GDB 7.4 released!

[Joel Brobecker <brobecker at adacore dot com>]

            GDB 7.4 released!

Release 7.4 of GDB, the GNU Debugger, is now available via anonymous
FTP.  GDB is a source-level debugger for Ada, C, C++, Objective-C,
Pascal 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.

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

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

The vital stats:

  Size  md5sum                            Name
  20MB  95a9a8305fed4d30a30a6dc28ff9d060  gdb-7.4.tar.bz2
  27MB  7877875c8af7c7ef7d06d329ac961d3f  gdb-7.4.tar.gz

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.

GDB 7.4 brings new targets, features and improvements, including:

  * New target: Texas Instruments TMS320C6x (tic6x-*-*)

  * New simulator: Renesas RL78 (rl78-*-elf)

  * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.

  * Python scripting improvements:
     ** The Python commands and convenience functions located in
        the data directory are now automatically loaded on GDB start-up.
     ** New command "set python print-stack none|full|message",
        replacing "maint set python print-stack on|off", which has
        been deprecated in GDB 7.5.
     ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
        "gdb.breakpoints".
     ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
        the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
     ** Four new attributes in class Block.
     ** Class Symbols now provides a "type" attribute.
     ** A prompt substitution hook, and a new gdb.prompt module.
     ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint".
     ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile".
     ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to module gdb.types.

  * Changes to existing commands:
     ** libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values:
        $sdir and $pdir

  * New commands:
     ** "skip file", "skip function": To skip uninteresting functions
        during debugging.
     ** watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
     ** info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
     ** info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
     ** collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
     ** tstart [NOTES]
     ** tstop [NOTES]
     ** "!" (alias of the "shell" command)

  * New options:
     ** set extended-prompt
        show extended-prompt
     ** set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|
                                preferred)
        show print entry-values
     ** set debug entry-values
        show debug entry-values
     ** set basenames-may-differ
        show basenames-may-differ
     ** set trace-user
        show trace-user
        set trace-notes
        show trace-notes
     ** set trace-stop-notes
        show trace-stop-notes

  * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently, and set
    a breakpoint on all matching locations.  Locations will be added
    or removed according to inferior changes.

  * Masked Watchpoint support on PowerPC BookE running
    a Linux kernel (version 2.6.34 or later).

  * Ability to display function parameter values at the time the function
    gets called (only available with code compiled with GCC 4.7 or later).
    See new option "set print entry-values".

  * Tracepoint improvements:
     ** Ability to enable and disable tracepoints at any time after
        a trace experiment has been started.
     ** Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed
        at locations with 4-byte instructions (the minimum was previously
        5 bytes).

  * Remote protocol changes:
     ** New packets: QTEnable, QTDisable, QTNotes, qTP, qTMinFTPILen,
     ** New commands: "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size".
     ** New command "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit".

  * GDB/MI changes:
     ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s.
     ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records.
     ** New command: -ada-task-info.

  * New GDBserver operation: --once.

  * The gdbtui binary will be deprecated deprecated starting with GDB
    7.5.  Use "gdb -tui" instead.

For a complete list and more details on each item, please see the
gdb/NEWS file.

A big Thank You to everyone who contributed to this release.

-- 
Joel