server in the directory:

	ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb

The previous version, 6.2.1, was released roughly 6-weeks ag.

The vital stats:

	Size      md5sum                            Name
	17011120  c095d01e55022fb9e609df5cfde66379  gdb-6.2.tar.gz
	12819441  01871f7667345262e317a1e6e1a32768  gdb-6.2.tar.bz2

There is a web page for GDB at:

	http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/

That page includes information about GDB mailing lists (an
announcement mailing list, developers discussion lists, etc.), details
on how to access GDB's CVS repository, locations for development
snapshots, preformatted documentation, and links to related
information around the net.  We will put errata notes and
host-specific tips for this release on-line as any problems come up.
All mailing lists archives are also browsable via the web.

Andrew Cagney
Release Manager
\f

			Known problems in GDB 6.2.1

		See also: http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/


*** Build problems

build/1458: compile failed on hpux11

GDB has build problems on HP/UX 11 with some versions of the HP
Ansi C compiler.  (GCC works fine).

The problem happens when compiling intl/bindtextdom.c.
The error is:

   cc: "gettextP.h", line 50: error 1000: Unexpected symbol: "SWAP".
   cc: panic 2017: Cannot recover from earlier errors, terminating.
   *** Error exit code 1

This is a problem with the 'inline' keyword in gettextP.h.
The workaround is to disable 'inline' before building gdb:

   export ac_cv_c_inline=no

This problem happens only with some versions of the HP Ansi C compiler.
Versions A.11.01.25171.GP and B.11.11.28706.GP have both been observed
to work; version B.11.11.04 gets the build error and needs the
workaround.

This problem might also happen with other C compilers.

*** Misc

gdb/1560: Control-C does not always interrupt GDB.

When GDB is busy processing a command which takes a long time to
complete, hitting Control-C does not have the expected effect.
The command execution is not aborted, and the "QUIT" message confirming
the abortion is displayed only after the command has been completed.

*** C++ support

gdb/931: GDB could be more generous when reading types C++ templates on 
input

When the user types a template, GDB frequently requires the type to be
typed in a certain way (e.g. "const char*" as opposed to "const char *"
or "char const *" or "char const*").

gdb/1512: no canonical way to output names of C++ types

We currently don't have any canonical way to output names of C++ types.
E.g. "const char *" versus "char const *"; more subtleties arise when
dealing with templates.

gdb/1516: [regression] local classes, gcc 2.95.3, dwarf-2

With gcc 2.95.3 and the dwarf-2 debugging format, classes which are
defined locally to a function include the demangled name of the function
as part of their name.  For example, if a function "foobar" contains a
local class definition "Local", gdb will say that the name of the class
type is "foobar__Fi.0:Local".

This applies only to classes where the class type is defined inside a
function, not to variables defined with types that are defined somewhere
outside any function (which most types are).

gdb/1588: names of c++ nested types in casts must be enclosed in quotes

You must type
   (gdb) print ('Foo::Bar') x
or
   (gdb) print ('Foo::Bar' *) y
instead of
   (gdb) print (Foo::Bar) x
or
   (gdb) print (Foo::Bar *) y
respectively.

gdb/1091: Constructor breakpoints ignored
gdb/1193: g++ 3.3 creates multiple constructors: gdb 5.3 can't set 
breakpoints

When gcc 3.x compiles a C++ constructor or C++ destructor, it generates
2 or 3 different versions of the object code.  These versions have
unique mangled names (they have to, in order for linking to work), but
they have identical source code names, which leads to a great deal of
confusion.  Specifically, if you set a breakpoint in a constructor or a
destructor, gdb will put a breakpoint in one of the versions, but your
program may execute the other version.  This makes it impossible to set
breakpoints reliably in constructors or destructors.

gcc 3.x generates these multiple object code functions in order to
implement virtual base classes.  gcc 2.x generated just one object code
function with a hidden parameter, but gcc 3.x conforms to a multi-vendor
ABI for C++ which requires multiple object code functions.

*** Signal handlers

On many systems an attempt to single-step a system-call instruction
results in two or more instructions being executed (the system-call,
and one or more instructions following).

When attempting to single-step through a signal trampoline, this
problem may result the program unintentionally running to completion,
or re-execute the faulting instruction, or even corrupting the program
counter.

Ref: PR breakpoints/1702.

*** Stack backtraces

GDB's core code base has been updated to use a new backtrace
mechanism.  This mechanism makes it possible to support new features
such DWARF 2 Call Frame Information (which in turn makes possible
backtraces through optimized code).

Since this code is new, it is known to still have a few problems:

gdb/1505: [regression] gdb prints a bad backtrace for a thread

When backtracing a thread, gdb does not stop when it reaches the
outermost frame, instead continuing until it hits garbage.  This is
sensitive to the operating system and thread library.

*** Threads

threads/1650: manythreads.exp

On GNU/Linux systems that use the old LinuxThreads thread library, a
program rapidly creating and deleting threads can confuse GDB leading
to an internal error.

This problem does not occur on newer systems that use the NPTL
library, and did not occur with GDB 6.1.

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