HP WDB 5.7 Release Notes

NOTE: To attach and find leaks for PA-32 applications from the start-up, the environment
variable RTC_INIT should be set to on in addition to preloading the librtc.[sl|so] library
before starting the application, as follows:
$ RTC_INIT=on <executable>
If RTC_INIT is turned on, librtc.[sl|so] starts recording heap information for PA–32
process, by default. Hence, you must set this environment variable only when memory debugging
is required, and you must not export this environment variable for shell.
Support for Aborting a Command Line Call
When a command line call is issued and it is interrupted by a breakpoint or a signal before
completing the program execution, the abort command enables the user to abort the command
line call without allowing the signal to modify the state of the debugged process.
When a signal interrupts program execution, it can modify the process state of the debugged
program and result in an abrupt termination of the program (due to adressing errors from a call
that is not a part of the source program). In such cases, the abort command is particularly useful
in exiting the command line call without modifying the process state of the debugged program.
Improved Batch Mode Memory Debugging
HP WDB 5.7 provides enhanced batch mode RTC (Run Time Checking) with the following
improvements:
• Improved quality and accuracy of the RTC reports
• Improved reliability in the batch mode RTC to address multiple corner case scenarios
What is New in This Version of HP WDB for HP 9000 systems
The following new features are introduced in this version of HP WDB for HP 9000 systems:
• “Automatic Preloading of librtc.[sl|so] with the New +mem_check Option for the chatr
Command” (page 11)
• “Support for Aborting a Command Line Call” (page 12)
• “Improved Batch Mode Memory Debugging” (page 12)
Patches and Defect Fixes in HP WDB 5.7
The following defects are fixed in HP WDB 5.7:
• GDB crashes when viewing the type information of certain templated C++ classes.
• GDB occasionally fails to continue program execution due to incorrect break insertions.
• RTC does not handle heap exhaustion events.
• RTC scans some special heap regions, thus masking leaks.
• GDB does not detect the executable and the core file name mismatch.
• GDB does not detect some frame-less invocations.
• Batch Mode RTC does not work for certain LIBRTC_SERVER settings.
• GDB dumps core when printing array elements, while using array slices.
• The files command in Batch Mode memory debugging is ignored if the filename of the
executable exceeds 80 characters.
• Printing 'if' in Fortran causes a syntax error in GDB.
• GDB crashes when attempting to print Fortran variables when Fortran assumed arrays are
passed as arguments to functions.
• The debugger dumps core on info type, or ptype command when debugging optimized
code.
12 HP WDB 5.7 Release Notes