binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
   3   provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
   4
   5 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
   6   the changing of section alignments.
   7
   8 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
   9   width of data elements in verilog hex format.
  10
  11 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
  12   instructions.
  13
  14 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
  15   and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
  16   --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
  17   more than one are present in a file.  (This usually happens when gcc's
  18   -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
  19
  20   In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
  21   display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
  22   cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
  23   displayed.  In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
  24   follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
  25   files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
  26
  27  * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
  28    to objdump and readelf.
  29
  30 Changes in 2.32:
  31
  32 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
  33   maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
  34   The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
  35   constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file.  At the time
  36   of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
  37
  38   The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
  39   the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools.  This may be needed in
  40   order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
  41   vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
  42
  43 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
  44   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
  45   symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
  46
  47 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
  48   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
  49   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
  50   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
  51
  52 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
  53   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
  54   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
  55   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
  56
  57 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
  58   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
  59   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
  60   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
  61   compatibility.
  62
  63 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'.  The
  64   results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
  65   except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
  66   Additionally the total is only included once.
  67
  68 Changes in 2.31:
  69
  70 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
  71
  72 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
  73   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
  74   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
  75   to objdump.
  76
  77 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
  78   a named register could be invalid.
  79
  80 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
  81
  82 Changes in 2.30:
  83
  84 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
  85   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
  86   sections.
  87
  88   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  89   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  90   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  91
  92 Changes in 2.29:
  93
  94 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  95   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  96
  97 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  98   disassembly.
  99
 100 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
 101   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
 102   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
 103
 104 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
 105   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
 106
 107 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
 108
 109 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
 110
 111 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
 112
 113 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
 114   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
 115
 116 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
 117   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
 118
 119 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
 120   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
 121   the original file.
 122
 123 Changes in 2.28:
 124
 125 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
 126   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
 127   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
 128   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
 129   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
 130   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
 131   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
 132   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
 133   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
 134   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
 135   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
 136   with the instructions being relocated.
 137
 138 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
 139   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
 140   symbol's name.
 141
 142 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
 143   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
 144
 145 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 146   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 147   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 148   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 149
 150 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 151   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 152   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 153   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 154
 155 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 156   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 157   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 158   the relocation section itself.
 159
 160 Changes in 2.27:
 161
 162 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 163   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 164
 165 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 166   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 167
 168 Changes in 2.26:
 169
 170 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 171   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 172
 173 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 174
 175 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 176   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 177   targets.
 178
 179 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 180
 181 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 182
 183 Changes in 2.25:
 184
 185 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 186   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 187   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 188   default behaviour.
 189
 190 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 191
 192 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 193
 194 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 195
 196 Changes in 2.24:
 197
 198 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 199   section names.
 200
 201 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 202
 203 Changes in 2.23:
 204
 205 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 206
 207 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 208
 209 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 210
 211 Changes in 2.22:
 212
 213 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 214
 215 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 216   passed to preprocessor.
 217
 218 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 219   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 220
 221 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 222
 223 changes in 2.21:
 224
 225 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 226   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 227
 228 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 229
 230 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 231   the -u / --unwind option.
 232
 233 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 234
 235 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 236   binaries.
 237
 238 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 239   '== <ID>' option.
 240
 241 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 242   address before function name or source filename.
 243
 244 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 245   a more human readable output.
 246
 247 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 248
 249 Changes in 2.20:
 250
 251 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 252   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 253   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 254   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 255   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 256
 257 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 258   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 259   instructions.
 260
 261 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 262   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 263
 264 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 265   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 266   file.
 267
 268 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 269   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 270
 271 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 272   for objcopy.
 273
 274 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 275   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 276   set PE optional header.
 277
 278 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 279
 280 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 281   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 282   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 283   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 284
 285 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 286   add absolute paths for -S.
 287
 288 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 289   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 290
 291 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 292   report an error when the import library is associated with
 293   multiple DLLs.
 294
 295 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 296   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 297
 298 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 299   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 300   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 301
 302 Changes in 2.19:
 303
 304 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 305
 306 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 307   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 308   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 309   added to the archive.
