binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.22:
   4
   5 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
   6
   7 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
   8   passed to preprocessor.
   9
  10 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  11   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  12
  13 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  14
  15 changes in 2.21:
  16
  17 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  18   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  19
  20 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  21
  22 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  23   the -u / --unwind option.
  24
  25 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  26
  27 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  28   binaries.
  29
  30 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  31   '== <ID>' option.
  32
  33 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  34   address before function name or source filename.
  35
  36 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  37   a more human readable output.
  38
  39 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  40
  41 Changes in 2.20:
  42
  43 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  44   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  45   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  46   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  47   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  48
  49 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  50   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  51   instructions.
  52
  53 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  54   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  55
  56 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  57   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  58   file.
  59
  60 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  61   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  62
  63 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
  64   for objcopy.
  65
  66 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
  67   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
  68   set PE optional header.
  69
  70 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
  71
  72 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
  73   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
  74   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
  75   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
  76
  77 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
  78   add absolute paths for -S.
  79
  80 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
  81   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
  82
  83 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
  84   report an error when the import library is associated with
  85   multiple DLLs.
  86
  87 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
  88   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
  89
  90 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
  91   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
  92   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
  93
  94 Changes in 2.19:
  95
  96 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
  97
  98 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
  99   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 100   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 101   added to the archive.
 102
 103 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 104
 105 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 106
 107 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 108
 109 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 110
 111 Changes in 2.18:
 112
 113 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 114   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 115   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 116
 117 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 118   Public License.
 119
 120 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 121   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 122
 123 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 124   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 125   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 126   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 127   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 128   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 129
 130 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 131   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 132   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 133   to some OSes.
 134
 135 Changes in 2.17:
 136
 137 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 138
 139 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 140   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 141   of types.
 142
 143 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 144   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 145
 146 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 147   debug sections.
 148
 149 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 150   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 151
 152 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 153   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 154   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 155   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 156
 157 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 158   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 159
 160 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 161
 162 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 163   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 164
 165 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 166   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 167
 168 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 169   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 170
 171 Changes in 2.16:
 172
 173 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 174
 175 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 176   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 177   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 178   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 179
 180 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 181   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 182   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 183   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 184
 185 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 186   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 187   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 188   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 189   between ARM and THUMB code.
 190
 191 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 192   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 193
 194 Changes in 2.15:
 195
 196 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 197   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 198   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 199   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 200
 201 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 202   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 203
 204 * readelf can now parse archives.
 205
 206 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 207   format compatible with ctags tool.
 208
 209 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 210   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 211   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 212   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 213   debugging info.
 214
 215 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 216   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 217   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 218
 219 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 220   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 221   with the -a switch.
 222
 223 Changes in 2.14:
 224
 225 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 226
 227 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 228
 229 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 230
 231 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 232   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 233
 234 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 235   Parallel C compiler.
 236
 237 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 238   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 239   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 240
 241 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 242
 243 Changes in 2.13:
 244
 245 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 246   and FR500 included.
 247
 248 Changes in version 2.12:
 249
 250 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 251
 252 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 253
 254 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 255   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 256
 257 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 258
 259 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 260
 261 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 262   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 263
 264 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 265   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 266   by Honda Hiroki.
 267
 268 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 269
 270 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 271   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 272   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 273
 274 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 275   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 276   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 277   By Stefan Geuken.
 278
 279 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 280
 281 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 282
 283 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 284   extenstions.
 285
 286 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 287   By Luciano Gemme.
 288
 289 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 290
 291 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 292
 293 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 294
 295 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 296
 297 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 298
 299 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 300   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 301   file.
 302
 303 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 304   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 305   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 306   raw verions.
 307
 308 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 309   with intel syntax.
 310
 311 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 312   regardless of target machine.
 313
 314 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 315   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 316   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 317   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 318
 319 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 320
 321 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 322   sections.
 323
 324 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 325
 326 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 327   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 328
 329 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 330
 331 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 332   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 333
 334 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 335   the VMA of the sections.
 336
 337 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 338
 339 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 340
 341 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 342   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 343   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 344   output.
 345
 346 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 347   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 348   so they must be in canonical form.
 349
 350 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 351   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 352
 353 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 354
 355 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 356
 357 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 358
 359 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 360
 361 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 362
 363 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 364
 365 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 366
 367 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 368
 369 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 370
 371 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 372
 373 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 374
 375 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 376
 377 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 378
 379 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 380
 381 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 382
 383 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 384
 385 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 386
 387 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 388   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 389   generating plain binary files.
 390
 391 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 392
 393 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 394
 395 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 396
 397 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 398   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 399
 400 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 401   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 402
 403 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 404
 405 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 406   executables.
 407
 408 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 409
 410 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 411   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 412
 413 * Support for Irix 5.
 414
 415 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 416   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 417
 418 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 419
 420 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 421   ELF and COFF files.
 422
 423 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 424   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 425
 426 * The strings program has been added.
 427
 428 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 429
 430 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 431   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 432   'cp'.
 433
 434 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 435   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 436   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 437
 438 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 439   the output from BSD nm.
 440
 441 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 442
 443 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 444
 445 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 446
 447 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 448
 449 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 450
 451 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 452
 453 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 454   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 455
 456 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 457   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 458   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 459   for Posix.2 conformance.
 460
 461 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 462   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 463   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 464
 465 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 466   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 467
 468 \f
 469 Local variables:
 470 fill-column: 79
 471 End: