news

bash debugger. You can use this tool to debug bash shell script

   BASH_SUBSHELL and the debugger prints these as ()'s inside of the
   prompt.
 
-  "quit" leaves nested subshells more properly. Now takes an optional
   argument to specify how many subshells to leave.

-  Update gud.el (Masatake YAMATO), remove examples/bashdb/bashdb.el which may
   cause confusion and set expectations for examples/bashdb (via README)

Version 0.33
-  Regression tests work on FreeBSD, OSX (as well as Linux and Solaris)

-  Fix following bugs:

   * exit handler was getting called each time we exited a subshell.

   * "bash --debugger script args" was not setting args properly.

   * (configure) remove --with-debugger-start which are for
     packages. Is variable DEBUGGER_START_FILE now. Versions are more
     automatically picked up from a central setting. (More could be done
     though). Thanks to [e-mail]. 

   * not setting fntrace correctly on debugger exit.

   * wrong line number on case selector statement. Was esac rather than case.

   * was getting max line number for some files properly
  
   * (makefile) man2html.o not removed on clean

-  Be able to handle EXIT like other signals (stop/nostop stack/nostack).

-  Add provision for finding out which command is going to be executed.
   Useful on multi-statement lines, conditional tests, for-loop headers a
   eval (since the statement might be first "eval $foo" and then 
   "echo this is my life."
  
-  Display command in debugger session we are on the same line/file and this
   command changed.

-  Canonicalize filevars via a file-expand routine. Allows many ways to 
   refer to the same file.

-  Add option to have files show only short (basename) names, useful in testing

-  Add set/show of these (basename, debugging debugger).

-  Add -c option on bashdb. Analogous to "bash -c string"

-  correct releases automatically put in "bash -v" and debugger M commands.

-  Clean up signal handling code some. No longer need to pass LINENO. 
   Add routine to do some of the common entry/exit things.

Version 0.32

-  Line number reporting improved.

-  Fix bug in using trap line numbers inside traps. BASH_LINENO had
   been wrong for the parts inside of a trap.

-  Fix bug in case line numbers reporting line number of "esac" rather than case clause

-  Fix bug in "down" command

-  Bug in regression test run-all not picking up right shell sometimes.

-  Make command "x" (display variable) much more useful and smarter
   and more like perl5db's "x" command: show variable attributes (via
   declare -p) or function body (via declare -f) evaluates an expression if 
   those fail and if *that* fails do what good ol' "print" would do.

-  Add gdb's:
	"condition" command. 
	"info break <n>".
	"handle" command
	"info signal"

-  Signal handling more like gdb.

-  bashdb patches for ddd

-  Change help be more like gdb to facilitate ddd support.

-  Improve bashdb.el and patches for gud.el

-  Missing "finish" help info. 


Version 0.31
-  Fix bug where stack trace current line entry was sometimes wrong.
   No longer mangle line number in stack changing commands.

-  Implement gdb "finish" (some line number weirdnesses though.)

-  Don't clobber debugged script's INT or ERR trap signal if set, but
   do change them inside the debugger.

-  All debugger functions now start _bashdb

-  Expand history commands: "H -n" and "! n" work like perl5db. 

-  short command v (versions) changed to M to match perl5db.

Version 0.30

-  Fix bugs in debugger output when debugged program redirects I/O

-  Fix bug in setting $# via the way we set $1, $2 and so on. We now
   also handle an arbitrary number of parameters.

-  Fix/change history. Numbers now match prompt numbers. Can use !n, !-n as 
   well as hi [-]n. Also ![-]n:p instead of H n. Can limit the number
   of history items listed on the H command.

-  Add GDB's "set args" command. 

-  Add GDB's "set editing" command. 

-  Add GDB's set/show prompt and allow for more flexible prompt customization.

-  Add GDB-like tty command and bashdb option -t for this. 
   Unlike GDB though, you can redirect debugger output to a file.

-  Minor tweaks to "help" and "show". "show subtopic" works.

Version 0.29

-  Fix bug in "make uninstall"

-  $? is saved and preserved for use inside "eval", "print", "watch", 
   "display", "break" and "action" expressions.

-  Can also refer to $1, $2, ... in commands mentioned above.

-  debug-level nesting (the number of times we are nested in debugger)
   is now shown in prompt via new exported variable BASHDB_LEVEL.

-  Implement "skip" command. (Don't run next command.) Integrate this into
   "debug" command.

-  First cut at gdb-type "return" (premature return from function or 
   sourced program).

-  Document caller() builtin function and "debug" debugger command. 

