AArch64: Add SVE DWARF registers
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
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3* Add command-line option --no-print-map-discarded.
4
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5Changes in 2.33:
6
7* Add target handlers for AArch64 for ELF GNU program properties.
8
9* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI in ELF GNU program
10 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
11
12* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_PAC in ELF GNU program
13 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
14
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15* Add --force-bti for AArch64 to enable GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
16 on output while warning about missing GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
17 on inputs and use PLTs protected with BTI.
18
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19* Add --pac-plt for AArch64 to pick PAC enabled PLTs.
20
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21Changes in 2.32:
22
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23* Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties.
24
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25* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
26
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27* -t now doesn't report members within archives, unless -t is given twice.
28 A single -t is now more useful when generating a list of files that should be
29 packaged for a linker bug report. For example:
30 gcc hello.c -save-temps -Wl,-t | xargs realpath | sort | uniq > files
31 tar cJf test.tar.xz `cat files`
32
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33Changes in 2.31:
34
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35* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
36
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37* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
38 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
39 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
40 disk and memory size.
41
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42Changes in 2.30:
43
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44* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
45
a05a5b64 46* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 47
a05a5b64 48* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 49 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 50 supports this functionality.
7feec526 51
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52* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
53 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
54 previously be accepted but had no effect.
55
56* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
57 within input section lists.
58
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59Changes in 2.29:
60
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61* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
62 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
63
64* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
65 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
66
ee2fdd6f 67* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 68 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
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69
70* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
71 PLT.
72
73* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
74 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
75 properties.
76
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L
77* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
78
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79* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
80
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81* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
82
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83* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
84 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
85
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86* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
87 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
88
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89* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
90 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
91
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92* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
93 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
94 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
95 linker script.
96
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97Changes in 2.28:
98
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99* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
100 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
101 the list.
102
e23eba97 103* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 104
a05a5b64 105* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
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106 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
107
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108* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
109 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
110 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
111 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
112
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113* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
114 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
115 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
116 to link against the executable.
117
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118Changes in 2.27:
119
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120* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
121 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
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122 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
123 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 124
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125* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
126 relocation overflow check.
127
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128* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
129 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
130
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131* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
132 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
133
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134* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
135
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136* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
137 values for dynamic relocations.
138
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139Changes in 2.26:
140
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141* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
142 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
143 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 144
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145* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
146 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
147
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148* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
149
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150* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
151 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
152
a05a5b64 153* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
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154 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
155
a05a5b64 156* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
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157 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
158 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
159 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
160 orphan sections.
3ea60775 161
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162* Add support for LLVM plugin.
163
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164* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
165
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166* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
167 must be defined by the end of the link.
168
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169Changes in 2.25:
170
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171* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
172 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 173 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 174
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175* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
176
a05a5b64 177* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
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178
179* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
180
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181* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
182
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183Changes in 2.24:
184
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185* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
186
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187* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
188
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189* Add support for Altera Nios II.
190
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191* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
192
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193* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
194
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195* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
196
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197* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
198
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199* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
200 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
201
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202Changes in 2.23:
203
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204* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
205
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206* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
207
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208* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
209
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210* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
211 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
212 program's memory image.
213
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214* Add support for S12X processor.
215
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216* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
217
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218* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
219
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220* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
221
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222* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
223
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224* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
225
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226Changes in 2.22:
227
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228* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
229 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
230
ae17ab41 231* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 232 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 233
69f56ae1 234* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 235
02ecc8e9 236* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
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237 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
238 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 239
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240Changes in 2.21:
241
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242* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
243 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
244
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245* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
246 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
247 bfd.
248
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249* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
250
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251* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
252 with --as-needed option.
253
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254* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
255 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
256
a72173de 257* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
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258 symbols from automatically being exported.
259
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260* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
261
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262* Add support for alpha-vms target.
263
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264Changes in 2.20:
265
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266* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
267 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
268 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
269 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 270
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271* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
272 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
273 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
274
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275* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
276 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
277 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
278
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279* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
280 --export-dynamic options.
281
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282* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
283 ELF machine code.
284
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285* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
286
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287* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
288 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
289 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
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290 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
291 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
292 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 293
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294* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
295 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
296 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
297
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298* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
299 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
300 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
301 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
302
a05a5b64 303* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
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304 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
305
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306* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
307
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308* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
309 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
310
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311* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
312 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
313 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
314
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315* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
316
62655c7b 317* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
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318 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
319
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320* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
321 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
322 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
323 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
324 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
325
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326Changes in 2.19:
327
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328* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
329 augment the default script.
330
967928e9 331* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 332 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 333
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334* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
335 direction of sorting.
336
7fb9f789 337* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 338 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 339
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340* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
341 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 342 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 343
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344Changes in 2.18:
345
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346* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
347 License.
348
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349* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
350 embedded in a note section.
351
3d3d428f 352* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 353
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354* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
355 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
356
a05a5b64 357* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
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358 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
359 script.
