Update release docs.
git-svn-id: svn://svn.valgrind.org/valgrind/trunk@7265 a5019735-40e9-0310-863c-91ae7b9d1cf9
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5cbe8dc..4e9e955 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,81 +1,126 @@
-Release 3.3.0 (XX XXX 2007)
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-3.3.0 is a feature release with ...
-XXX: AIX support (ppc32 and ppc64?)
+Release 3.3.0 (7 December 2007)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-XXX:
-* modestly restructured/rationalised documentation
-* support for latest toolchains/libs: gcc-4.3, glibc-2.7
-* many bugs fixed, as usual
-* scalability improvements (for v. large programs); some modest
- performance improvements
+3.3.0 is a feature release with many significant improvements and the
+usual collection of bug fixes. This release supports X86/Linux,
+AMD64/Linux, PPC32/Linux and PPC64/Linux. Support for recent distros
+(using gcc 4.3, glibc 2.6 and 2.7) has been added.
-Several large improvements to existing tools have been implemented.
+The main excitement in 3.3.0 is new and improved tools. Helgrind
+works again, Massif has been completely overhauled and much improved,
+Cachegrind now does branch-misprediction profiling, and a new category
+of experimental tools has been created, containing two new tools:
+Omega and DRD. There are many other smaller improvements. In detail:
-- Helgrind has been completely overhauled and now works for the first time
- since Valgrind 2.2.0. [XXX: ...]
+- Helgrind has been completely overhauled and works for the first time
+ since Valgrind 2.2.0. Supported functionality is: detection of
+ misuses of the POSIX PThreads API, detection of potential deadlocks
+ resulting from cyclic lock dependencies, and detection of data
+ races. Compared to the 2.2.0 Helgrind, the race detection algorithm
+ has some significant improvements aimed at reducing the false error
+ rate. Handling of various kinds of corner cases has been improved.
+ Efforts have been made to make the error messages easier to
+ understand. Extensive documentation is provided.
-- Massif has been completely overhauled. Instead of measuring space-time
- usage -- which wasn't always useful and many people found confusing -- it
- now measures space usage at various points in the execution, including the
- point of peak memory allocation. Its output format has also changed:
- instead of producing PostScript graphs and HTML text, it produces a single
- text output (via the new 'ms_print' script) that contains both a graph and
- the old textual information, but in a more compact and readable form.
- Finally, the new version should be more reliable than the old one, as it
- has been tested more thoroughly.
+- Massif has been completely overhauled. Instead of measuring
+ space-time usage -- which wasn't always useful and many people found
+ confusing -- it now measures space usage at various points in the
+ execution, including the point of peak memory allocation. Its
+ output format has also changed: instead of producing PostScript
+ graphs and HTML text, it produces a single text output (via the new
+ 'ms_print' script) that contains both a graph and the old textual
+ information, but in a more compact and readable form. Finally, the
+ new version should be more reliable than the old one, as it has been
+ tested more thoroughly.
- Cachegrind has been extended to do branch-misprediction profiling.
Both conditional and indirect branches are profiled. The default
behaviour of Cachegrind is unchanged. To use the new functionality,
give the option --branch-sim=yes.
-Two new tools have also been added. These are "experimental tools", which
-means that they may not work as well as the standard tools, but they are
-included because some people will find them useful. The notion of
-experimental tools was added in order to provide a way for tools to get
-wider exposure among Valgrind users. These tools have a "exp-" prefix
-attached to their names to indicate their experimental nature.
+- A new category of "experimental tools" has been created. Such tools
+ may not work as well as the standard tools, but are included because
+ some people will find them useful, and because exposure to a wider
+ user group provides tool authors with more end-user feedback. These
+ tools have a "exp-" prefix attached to their names to indicate their
+ experimental nature. Currently there are two experimental tools:
-- exp-Omega [XXX ...]
+ * exp-Omega: an instantaneous leak detector. See
+ exp-omega/docs/omega_introduction.txt.
-- exp-DRD [XXX ...]
+ * exp-DRD: a data race detector based on the happens-before
+ relation. See exp-drd/TODO.txt.
-Other user-visible changes:
+- Scalability improvements for very large programs, particularly those
+ which have a million or more malloc'd blocks in use at once. These
+ improvements mostly affect Memcheck. Memcheck is also up to 10%
+ faster for all programs, with x86-linux seeing the largest
+ improvement.
-- The --log-file-exactly and --log-file-qualifier options have been removed.
- To make up for this --log-file option has been made more powerful and
- flexible; it can now accept a %p format specifier, which is replaced with
- the process ID, and the a %q{FOO} format specifier, which is replaced with
- the contents of the environment variable $FOO.
+- Works well on the latest Linux distros. Has been tested on Fedora
+ Core 8 (x86, amd64, ppc32, ppc64) and openSUSE 10.3. glibc 2.6 and
+ 2.7 are supported. gcc-4.3 (in its current pre-release state) is
+ supported. At the same time, 3.3.0 retains support for older
+ distros.
-- [XXX: --child-silent-after-fork...]
+- The documentation has been modestly reorganised with the aim of
+ making it easier to find information on common-usage scenarios.
+ Some advanced material has been moved into a new chapter in the main
+ manual, so as to unclutter the main flow, and other tidying up has
+ been done.
-- There are new --cachegrind-out-file, --callgrind-out-file and
- --massif-out-file options, which control the names of the output files
- produced by Cachegrind, Callgrind and Massif. They accept the same %p and
- %q format specifiers that --log-file accepts. --callgrind-out-file
- replaces Callgrind's old --base option.
+- There is experimental support for AIX 5.3, both 32-bit and 64-bit
+ processes. You need to be running a 64-bit kernel to use Valgrind
+ on a 64-bit executable.
-- Cachegrind's 'cg_annotate' script no longer uses the --<pid> option to
- specify the output file. Instead, the first non-option argument is taken
- to be the name of the output file, and any subsequent non-option arguments
- are taken to be the names of source files to be annotated. This change
- was necessary due to the addition of the --cachegrind-out-file option.
- 'callgrind_annotate' already had this behaviour.
+- There have been some changes to command line options, which may
+ affect you:
-- Cachegrind now uses directory names where possible in its output files.
- This means that the -I option to 'cg_annotate' should not be needed in
- most cases. It also means it can correctly handle the case where two
- source files in different directories have the same name.
- The same is true for Callgrind and callgrind_annotate, respectively.
- The benefits also apply to KCachegrind, without any further change
- (ie. in most cases there is no configuration of source directories needed).
+ * --log-file-exactly and
+ --log-file-qualifier options have been removed.
-- A new suppression kind has been introduced: "Jump". This is for
- suppressing jump-to-invalid-address errors. Previously you had to use an
- "Addr1" suppression, which didn't make much sense.
+ To make up for this --log-file option has been made more powerful.
+ It now accepts a %p format specifier, which is replaced with the
+ process ID, and a %q{FOO} format specifier, which is replaced with
+ the contents of the environment variable FOO.
+
+ * --child-silent-after-fork=yes|no [no]
+
+ Causes Valgrind to not show any debugging or logging output for
+ the child process resulting from a fork() call. This can make the
+ output less confusing (although more misleading) when dealing with
+ processes that create children.
+
+ * --cachegrind-out-file, --callgrind-out-file and --massif-out-file
+
+ These control the names of the output files produced by
+ Cachegrind, Callgrind and Massif. They accept the same %p and %q
+ format specifiers that --log-file accepts. --callgrind-out-file
+ replaces Callgrind's old --base option.
+
+ * Cachegrind's 'cg_annotate' script no longer uses the --<pid>
+ option to specify the output file. Instead, the first non-option
+ argument is taken to be the name of the output file, and any
+ subsequent non-option arguments are taken to be the names of
+ source files to be annotated.
+
+ * Cachegrind and Callgrind now use directory names where possible in
+ their output files. This means that the -I option to
+ 'cg_annotate' and 'callgrind_annotate' should not be needed in
+ most cases. It also means they can correctly handle the case
+ where two source files in different directories have the same
+ name.
+
+- Memcheck offers a new suppression kind: "Jump". This is for
+ suppressing jump-to-invalid-address errors. Previously you had to
+ use an "Addr1" suppression, which didn't make much sense.
+
+- Memcheck has new flags --malloc-fill=<hexnum> and
+ --free-fill=<hexnum> which free malloc'd / free'd areas with the
+ specified byte. This can help shake out obscure memory corruption
+ problems. The definedness and addressibility of these areas is
+ unchanged -- only the contents are affected.
- The behaviour of Memcheck's client requests VALGRIND_GET_VBITS and
VALGRIND_SET_VBITS have changed slightly. They no longer issue
@@ -88,16 +133,94 @@
traces. Second, a new option --trace-superblocks has been added, which
shows the addresses of superblocks (code blocks) as they are executed.
+- The following bugs have been fixed. Note that "n-i-bz" stands for
+ "not in bugzilla" -- that is, a bug that was reported to us but
+ never got a bugzilla entry. We encourage you to file bugs in
+ bugzilla (http://bugs.kde.org/enter_valgrind_bug.cgi) rather than
+ mailing the developers (or mailing lists) directly.
+
+ n-i-bz x86_linux_REDIR_FOR_index() broken
+ n-i-bz guest-amd64/toIR.c:2512 (dis_op2_E_G): Assertion `0' failed.
+ n-i-bz Support x86 INT insn (INT (0xCD) 0x40 - 0x43)
+ n-i-bz Add sys_utimensat system call for Linux x86 platform
+ 79844 Helgrind complains about race condition which does not exist
+ 82871 Massif output function names too short
+ 89061 Massif: ms_main.c:485 (get_XCon): Assertion `xpt->max_chi...'
+ 92615 Write output from Massif at crash
+ 95483 massif feature request: include peak allocation in report
+ 112163 MASSIF crashed with signal 7 (SIGBUS) after running 2 days
+ 119404 problems running setuid executables (partial fix)
+ 121629 add instruction-counting mode for timing
+ 127371 java vm giving unhandled instruction bytes: 0x26 0x2E 0x64 0x65
+ 129937 ==150380
+ 129576 Massif loses track of memory, incorrect graphs
+ 132132 massif --format=html output does not do html entity escaping
+ 132950 Heap alloc/usage summary
+ 133962 unhandled instruction bytes: 0xF2 0x4C 0xF 0x10
+ 134990 use -fno-stack-protector if possible
+ 136382 ==134990
+ 137396 I would really like helgrind to work again...
+ 137714 x86/amd64->IR: 0x66 0xF 0xF7 0xC6 (maskmovq, maskmovdq)
+ 141631 Massif: percentages don't add up correctly
+ 142706 massif numbers don't seem to add up
+ 143062 massif crashes on app exit with signal 8 SIGFPE
+ 144453 (get_XCon): Assertion 'xpt->max_children != 0' failed.
+ 145559 valgrind aborts when malloc_stats is called
+ 145609 valgrind aborts all runs with 'repeated section!'
+ 145622 --db-attach broken again on x86-64
+ 145837 ==149519
+ 145887 PPC32: getitimer() system call is not supported
+ 146252 ==150678
+ 146456 (update_XCon): Assertion 'xpt->curr_space >= -space_delta'...
+ 146701 ==134990
+ 146781 Adding support for private futexes
+ 147325 valgrind internal error on syscall (SYS_io_destroy, 0)
+ 147498 amd64->IR: 0xF0 0xF 0xB0 0xF (lock cmpxchg %cl,(%rdi))
+ 147628 SALC opcode 0xd6 unimplemented
+ 147825 crash on amd64-linux with gcc 4.2 and glibc 2.6 (CFI)
+ 148174 Incorrect type of freed_list_volume causes assertion [...]
+ 148447 x86_64 : new NOP codes: 66 66 66 66 2e 0f 1f
+ 149182 PPC Trap instructions not implemented in valgrind
+ 149504 Assertion hit on alloc_xpt->curr_space >= -space_delta
+ 149519 ppc32: V aborts with SIGSEGV on execution of a signal handler
+ 149892 ==137714
+ 150044 SEGV during stack deregister
+ 150380 dwarf/gcc interoperation (dwarf3 read problems)
+ 150408 ==148447
+ 150678 guest-amd64/toIR.c:3741 (dis_Grp5): Assertion `sz == 4' failed
+ 151209 V unable to execute programs for users with UID > 2^16
+ 151938 help on --db-command= misleading
+ 152022 subw $0x28, %%sp causes assertion failure in memcheck
+ 152357 inb and outb not recognized in 64-bit mode
+ 152501 vex x86->IR: 0x27 0x66 0x89 0x45 (daa)
+ 152818 vex x86->IR: 0xF3 0xAC 0xFC 0x9C (rep lodsb)
+
Developer-visible changes:
-- New debugging command line options: --debug-dump, --trace-symtab-patt...
+- The names of some functions and types within the Vex IR have
+ changed. Run 'svn log -r1689 VEX/pub/libvex_ir.h' for full details.
+ Any existing standalone tools will have to be updated to reflect
+ these changes. The new names should be clearer. The file
+ VEX/pub/libvex_ir.h is also much better commented.
-- The names of some functions and types within the Vex IR have changed.
- (Run 'svn log -r1689 VEX/pub/libvex_ir.h' for full details.)
- So any existing tools will have to be updated to reflect these
- changes. The new names should be clearer. The file
- VEX/pub/libvex_ir.h is also much better commented, and serves as the
- best documentation about Vex.
+- A number of new debugging command line options have been added.
+ These are mostly of use for debugging the symbol table and line
+ number readers:
+
+ --trace-symtab-patt=<patt> limit debuginfo tracing to obj name <patt>
+ --trace-cfi=no|yes show call-frame-info details? [no]
+ --debug-dump=syms mimic /usr/bin/readelf --syms
+ --debug-dump=line mimic /usr/bin/readelf --debug-dump=line
+ --debug-dump=frames mimic /usr/bin/readelf --debug-dump=frames
+ --sym-offsets=yes|no show syms in form 'name+offset' ? [no]
+
+- Internally, the code base has been further factorised and
+ abstractified, particularly with respect to support for non-Linux
+ OSs.
+
+(3.3.0RC1: XX Dec 2007, vex rXXXX, valgrind rXXXX).
+(3.3.0: XX Dec 2006, vex rXXXX, valgrind rXXXX).
+
Release 3.2.3 (29 Jan 2007)