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252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
cf88bb9f | 2 | |
7a7f4e42 CD |
3 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
4 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
5 | ||
0949843d NC |
6 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
7 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
8 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
9 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
10 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
11 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
12 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
13 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
14 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
15 | Changes in 2.14: |
16 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
17 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
18 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
19 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
20 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
21 | ||
312b768e NC |
22 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
23 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
24 | file format. | |
25 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
26 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
27 | ||
004d9caf NC |
28 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
29 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
026df7c5 | 30 | |
8e523c23 NC |
31 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
32 | LIB_PATH. | |
33 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
34 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
35 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
36 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
37 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
38 | Changes in 2.13: |
39 | ||
40 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
41 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 42 | |
37020578 JT |
43 | Changes in version 2.13: |
44 | ||
45 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
46 | ||
9a66911f NC |
47 | Changes in version 2.12: |
48 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
49 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
50 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
51 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
52 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
53 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
54 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
55 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 56 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
57 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
58 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
59 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
60 | ||
61 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
62 | ||
9a66911f NC |
63 | Changes in version 2.11: |
64 | ||
b8355149 JH |
65 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
66 | ||
18e03609 NC |
67 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
68 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
69 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
70 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
71 | section. | |
252b5132 | 72 | |
ec4eb78a L |
73 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
74 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
75 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
76 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
77 | ||
176355da NC |
78 | * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
79 | specified section. | |
80 | ||
a712da20 NC |
81 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
82 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
83 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
84 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
85 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
86 | ||
22b36938 JE |
87 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
88 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
89 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
90 | ||
500800ca NC |
91 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
92 | ||
919e4093 AM |
93 | Changes in version 2.10: |
94 | ||
5948916f TW |
95 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
96 | sections into regions. | |
97 | ||
252b5132 RH |
98 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
99 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are | |
4667035e AM |
100 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
101 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 102 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
103 | |
104 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
105 | name or section name. | |
106 | ||
107 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
108 | command-line option. | |
109 | ||
110 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
111 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
112 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
113 | wildcard file names. | |
114 | ||
252b5132 | 115 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 116 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
117 | |
118 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
119 | ||
2575273d ILT |
120 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
121 | shared library. | |
122 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
123 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
124 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
125 | behaviour. | |
126 | ||
252b5132 RH |
127 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
128 | ||
129 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
130 | ||
131 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
132 | ||
133 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
134 | ||
135 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
136 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
137 | ||
138 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
139 | ||
140 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
141 | names. | |
142 | ||
143 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
144 | ||
145 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
146 | ||
147 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
148 | ||
149 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
150 | ||
151 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
152 | ||
153 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
154 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
155 | ||
156 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
157 | ||
158 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
159 | ||
160 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
161 | ||
162 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
163 | ||
164 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
165 | ||
166 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
167 | are not included in the output file. | |
168 | ||
169 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
170 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
171 | information generated. | |
172 | ||
173 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
174 | ||
175 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
176 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols | |
177 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
178 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
179 | ||
180 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
181 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
182 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
183 | ||
184 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
185 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
186 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 187 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
252b5132 RH |
188 | glibc. |
189 | ||
190 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
191 | ||
192 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
193 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
194 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
195 | nor the -r option was used. | |
196 | ||
197 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
198 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
199 | -L options. | |
200 | ||
201 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
202 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
203 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
204 | prevent this optimization. | |
205 | ||
206 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
207 | ||
208 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
209 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 210 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
211 | |
212 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
213 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
214 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
215 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
216 | Solaris again. | |
217 | ||
218 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
219 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
220 | ||
221 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
222 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
223 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
224 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
225 | ||
226 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
227 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
228 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
229 | ||
230 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
231 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
232 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
233 | default linker script. | |
234 | ||
235 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
236 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
237 | ||
238 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
239 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
240 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
241 | ||
242 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
243 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
244 | ||
245 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
246 | ||
247 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
248 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
249 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
250 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
251 | ||
252 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
253 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
254 | separators. | |
255 | ||
256 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
257 | ||
258 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
259 | ||
260 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
261 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
262 | ||
263 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
264 | ||
265 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
266 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
267 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
268 | ||
269 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
270 | ||
271 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
272 | ||
273 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
274 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
275 | ||
276 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
277 | ||
278 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
279 | ||
280 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
281 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
282 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
283 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
284 | ||
285 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
286 | ||
287 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
288 | ||
289 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
290 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
291 | ||
292 | \f | |
293 | Local variables: | |
294 | fill-column: 79 | |
295 | End: |