360
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361* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
362 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
363 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
364 dynamic list.
365
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366* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
367
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368* Add support for Score target.
369
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370* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
371 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
372 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
373 symbol table in the executable.
374
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375* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
376 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
377 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
378 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
379 differing from the VMA for some sections.
380
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381* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
382 collection.
383
c6dd86c6 384* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 385 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 386
c17d87de 387Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 388
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389* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
390
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391* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
392 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
393 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
394 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 395
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396* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
397 passed directly to ld.
398
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399* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
400
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401* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
402 switches can be read from <file>.
403
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404Changes in 2.16:
405
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406* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
407 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
408
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409* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
410 for input files listed inside of it.
411
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412* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
413 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
414 configured using --with-sysroot.
415
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416* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
417 about a specified memory region.
418
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419* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
420
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421* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
422 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
423
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424* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
425 object.
426
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427* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
428 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
429 maximum alignment.
430
a05a5b64 431* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
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432 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
433
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434* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
435 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 436
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437* Support for the crx-elf target added.
438
1a320fbb 439* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 440
a05a5b64 441* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
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442 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
443 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
444 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
445 to 1021.
446
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447* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
448 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
449 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
450 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
451 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
452
2d643429 453Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 454
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455* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
456 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 457
8fdd7217 458* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
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459 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
460
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461* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
462
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463* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
464 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
465
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466* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
467 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
468
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469* cr16c support added by NSC.
470
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471* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
472
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473* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
474 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
475 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
476 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
477
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478Changes in 2.14:
479
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480* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
481
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482* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
483 linking against a target filesystem image.
484
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485* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
486 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
487 file format.
488
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489* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
490
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491* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
492 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 493
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494* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
495 LIB_PATH.
496
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497* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
498
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499* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
500
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501Changes in 2.13:
502
503* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
504 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 505
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506Changes in version 2.13:
507
508* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
509
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510Changes in version 2.12:
511
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512* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
513
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514* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
515
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516* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
517 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
518 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 519
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520* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
521 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
522 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
523
524* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
525
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526Changes in version 2.11:
527
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528* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
529
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530* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
531 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
532 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
533 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
534 section.
252b5132 535
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536* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
537 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
538
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539* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
540
a05a5b64 541* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 542 specified section.
176355da 543
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544* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
545 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
546 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
547 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
548 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
549
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550* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
551
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552* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
553
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554* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
555
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556Changes in version 2.10:
557
c0065db7 558* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
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559 sections into regions.
560
c0065db7 561* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 562 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
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563 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
564 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 565 Others will ignore the option.
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566
567* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
568 name or section name.
569
570* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
571 command-line option.
572
573* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
574
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575* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
576 wildcard file names.
577
252b5132 578* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 579 affects ELF shared library generation).
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580
581* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
582
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583* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
584 shared library.
585
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586* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
587 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
588 behaviour.
589
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590* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
591
592Changes in version 2.9:
593
594* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
595
596* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
597
598* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
599 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
600
601Changes in version 2.8:
602
603* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
604 names.
605
606* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
607
608* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
609
610* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
611
612* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
613
614* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
615
616* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
617 changes due to alignment of an input section.
618
619* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
620
621Changes in version 2.7:
622
623* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
624
625* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
626
627* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
628
629* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
630 are not included in the output file.
631
632* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
633 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
634 information generated.
635
636Changes in version 2.6:
637
638* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
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639of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
640__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
641beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
642
643 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
644and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
645symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
646sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
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647
648* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
649contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
650not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
651
652* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
653file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
654the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 655the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
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656glibc.
657
658* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
659
660* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
661also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
662will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
663nor the -r option was used.
664
665* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
666searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
667-L options.
668
669* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
670enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
671only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
672prevent this optimization.
673
674Changes in version 2.5:
675
676* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
677not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 678generate shared libraries.
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679
680* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
681(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
682used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
683tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
684Solaris again.
685
686* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
687Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
688
689* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
690ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
691this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
6925), and HPPA ELF targets.
693
694* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
695support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
696This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
697
698* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
699it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
700file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
701default linker script.
702
703* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
704undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
705
706* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
707use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
708far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
709
710* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
711behaviour is available via --verbose.
712
713Changes in version 2.4:
714
715* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
716 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
717 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
718 before for formats not converted yet.
719
720* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
721 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
722 separators.
723
724* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
725
726* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
727
728* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
729 libraries are not yet supported).
730
731* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
732
733* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
734 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
735 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
736
737Changes in version 2.3:
738
739* Weak symbols are now supported.
740
741* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
742 UnixWare and Solaris.
743
744* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
745
746Changes in version 2.2:
747
748* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
749 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
750 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
751 static symbols) should be much smaller.
752
753Changes in version 2.1:
754
755* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
756
757* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
758 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
759
760\f
82704155 761Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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762
763Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
764are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
765notice and this notice are preserved.
766
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767Local variables:
768fill-column: 79
769End:
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