R_PPC64_PCREL_OPT
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
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3* Add command-line option --no-print-map-discarded.
4
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5* The Cortex-A53 Erratum 843419 workaround now supports a choice of which
6 workaround to use. The option --fix-cortex-a53-843419 now takes an
7 optional argument --fix-cortex-a53-843419[=full|adr|adrp] which can be
8 used to force a particular workaround to be used. See --help for AArch64
9 for more details.
10
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11Changes in 2.33:
12
13* Add target handlers for AArch64 for ELF GNU program properties.
14
15* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI in ELF GNU program
16 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
17
18* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_PAC in ELF GNU program
19 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
20
8bf6d176 21* Add -z force-bti for AArch64 to enable GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
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22 on output while warning about missing GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
23 on inputs and use PLTs protected with BTI.
24
8bf6d176 25* Add -z pac-plt for AArch64 to pick PAC enabled PLTs.
1dbade74 26
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27Changes in 2.32:
28
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29* Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties.
30
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31* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
32
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33* -t now doesn't report members within archives, unless -t is given twice.
34 A single -t is now more useful when generating a list of files that should be
35 packaged for a linker bug report. For example:
36 gcc hello.c -save-temps -Wl,-t | xargs realpath | sort | uniq > files
37 tar cJf test.tar.xz `cat files`
38
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39Changes in 2.31:
40
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41* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
42
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43* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
44 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
45 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
46 disk and memory size.
47
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48Changes in 2.30:
49
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50* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
51
a05a5b64 52* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 53
a05a5b64 54* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 55 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 56 supports this functionality.
7feec526 57
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58* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
59 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
60 previously be accepted but had no effect.
61
62* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
63 within input section lists.
64
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65Changes in 2.29:
66
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67* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
68 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
69
70* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
71 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
72
ee2fdd6f 73* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 74 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
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75
76* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
77 PLT.
78
79* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
80 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
81 properties.
82
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83* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
84
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85* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
86
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87* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
88
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89* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
90 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
91
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92* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
93 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
94
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95* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
96 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
97
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98* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
99 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
100 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
101 linker script.
102
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103Changes in 2.28:
104
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105* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
106 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
107 the list.
108
e23eba97 109* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 110
a05a5b64 111* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
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112 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
113
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114* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
115 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
116 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
117 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
118
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119* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
120 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
121 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
122 to link against the executable.
123
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124Changes in 2.27:
125
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126* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
127 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
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128 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
129 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 130
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131* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
132 relocation overflow check.
133
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134* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
135 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
136
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137* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
138 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
139
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140* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
141
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142* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
143 values for dynamic relocations.
144
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145Changes in 2.26:
146
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147* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
148 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
149 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 150
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151* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
152 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
153
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154* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
155
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156* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
157 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
158
a05a5b64 159* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
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160 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
161
a05a5b64 162* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
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163 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
164 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
165 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
166 orphan sections.
3ea60775 167
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168* Add support for LLVM plugin.
169
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170* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
171
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172* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
173 must be defined by the end of the link.
174
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175Changes in 2.25:
176
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177* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
178 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 179 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 180
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181* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
182
a05a5b64 183* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
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184
185* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
186
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187* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
188
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189Changes in 2.24:
190
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191* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
192
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193* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
194
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195* Add support for Altera Nios II.
196
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197* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
198
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199* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
200
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201* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
202
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203* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
204
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205* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
206 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
207
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208Changes in 2.23:
209
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210* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
211
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212* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
213
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214* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
215
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216* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
217 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
218 program's memory image.
219
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220* Add support for S12X processor.
221
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222* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
223
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224* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
225
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226* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
227
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228* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
229
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230* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
231
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232Changes in 2.22:
233
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234* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
235 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
236
ae17ab41 237* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 238 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 239
69f56ae1 240* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 241
02ecc8e9 242* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
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243 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
244 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 245
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246Changes in 2.21:
247
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248* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
249 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
250
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251* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
252 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
253 bfd.
254
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255* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
256
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257* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
258 with --as-needed option.
259
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260* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
261 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
262
a72173de 263* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
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264 symbols from automatically being exported.
265
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266* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
267
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268* Add support for alpha-vms target.
269
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270Changes in 2.20:
271
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272* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
273 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
274 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
275 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 276
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277* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
278 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
279 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
280
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281* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
282 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
283 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
284
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285* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
286 --export-dynamic options.
287
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288* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
289 ELF machine code.
290
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291* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
292
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293* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
294 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
295 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
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296 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
297 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
298 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 299
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300* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
301 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
302 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
303
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304* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
305 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
306 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
307 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
308
a05a5b64 309* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
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310 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
311
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312* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
313
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314* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
315 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
316
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317* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
318 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
319 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
320
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321* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
322
62655c7b 323* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
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324 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
325
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326* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
327 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
328 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
329 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
330 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
331
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332Changes in 2.19:
333
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334* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
335 augment the default script.
336
967928e9 337* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 338 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 339
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340* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
341 direction of sorting.
342
7fb9f789 343* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 344 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 345
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346* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
347 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 348 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 349
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350Changes in 2.18:
351
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352* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
353 License.
354
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355* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
356 embedded in a note section.