- "Search" now works like gdb and perl5db. Fix a small bug in search
   forward: was not resetting line to search location.
 
Version 0.28

-  Can refer to parameters $1 $2, ... in "print", "eval" and breakpoint
   conditions.

-  Parameters appear in call stack. To do this: 

-  BASH_ARGC and BASH_ARGV arrays added. One is a stack of the count of
   the parameters and the other a stack of the parameters. 

Version 0.27
-  Add forward and backward search.

-  Add Perl "a" and "A" (action) commands.

-  Add builtin caller().

Version 0.26 

-  Document "break" command. 

-  Change "line" to "linespec" in online help where 
   appropriate.

-  Add commands "tbreak" (one-time break) and "display" (automatic display).

-  Add provision to debug into a script ("debug" command), and leave
   script without going back into debugger command loop
   (BASHDB_QUIT_ON_QUIT environment variable). 

-  Document command "tbreak", "enable" and "disable" in manual.

Version 0.25

-  Fix core dump on error (when no source file).

-  Fix bug where "watche x > 24" was creating output to file 24.

-  "restart" now picks up full bash name from BASH environment variable.

-  bash --debugger -c "..." now works.

   To accomplish the above, environment variable BASH_EXECUTION_STRING
   was added which contains the contents what was passed after -c.

-  Command files now nest and pick up where they left off in between
   script execution. 

-  save "set" parameters on debugger entry and restore them. Inside the 
   debugger: set +xv. 

-  add ARG array for $1, $2 and so on. "info args" now shows these.
 
-  Revise and update doc for above and (hopefully) better overall
   organization. 

-  Better installation instructions. 
   Revise bash's top-level README and INSTALL's (debugger and top
   level) to note debugger changes.

Version 0.24

-  Line numbers of initial "for var  in..." and "select" listed or stopped. 
   Error messages on those lines should print correctly.

-  Rename debugger variables so as not to conflict with possible user 
   variables (such as "i").

-  Don't allow stepping into debugger on program exit. 
   loop on command loop in "exit" handler. 

-  Function names now supported.  breakpoints can be set on them. "list" now
   allows a function name. 

   To add function name support, the semantics of "declare -F" have
   changed: the source file and line number is now added in the output. 

   However in non-interactive mode, the line number is wrong. It is the 
   caller line.

-  These commands have been extended to include linespecs 
   "continue", "break" (tbreak), "list".


Version 0.23

-  More work on breakpoints and watchpoints, error checking
   * Allow breaking on file:line.
   * Give counts on number of times hit
   * Allow enabling/disabling/clearing watchpoints via "w" suffix
-  fix bugs 
      handling break/watch conditions
      eval without a tty
      "-" command size wrong
      #comment handling
      make cmd_loop read safe from tampering with IFS
-  More texinfo manual revisions
-  Separate debugger tests from bash tests
  
Version 0.22

-  More complete texinfo manual
-  Automake improvements to install Emacs lisp (Masatake YAMATO)
-  Set/show started
-  List with no arguments works like gdb and Perl's debugger
    list regression test added
-  Add frame command 
-  Add signal handler for exit so we don't exit debugger when exiting program
-  case statements now indicate line number of "case WORD".
  
Initial release -

Initial release of something that's worthy of being called a debugger!

In contrast to earlier ksh/bash debuggers, this release has: 

Line numbers and source text are reported correctly
  - through loops
  - through conditionals
  - inside functions
  - inside sourced files

A change in source file is now tracked - we don't assume one script
file nor do we create a fake script file with a funny name and run
that.

Emacs support via GUD (grand-unified debugger)

Step/next (to step inside a function or ignore it) now work
  - even works on "source"

Call stack display. 
 - Since "source" is a builtin function that shows up in the call stack
 - function names, filenames and line numbers appear in call stack

Command arguments to debugged routine are left intact (if using bash
--debugger). In particular $0 is the program name.

Debugging interface similar (and largely a subset of) Perl's debugger
interface with gdb long mnemonics. (Well, okay: where - but perhaps
more in the future like "up" and "down").

Even without using *our* debugging script, there are changes to bash
that make other debugging (or writing other debuggers) more
amenable. In particular, line numbers of command substitution ``,
$(), and {}, now gives the absolute line number in the file rather
than relative to the beginning of the substitution. (So error
reporting you generally see that an unhelpful message that error
occurred on line 1.) Also support for call stacks with source files
and line numbers can be helpful for stand-alone debugging and error
reporting

$Id: NEWS,v 1.33 2007/10/27 03:23:50 rockyb Exp $