[BFD, LD, AArch64, 2/3] Add --force-bti to enable BTI and to select BTI enabled PLTs
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
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3Changes in 2.33:
4
5* Add target handlers for AArch64 for ELF GNU program properties.
6
7* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI in ELF GNU program
8 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
9
10* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_PAC in ELF GNU program
11 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
12
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13* Add --force-bti for AArch64 to enable GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
14 on output while warning about missing GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
15 on inputs and use PLTs protected with BTI.
16
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17Changes in 2.32:
18
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19* Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties.
20
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21* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
22
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23* -t now doesn't report members within archives, unless -t is given twice.
24 A single -t is now more useful when generating a list of files that should be
25 packaged for a linker bug report. For example:
26 gcc hello.c -save-temps -Wl,-t | xargs realpath | sort | uniq > files
27 tar cJf test.tar.xz `cat files`
28
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29Changes in 2.31:
30
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31* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
32
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33* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
34 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
35 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
36 disk and memory size.
37
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38Changes in 2.30:
39
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40* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
41
a05a5b64 42* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 43
a05a5b64 44* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 45 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 46 supports this functionality.
7feec526 47
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48* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
49 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
50 previously be accepted but had no effect.
51
52* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
53 within input section lists.
54
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55Changes in 2.29:
56
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57* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
58 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
59
60* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
61 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
62
ee2fdd6f 63* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 64 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
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65
66* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
67 PLT.
68
69* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
70 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
71 properties.
72
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73* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
74
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75* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
76
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77* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
78
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79* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
80 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
81
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82* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
83 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
84
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85* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
86 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
87
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88* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
89 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
90 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
91 linker script.
92
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93Changes in 2.28:
94
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95* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
96 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
97 the list.
98
e23eba97 99* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 100
a05a5b64 101* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
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102 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
103
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104* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
105 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
106 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
107 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
108
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109* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
110 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
111 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
112 to link against the executable.
113
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114Changes in 2.27:
115
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116* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
117 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
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118 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
119 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 120
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121* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
122 relocation overflow check.
123
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124* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
125 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
126
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127* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
128 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
129
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130* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
131
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132* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
133 values for dynamic relocations.
134
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135Changes in 2.26:
136
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137* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
138 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
139 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 140
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141* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
142 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
143
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144* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
145
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146* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
147 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
148
a05a5b64 149* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
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150 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
151
a05a5b64 152* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
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153 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
154 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
155 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
156 orphan sections.
3ea60775 157
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158* Add support for LLVM plugin.
159
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160* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
161
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162* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
163 must be defined by the end of the link.
164
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165Changes in 2.25:
166
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167* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
168 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 169 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 170
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171* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
172
a05a5b64 173* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
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174
175* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
176
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177* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
178
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179Changes in 2.24:
180
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181* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
182
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183* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
184
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185* Add support for Altera Nios II.
186
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187* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
188
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189* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
190
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191* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
192
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193* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
194
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195* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
196 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
197
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198Changes in 2.23:
199
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200* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
201
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202* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
203
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204* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
205
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206* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
207 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
208 program's memory image.
209
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210* Add support for S12X processor.
211
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212* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
213
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214* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
215
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216* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
217
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218* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
219
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220* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
221
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222Changes in 2.22:
223
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224* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
225 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
226
ae17ab41 227* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 228 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 229
69f56ae1 230* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 231
02ecc8e9 232* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
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233 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
234 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 235
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236Changes in 2.21:
237
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238* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
239 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
240
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241* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
242 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
243 bfd.
244
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245* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
246
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247* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
248 with --as-needed option.
249
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250* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
251 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
252
a72173de 253* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
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254 symbols from automatically being exported.
255
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256* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
257
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258* Add support for alpha-vms target.
259
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260Changes in 2.20:
261
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262* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
263 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
264 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
265 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 266
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267* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
268 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
269 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
270
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271* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
272 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
273 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
274
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275* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
276 --export-dynamic options.
277
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278* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
279 ELF machine code.
280
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281* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
282
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283* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
284 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
285 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
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286 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
287 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
288 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 289
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290* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
291 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
292 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
293
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294* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
295 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
296 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
297 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
298
a05a5b64 299* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
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300 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
301
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302* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
303
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304* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
305 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
306
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307* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
308 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
309 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
310
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311* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
312
62655c7b 313* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
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314 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
315
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316* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
317 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
318 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
319 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
320 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
321
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322Changes in 2.19:
323
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324* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
325 augment the default script.
326
967928e9 327* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 328 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 329
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330* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
331 direction of sorting.
332
7fb9f789 333* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 334 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 335
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336* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
337 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 338 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 339
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340Changes in 2.18:
341
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342* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
343 License.
344
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345* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
346 embedded in a note section.
347
3d3d428f 348* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 349
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350* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
351 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
352
a05a5b64 353* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
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354 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
355 script.
356
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357* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
358 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
359 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
360 dynamic list.