357
3d3d428f 358* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 359
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360* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
361 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
362
a05a5b64 363* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
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364 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
365 script.
366
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367* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
368 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
369 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
370 dynamic list.
371
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372* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
373
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374* Add support for Score target.
375
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376* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
377 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
378 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
379 symbol table in the executable.
380
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381* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
382 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
383 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
384 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
385 differing from the VMA for some sections.
386
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387* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
388 collection.
389
c6dd86c6 390* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 391 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 392
c17d87de 393Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 394
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395* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
396
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397* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
398 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
399 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
400 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 401
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402* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
403 passed directly to ld.
404
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405* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
406
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407* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
408 switches can be read from <file>.
409
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410Changes in 2.16:
411
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412* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
413 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
414
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415* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
416 for input files listed inside of it.
417
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418* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
419 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
420 configured using --with-sysroot.
421
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422* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
423 about a specified memory region.
424
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425* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
426
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427* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
428 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
429
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430* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
431 object.
432
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433* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
434 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
435 maximum alignment.
436
a05a5b64 437* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
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438 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
439
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440* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
441 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 442
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443* Support for the crx-elf target added.
444
1a320fbb 445* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 446
a05a5b64 447* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
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448 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
449 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
450 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
451 to 1021.
452
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453* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
454 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
455 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
456 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
457 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
458
2d643429 459Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 460
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461* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
462 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 463
8fdd7217 464* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
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465 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
466
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467* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
468
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469* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
470 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
471
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472* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
473 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
474
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475* cr16c support added by NSC.
476
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477* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
478
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479* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
480 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
481 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
482 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
483
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484Changes in 2.14:
485
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486* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
487
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488* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
489 linking against a target filesystem image.
490
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491* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
492 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
493 file format.
494
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495* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
496
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497* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
498 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 499
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500* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
501 LIB_PATH.
502
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503* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
504
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505* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
506
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507Changes in 2.13:
508
509* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
510 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 511
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512Changes in version 2.13:
513
514* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
515
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516Changes in version 2.12:
517
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518* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
519
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520* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
521
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522* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
523 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
524 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 525
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526* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
527 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
528 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
529
530* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
531
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532Changes in version 2.11:
533
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534* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
535
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536* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
537 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
538 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
539 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
540 section.
252b5132 541
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542* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
543 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
544
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545* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
546
a05a5b64 547* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 548 specified section.
176355da 549
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550* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
551 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
552 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
553 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
554 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
555
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556* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
557
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558* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
559
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560* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
561
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562Changes in version 2.10:
563
c0065db7 564* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
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565 sections into regions.
566
c0065db7 567* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 568 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
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569 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
570 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 571 Others will ignore the option.
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572
573* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
574 name or section name.
575
576* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
577 command-line option.
578
579* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
580
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581* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
582 wildcard file names.
583
252b5132 584* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 585 affects ELF shared library generation).
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586
587* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
588
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589* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
590 shared library.
591
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592* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
593 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
594 behaviour.
595
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596* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
597
598Changes in version 2.9:
599
600* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
601
602* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
603
604* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
605 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
606
607Changes in version 2.8:
608
609* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
610 names.
611
612* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
613
614* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
615
616* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
617
618* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
619
620* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
621
622* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
623 changes due to alignment of an input section.
624
625* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
626
627Changes in version 2.7:
628
629* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
630
631* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
632
633* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
634
635* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
636 are not included in the output file.
637
638* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
639 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
640 information generated.
641
642Changes in version 2.6:
643
644* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
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645of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
646__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
647beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
648
649 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
650and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
651symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
652sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
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653
654* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
655contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
656not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
657
658* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
659file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
660the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 661the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
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662glibc.
663
664* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
665
666* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
667also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
668will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
669nor the -r option was used.
670
671* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
672searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
673-L options.
674
675* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
676enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
677only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
678prevent this optimization.
679
680Changes in version 2.5:
681
682* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
683not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 684generate shared libraries.
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685
686* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
687(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
688used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
689tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
690Solaris again.
691
692* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
693Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
694
695* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
696ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
697this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
6985), and HPPA ELF targets.
699
700* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
701support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
702This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
703
704* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
705it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
706file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
707default linker script.
708
709* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
710undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
711
712* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
713use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
714far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
715
716* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
717behaviour is available via --verbose.
718
719Changes in version 2.4:
720
721* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
722 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
723 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
724 before for formats not converted yet.
725
726* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
727 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
728 separators.
729
730* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
731
732* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
733
734* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
735 libraries are not yet supported).
736
737* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
738
739* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
740 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
741 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
742
743Changes in version 2.3:
744
745* Weak symbols are now supported.
746
747* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
748 UnixWare and Solaris.
749
750* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
751
752Changes in version 2.2:
753
754* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
755 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
756 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
757 static symbols) should be much smaller.
758
759Changes in version 2.1:
760
761* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
762
763* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
764 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
765
766\f
82704155 767Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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768
769Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
770are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
771notice and this notice are preserved.
772
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773Local variables:
774fill-column: 79
775End:
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