binutils/NEWS

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