 310
 311 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 312
 313 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 314
 315 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 316
 317 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 318
 319 Changes in 2.18:
 320
 321 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 322   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 323   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 324
 325 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 326   Public License.
 327
 328 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 329   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 330
 331 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 332   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 333   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 334   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 335   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 336   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 337
 338 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 339   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 340   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 341   to some OSes.
 342
 343 Changes in 2.17:
 344
 345 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 346
 347 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 348   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 349   of types.
 350
 351 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 352   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 353
 354 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 355   debug sections.
 356
 357 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 358   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 359
 360 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 361   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 362   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 363   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 364
 365 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 366   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 367
 368 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 369
 370 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 371   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 372
 373 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 374   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 375
 376 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 377   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 378
 379 Changes in 2.16:
 380
 381 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 382
 383 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 384   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 385   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 386   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 387
 388 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 389   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 390   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 391   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 392
 393 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 394   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 395   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 396   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 397   between ARM and THUMB code.
 398
 399 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 400   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 401
 402 Changes in 2.15:
 403
 404 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 405   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 406   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 407   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 408
 409 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 410   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 411
 412 * readelf can now parse archives.
 413
 414 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 415   format compatible with ctags tool.
 416
 417 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 418   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 419   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 420   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 421   debugging info.
 422
 423 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 424   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 425   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 426
 427 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 428   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 429   with the -a switch.
 430
 431 Changes in 2.14:
 432
 433 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 434
 435 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 436
 437 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 438
 439 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 440   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 441
 442 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 443   Parallel C compiler.
 444
 445 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 446   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 447   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 448
 449 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 450
 451 Changes in 2.13:
 452
 453 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 454   and FR500 included.
 455
 456 Changes in version 2.12:
 457
 458 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 459
 460 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 461
 462 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 463   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 464
 465 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 466
 467 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 468
 469 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 470   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 471
 472 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 473   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 474   by Honda Hiroki.
 475
 476 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 477
 478 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 479   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 480   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 481
 482 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 483   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 484   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 485   By Stefan Geuken.
 486
 487 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 488
 489 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 490
 491 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 492   extenstions.
 493
 494 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 495   By Luciano Gemme.
 496
 497 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 498
 499 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 500
 501 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 502
 503 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 504
 505 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 506
 507 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 508   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 509   file.
 510
 511 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 512   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 513   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 514   raw verions.
 515
 516 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 517   with intel syntax.
 518
 519 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 520   regardless of target machine.
 521
 522 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 523   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 524   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 525   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 526
 527 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 528
 529 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 530   sections.
 531
 532 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 533
 534 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 535   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 536
 537 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 538
 539 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 540   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 541
 542 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 543   the VMA of the sections.
 544
 545 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 546
 547 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 548
 549 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 550   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 551   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 552   output.
 553
 554 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 555   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 556   so they must be in canonical form.
 557
 558 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 559   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 560
 561 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 562
 563 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 564
 565 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 566
 567 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 568
 569 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 570
 571 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 572
 573 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 574
 575 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 576
 577 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 578
 579 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 580
 581 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 582
 583 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 584
 585 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 586
 587 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 588
 589 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 590
 591 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 592
 593 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 594
 595 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 596   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 597   generating plain binary files.
 598
 599 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 600
 601 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 602
 603 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 604
 605 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 606   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 607
 608 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 609   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 610
 611 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 612
 613 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 614   executables.
 615
 616 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 617
 618 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 619   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 620
 621 * Support for Irix 5.
 622
 623 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 624   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 625
 626 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 627
 628 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 629   ELF and COFF files.
 630
 631 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 632   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 633
 634 * The strings program has been added.
 635
 636 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 637
 638 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 639   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 640   'cp'.
 641
 642 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 643   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 644   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 645
 646 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 647   the output from BSD nm.
 648
 649 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 650
 651 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 652
 653 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 654
 655 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 656
 657 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 658
 659 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 660
 661 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 662   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 663
 664 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 665   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 666   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 667   for Posix.2 conformance.
 668
 669 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 670   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 671   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 672
 673 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 674   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 675
 676 \f
 677 Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 678
 679 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 680 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 681 notice and this notice are preserved.
 682
 683 Local variables:
 684 fill-column: 79
 685 End: