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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gas / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
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3* Support the .f_floating, .d_floating, .g_floating and .h_floating directives
4 for the VAX target in order to be more compatible with the VAX MACRO
5 assembler.
6
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7* New command line option -mtune=[itanium1|itanium2] for IA64 targets.
8
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9Changes in 2.16:
10
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11* Redefinition of macros now results in an error.
12
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13* New command line option -mhint.b=[ok|warning|error] for IA64 targets.
14
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15* New command line option -munwind-check=[warning|error] for IA64
16 targets.
17
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18* The IA64 port now uses automatic dependency violation removal as its default
19 mode.
20
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21* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
22
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23* Added support for generating unwind tables for ARM ELF targets.
24
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25* Add a -g command line option to generate debug information in the target's
26 preferred debug format.
27
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28* Support for the crx-elf target added.
29
1a320fbb 30* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 31
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32* Added a pseudo-op (.secrel32) to generate 32 bit section relative relocations
33 on pe[i]-i386; required for this target's DWARF 2 support.
34
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35* Support for Motorola MCF521x/5249/547x/548x added.
36
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37* Support for ColdFire EMAC instructions added and Motorola syntax for MAC/EMAC
38 instrucitons.
39
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40* New command line option -mno-shared for MIPS ELF targets.
41
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42* New command line option --alternate and pseudo-ops .altmacro and .noaltmacro
43 added to enter (and leave) alternate macro syntax mode.
44
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45Changes in 2.15:
46
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47* The MIPS -membedded-pic option (Embedded-PIC code generation) is
48 deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
49
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50* Added PIC m32r Linux (ELF) and support to M32R assembler.
51
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52* Added support for ARM V6.
53
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54* Added support for sh4a and variants.
55
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56* Support for Renesas M32R2 added.
57
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58* Limited support for Mapping Symbols as specified in the ARM ELF
59 specification has been added to the arm assembler.
ed769ec1 60
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61* On ARM architectures, added a new gas directive ".unreq" that undoes
62 definitions created by ".req".
63
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64* Support for Motorola ColdFire MCF528x added.
65
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66* Added --gstabs+ switch to enable the generation of STABS debug format
67 information with GNU extensions.
68
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69* Added support for MIPS64 Release 2.
70
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71* Added support for v850e1.
72
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73* Added -n switch for x86 assembler. By default, x86 GAS replaces
74 multiple nop instructions used for alignment within code sections
75 with multi-byte nop instructions such as leal 0(%esi,1),%esi. This
76 switch disables the optimization.
77
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78* Removed -n option from MIPS assembler. It was not useful, and confused the
79 existing -non_shared option.
80
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81Changes in 2.14:
82
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83* Added support for MIPS32 Release 2.
84
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85* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
86
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87* Support for Intel's iWMMXt processor (an ARM variant) added.
88
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89* An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
90 uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
91
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92* Support for SH2E added.
93
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94* GASP has now been removed.
95
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96* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
97 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
026df7c5 98
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99* Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
100
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101Changes in 2.13:
102
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103* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
104 and FR500 included.
0ebb9a87 105
a40cbfa3 106* Support for DLX processor added.
52216602 107
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108* GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use
109 the macro facilities in GAS instead.
3f965e60 110
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111* GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
112 explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
113 the currently specified base.
1ac57253 114
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115Changes in 2.12:
116
a40cbfa3 117* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
49fda6c8 118
a40cbfa3 119* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
3b16e843 120
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121* The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
122 specifying the target instruction set. The old method of specifying the
123 target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
124 compatibility.
03b1477f 125
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126* Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
127 the ARM assembler.
252b5132 128
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129* New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
130 in the assembly. Contributed by Anders Norlander.
7e005732 131
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132* The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
133 but still works for compatability.
ec68c924 134
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135* The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
136 generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
137 -n will turn on the warning.
63486801 138
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139Changes in 2.11:
140
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141* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
142
a40cbfa3 143* x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
a167610d 144
a40cbfa3 145* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
c0d8940f 146
a40cbfa3 147* Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
df86943d 148
a40cbfa3 149* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
39bec121 150
a40cbfa3 151* Support for IA-64.
2dac7317 152
a40cbfa3 153* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
22b36938 154
a40cbfa3 155* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
5bcac8a4 156
a40cbfa3 157* x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
a38cf1db 158
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159* x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
160 due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
161 translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
a38cf1db 162
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163Changes in 2.10:
164
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165* Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
166 operand when altering the flags field.
d14442f4 167
a40cbfa3 168* Support for ATMEL AVR.
adde6300 169
a40cbfa3 170* Support for IBM 370 ELF. Somewhat experimental.
b5ebe70e 171
a40cbfa3 172* Support for numbers with suffixes.
3fd9f047 173
a40cbfa3 174* Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
6a6987a9 175
a40cbfa3 176* Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
6a6987a9 177
a40cbfa3 178* New .elseif pseudo-op added.
3fd9f047 179
a40cbfa3 180* New --fatal-warnings option.
1f776aa5 181
a40cbfa3 182* picoJava architecture support added.
252b5132 183
a40cbfa3 184* Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
041dd5a9 185
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186* A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
187 assembly programs with intel syntax.
252b5132 188
a40cbfa3 189* New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
252b5132 190
a40cbfa3 191* Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
041dd5a9 192
a40cbfa3 193* Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
252b5132 194
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195* Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386. This change will
196 produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
197 of gas accepted. If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
198 older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
252b5132 199
a40cbfa3 200* Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
252b5132 201
a40cbfa3 202* Mitsubishi D30V support added.
252b5132 203
a40cbfa3 204* Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
252b5132 205
a40cbfa3 206* i960 ELF support added.
bedf545c 207
a40cbfa3 208* ARM ELF support added.
a057431b 209
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210Changes in 2.9:
211
a40cbfa3 212* Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
252b5132 213
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214* The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
215 and gcc 2.8. The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
252b5132 216
a40cbfa3 217* Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
252b5132 218
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219* The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
220 listing.
252b5132 221
a40cbfa3 222* Added -MD option to print dependencies.
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223
224Changes in 2.8:
225
a40cbfa3 226* BeOS support added.
252b5132 227
a40cbfa3 228* MIPS16 support added.
252b5132 229
a40cbfa3 230* Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
252b5132 231
a40cbfa3 232* Alpha/VMS support added.
252b5132 233
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234* m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
235 --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
252b5132 236
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237* The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
238 maximum number of bytes to skip. If doing the alignment would require
239 skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
240 all.
252b5132 241
a40cbfa3 242* The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
252b5132 243
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244* The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
245 conditionals in listings.
252b5132 246
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247* Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
248 the symbol is already defined.
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249
250Changes in 2.7:
251
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252* The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
253 etc.) if -mregnames is used. Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
254 can be used any time. PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
255 added.
252b5132 256
a40cbfa3 257* Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
252b5132 258
a40cbfa3 259* PowerPC ELF support added.
252b5132 260
a40cbfa3 261* m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
252b5132 262
a40cbfa3 263* i960 Hx/Jx support added.
252b5132 264
a40cbfa3 265* i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
252b5132 266
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267* SCO ELF support added. For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
268 default is to build COFF-only support. To get a set of tools that generate
269 ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
270 target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
252b5132 271
a40cbfa3 272* m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
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273
274Changes in 2.6:
275
a40cbfa3 276* Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
252b5132 277
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278* Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode. Use -M or --mri to select
279 MRI mode. The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
280 ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
252b5132 281
a40cbfa3 282* Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
252b5132 283
a40cbfa3 284* Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
252b5132 285
a40cbfa3 286* Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
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287
288Changes in 2.4:
289
a40cbfa3 290* Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
252b5132 291
a40cbfa3 292* ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
252b5132 293
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294* Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
295 debugging support.
252b5132 296
a40cbfa3 297* Support for the control registers in the 68060.
252b5132 298
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299* Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
300 provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
301 features not available in the native assembler. If the native assembler is
302 used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
252b5132 303
a40cbfa3 304* Usage message is available with "--help".
252b5132 305
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306* The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included. (Actually, it was in 2.3
307 also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
252b5132 308
a40cbfa3 309* Weak symbol support for a.out.
252b5132 310
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311* A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
312 Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
252b5132 313
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314* Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
315 Paul Kranenburg.
252b5132 316
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317* Improved Alpha support. Immediate constants can have a much larger range
318 now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
252b5132 319
a40cbfa3 320* Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
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321
322Changes in 2.3:
323
a40cbfa3 324* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
252b5132 325
a40cbfa3 326* RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
252b5132 327
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328* VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
329 based on mail received from various people. The `-h#' option should work
330 again too.
252b5132 331
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332* HP-PA work, by Jeff Law. Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
333 with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6. As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
334 version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3. You can retrieve
335 this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
336 in the "dist" directory.
252b5132 337
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338* Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
339 simple tests okay. I haven't put it through extensive testing. (GNU make is
340 currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
252b5132 341
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342* Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format). The gas support is
343 based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format. I'm afraid
344 the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
345 making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
252b5132 346
a40cbfa3 347* Irix 5 support.
252b5132 348
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349* The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
350 couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
252b5132 351
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352* Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
353 flexibility in evaluating them in some cases. Some details of relocation
354 handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
355 added, to make the Alpha port easier.
252b5132 356
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357* New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times. This is
358 intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
359 various phases of compilation. (You should be able to get all of them
360 printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
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361
362Changes in 2.2:
363
a40cbfa3 364* RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
252b5132 365
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366* Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
367 have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
368 gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
369 impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
370 reliable.
252b5132 371
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372* The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
373 displayed. This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
374 messages about "internal errors".
252b5132 375
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376* ELF support is falling into place. Support for the 386 should be working.
377 Support for SPARC Solaris is in. HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
252b5132 378
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379* Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
380 boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant. This permits slightly
381 more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
382 known.
252b5132 383
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384* DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
385 If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
386 sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section. The format of the .stab
387 section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
388 its string table. For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
389 to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
390 that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
252b5132 391
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392* LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported. SPARC LynxOS
393 support is in progress.
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394
395Changes in 2.1:
396
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397* Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
398 incorporated, but not well tested yet.
252b5132 399
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400* Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
401 with gcc now.
252b5132 402
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403* Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
404 suggested by Ronald Cole.
252b5132 405
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406* HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah. This
407 includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
408 2.x. Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
252b5132 409
a40cbfa3 410* HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
252b5132 411
a40cbfa3 412* Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
252b5132 413
a40cbfa3 414* Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
252b5132 415
a40cbfa3 416* Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
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417
418Changes in 2.0:
419
a40cbfa3 420* Mostly bug fixes.
252b5132 421
a40cbfa3 422* Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
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423
424Changes in 1.94:
425
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426* BFD merge is partly done. Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
427 "--with-bfd-assembler" option. Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
428 format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it. It's the default only for OS "elf"
429 or "solaris". (ELF isn't really supported yet. It needs work. I've got
430 some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
431 fully merged yet.)
252b5132 432
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433* The 68K opcode table has been split in half. It should now compile under gcc
434 without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
252b5132 435
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436* A couple data structures have been reduced in size. This should result in
437 saving a little bit of space at runtime.
252b5132 438
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439* Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in. The OSF
440 code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet. (I can
441 make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.) Ralph's code, for BSD
442 4.4, supports a.out format. We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
443 coming.
252b5132 444
a40cbfa3 445* Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
252b5132 446
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447* VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
448 Youngdale.
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449
450Changes in 1.93.01:
451
a40cbfa3 452* For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
252b5132 453
a40cbfa3 454* For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
252b5132 455
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456* For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names. For COFF format, which
457 doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
458 can be distinguished from the register.
252b5132 459
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460* Last public release was 1.38. Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
461 of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
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462
463\f
464Local variables:
465fill-column: 79
466End:
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