Combine ,gnu.build.attributes.* sections into one .gnu.build.attributes section durin...
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
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3Changes in 2.31:
4
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5* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
6
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7* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
8 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
9 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
10 disk and memory size.
11
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12Changes in 2.30:
13
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14* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
15
a05a5b64 16* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 17
a05a5b64 18* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 19 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 20 supports this functionality.
7feec526 21
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22* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
23 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
24 previously be accepted but had no effect.
25
26* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
27 within input section lists.
28
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29Changes in 2.29:
30
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31* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
32 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
33
34* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
35 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
36
ee2fdd6f 37* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 38 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
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39
40* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
41 PLT.
42
43* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
44 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
45 properties.
46
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47* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
48
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L
49* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
50
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51* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
52
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53* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
54 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
55
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56* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
57 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
58
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59* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
60 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
61
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62* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
63 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
64 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
65 linker script.
66
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67Changes in 2.28:
68
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69* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
70 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
71 the list.
72
e23eba97 73* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 74
a05a5b64 75* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
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76 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
77
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78* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
79 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
80 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
81 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
82
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83* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
84 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
85 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
86 to link against the executable.
87
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88Changes in 2.27:
89
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90* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
91 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
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92 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
93 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 94
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95* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
96 relocation overflow check.
97
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98* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
99 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
100
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101* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
102 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
103
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104* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
105
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106* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
107 values for dynamic relocations.
108
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109Changes in 2.26:
110
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111* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
112 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
113 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 114
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115* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
116 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
117
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118* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
119
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120* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
121 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
122
a05a5b64 123* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
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124 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
125
a05a5b64 126* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
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127 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
128 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
129 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
130 orphan sections.
3ea60775 131
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132* Add support for LLVM plugin.
133
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134* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
135
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136* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
137 must be defined by the end of the link.
138
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139Changes in 2.25:
140
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141* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
142 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 143 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 144
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145* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
146
a05a5b64 147* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
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148
149* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
150
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151* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
152
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153Changes in 2.24:
154
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155* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
156
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157* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
158
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159* Add support for Altera Nios II.
160
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161* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
162
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163* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
164
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165* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
166
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167* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
168
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169* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
170 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
171
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172Changes in 2.23:
173
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174* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
175
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176* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
177
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178* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
179
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180* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
181 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
182 program's memory image.
183
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184* Add support for S12X processor.
185
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186* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
187
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188* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
189
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190* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
191
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192* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
193
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194* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
195
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196Changes in 2.22:
197
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198* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
199 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
200
ae17ab41 201* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 202 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 203
69f56ae1 204* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 205
02ecc8e9 206* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
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207 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
208 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 209
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210Changes in 2.21:
211
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212* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
213 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
214
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215* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
216 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
217 bfd.
218
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219* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
220
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221* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
222 with --as-needed option.
223
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224* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
225 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
226
a72173de 227* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
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228 symbols from automatically being exported.
229
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230* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
231
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232* Add support for alpha-vms target.
233
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234Changes in 2.20:
235
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236* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
237 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
238 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
239 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 240
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241* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
242 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
243 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
244
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245* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
246 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
247 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
248
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249* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
250 --export-dynamic options.
251
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252* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
253 ELF machine code.
254
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255* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
256
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257* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
258 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
259 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
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260 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
261 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
262 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 263
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264* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
265 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
266 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
267
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268* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
269 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
270 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
271 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
272
a05a5b64 273* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
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274 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
275
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276* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
277
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278* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
279 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
280
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281* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
282 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
283 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
284
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285* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
286
62655c7b 287* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
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288 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
289
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290* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
291 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
292 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
293 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
294 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
295
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296Changes in 2.19:
297
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298* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
299 augment the default script.
300
967928e9 301* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 302 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 303
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304* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
305 direction of sorting.
306
7fb9f789 307* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 308 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 309
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310* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
311 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 312 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 313
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314Changes in 2.18:
315
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316* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
317 License.
318
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319* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
320 embedded in a note section.
321
3d3d428f 322* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 323
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324* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
325 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
326
a05a5b64 327* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
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328 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
329 script.
330
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331* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
332 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
333 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
334 dynamic list.
335
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336* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
337
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338* Add support for Score target.
339
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340* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
341 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
342 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
343 symbol table in the executable.
344
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345* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
346 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
347 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
348 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
349 differing from the VMA for some sections.
350
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351* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
352 collection.
353
c6dd86c6 354* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 355 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 356
c17d87de 357Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 358
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359* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
360
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361* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
362 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
363 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
364 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 365
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366* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
367 passed directly to ld.
368
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369* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
370
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371* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
372 switches can be read from <file>.
373
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374Changes in 2.16:
375
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376* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
377 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
378
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379* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
380 for input files listed inside of it.
381
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382* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
383 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
384 configured using --with-sysroot.
385
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386* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
387 about a specified memory region.
388
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389* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
390
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391* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
392 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
393
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394* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
395 object.
396
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397* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
398 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
399 maximum alignment.
400
a05a5b64 401* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
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402 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
403
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404* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
405 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 406
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407* Support for the crx-elf target added.
408
1a320fbb 409* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 410
a05a5b64 411* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
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412 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
413 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
414 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
415 to 1021.
416
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417* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
418 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
419 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
420 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
421 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
422
2d643429 423Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 424
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425* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
426 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 427
8fdd7217 428* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
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429 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
430
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431* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
432
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433* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
434 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
435
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436* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
437 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
438
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439* cr16c support added by NSC.
440
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441* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
442
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443* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
444 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
445 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
446 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
447
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448Changes in 2.14:
449
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450* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
451
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452* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
453 linking against a target filesystem image.
454
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455* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
456 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
457 file format.
458
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459* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
460
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461* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
462 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 463
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464* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
465 LIB_PATH.
466
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467* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
468
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469* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
470
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471Changes in 2.13:
472
473* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
474 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 475
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476Changes in version 2.13:
477
478* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
479
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480Changes in version 2.12:
481
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482* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
483
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484* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
485
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486* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
487 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
488 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 489
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490* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
491 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
492 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
493
494* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
495
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496Changes in version 2.11:
497
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498* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
499
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500* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
501 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
502 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
503 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
504 section.
252b5132 505
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506* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
507 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
508
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509* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
510
a05a5b64 511* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 512 specified section.
176355da 513
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514* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
515 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
516 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
517 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
518 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
519
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520* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
521
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522* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
523
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524* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
525
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526Changes in version 2.10:
527
c0065db7 528* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
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529 sections into regions.
530
c0065db7 531* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 532 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
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533 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
534 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 535 Others will ignore the option.
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536
537* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
538 name or section name.
539
540* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
541 command-line option.
542
543* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
544
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545* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
546 wildcard file names.
547
252b5132 548* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 549 affects ELF shared library generation).
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550
551* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
552
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553* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
554 shared library.
555
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556* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
557 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
558 behaviour.
559
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560* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
561
562Changes in version 2.9:
563
564* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
565
566* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
567
568* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
569 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
570
571Changes in version 2.8:
572
573* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
574 names.
575
576* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
577
578* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
579
580* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
581
582* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
583
584* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
585
586* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
587 changes due to alignment of an input section.
588
589* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
590
591Changes in version 2.7:
592
593* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
594
595* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
596
597* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
598
599* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
600 are not included in the output file.
601
602* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
603 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
604 information generated.
605
606Changes in version 2.6:
607
608* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
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609of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
610__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
611beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
612
613 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
614and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
615symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
616sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
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617
618* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
619contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
620not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
621
622* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
623file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
624the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 625the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
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626glibc.
627
628* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
629
630* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
631also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
632will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
633nor the -r option was used.
634
635* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
636searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
637-L options.
638
639* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
640enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
641only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
642prevent this optimization.
643
644Changes in version 2.5:
645
646* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
647not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 648generate shared libraries.
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649
650* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
651(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
652used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
653tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
654Solaris again.
655
656* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
657Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
658
659* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
660ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
661this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
6625), and HPPA ELF targets.
663
664* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
665support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
666This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
667
668* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
669it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
670file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
671default linker script.
672
673* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
674undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
675
676* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
677use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
678far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
679
680* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
681behaviour is available via --verbose.
682
683Changes in version 2.4:
684
685* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
686 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
687 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
688 before for formats not converted yet.
689
690* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
691 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
692 separators.
693
694* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
695
696* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
697
698* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
699 libraries are not yet supported).
700
701* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
702
703* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
704 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
705 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
706
707Changes in version 2.3:
708
709* Weak symbols are now supported.
710
711* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
712 UnixWare and Solaris.
713
714* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
715
716Changes in version 2.2:
717
718* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
719 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
720 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
721 static symbols) should be much smaller.
722
723Changes in version 2.1:
724
725* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
726
727* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
728 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
729
730\f
219d1afa 731Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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732
733Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
734are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
735notice and this notice are preserved.
736
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737Local variables:
738fill-column: 79
739End:
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