361
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362* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
363
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364* Add support for Score target.
365
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366* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
367 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
368 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
369 symbol table in the executable.
370
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371* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
372 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
373 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
374 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
375 differing from the VMA for some sections.
376
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377* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
378 collection.
379
c6dd86c6 380* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 381 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 382
c17d87de 383Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 384
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385* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
386
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387* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
388 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
389 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
390 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 391
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392* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
393 passed directly to ld.
394
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395* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
396
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397* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
398 switches can be read from <file>.
399
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400Changes in 2.16:
401
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402* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
403 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
404
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405* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
406 for input files listed inside of it.
407
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408* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
409 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
410 configured using --with-sysroot.
411
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412* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
413 about a specified memory region.
414
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415* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
416
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417* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
418 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
419
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420* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
421 object.
422
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423* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
424 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
425 maximum alignment.
426
a05a5b64 427* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
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428 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
429
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430* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
431 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 432
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433* Support for the crx-elf target added.
434
1a320fbb 435* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 436
a05a5b64 437* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
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438 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
439 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
440 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
441 to 1021.
442
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443* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
444 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
445 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
446 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
447 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
448
2d643429 449Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 450
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451* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
452 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 453
8fdd7217 454* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
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455 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
456
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457* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
458
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459* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
460 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
461
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462* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
463 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
464
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465* cr16c support added by NSC.
466
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467* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
468
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469* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
470 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
471 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
472 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
473
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474Changes in 2.14:
475
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476* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
477
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478* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
479 linking against a target filesystem image.
480
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481* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
482 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
483 file format.
484
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485* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
486
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487* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
488 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 489
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490* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
491 LIB_PATH.
492
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493* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
494
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495* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
496
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497Changes in 2.13:
498
499* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
500 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 501
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502Changes in version 2.13:
503
504* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
505
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506Changes in version 2.12:
507
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508* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
509
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510* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
511
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512* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
513 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
514 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 515
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516* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
517 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
518 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
519
520* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
521
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522Changes in version 2.11:
523
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524* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
525
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526* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
527 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
528 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
529 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
530 section.
252b5132 531
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532* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
533 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
534
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535* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
536
a05a5b64 537* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 538 specified section.
176355da 539
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540* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
541 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
542 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
543 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
544 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
545
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546* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
547
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548* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
549
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550* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
551
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552Changes in version 2.10:
553
c0065db7 554* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
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555 sections into regions.
556
c0065db7 557* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 558 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
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559 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
560 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 561 Others will ignore the option.
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562
563* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
564 name or section name.
565
566* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
567 command-line option.
568
569* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
570
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571* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
572 wildcard file names.
573
252b5132 574* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 575 affects ELF shared library generation).
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576
577* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
578
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579* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
580 shared library.
581
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582* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
583 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
584 behaviour.
585
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586* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
587
588Changes in version 2.9:
589
590* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
591
592* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
593
594* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
595 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
596
597Changes in version 2.8:
598
599* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
600 names.
601
602* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
603
604* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
605
606* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
607
608* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
609
610* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
611
612* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
613 changes due to alignment of an input section.
614
615* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
616
617Changes in version 2.7:
618
619* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
620
621* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
622
623* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
624
625* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
626 are not included in the output file.
627
628* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
629 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
630 information generated.
631
632Changes in version 2.6:
633
634* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
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635of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
636__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
637beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
638
639 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
640and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
641symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
642sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
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643
644* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
645contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
646not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
647
648* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
649file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
650the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 651the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
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652glibc.
653
654* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
655
656* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
657also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
658will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
659nor the -r option was used.
660
661* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
662searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
663-L options.
664
665* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
666enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
667only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
668prevent this optimization.
669
670Changes in version 2.5:
671
672* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
673not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 674generate shared libraries.
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675
676* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
677(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
678used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
679tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
680Solaris again.
681
682* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
683Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
684
685* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
686ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
687this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
6885), and HPPA ELF targets.
689
690* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
691support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
692This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
693
694* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
695it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
696file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
697default linker script.
698
699* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
700undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
701
702* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
703use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
704far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
705
706* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
707behaviour is available via --verbose.
708
709Changes in version 2.4:
710
711* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
712 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
713 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
714 before for formats not converted yet.
715
716* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
717 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
718 separators.
719
720* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
721
722* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
723
724* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
725 libraries are not yet supported).
726
727* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
728
729* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
730 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
731 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
732
733Changes in version 2.3:
734
735* Weak symbols are now supported.
736
737* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
738 UnixWare and Solaris.
739
740* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
741
742Changes in version 2.2:
743
744* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
745 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
746 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
747 static symbols) should be much smaller.
748
749Changes in version 2.1:
750
751* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
752
753* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
754 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
755
756\f
82704155 757Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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758
759Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
760are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
761notice and this notice are preserved.
762
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763Local variables:
764fill-column: 79
765End:
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