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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / binutils / NEWS
1 -*- text -*-
2
3 Changes in 2.37:
4
5 * The readelf tool has a new command line option which can be used to specify
6 how the numeric values of symbols are reported. --sym-base=0|8|10|16 tells
7 readelf to display the values in base 8, base 10 or base 16. A sym base of 0
8 represents the default action of displaying values under 10000 in base 10 and
9 values above that in base 16.
10
11 * Binutils now requires a C99 compiler and library to build.
12
13 * A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
14 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
15 display symbol names and nothing else.
16
17 * A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
18 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
19 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
20 other tools.
21
22 * objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
23 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
24
25 * Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
26 sections.
27
28 * Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
29 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
30 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
31 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
32 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
33 option.
34
35 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
36 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
37 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
38 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
39 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
40
41 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
42 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
43 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
44 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
45
46 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
47 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
48 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
49 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
50 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
51 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
52 separate debuginfo files.
53
54 * Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
55 diagnostic.
56
57 Changes in 2.36:
58
59 * Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
60
61 * Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
62 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
63 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
64 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
65
66 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
67 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
68 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
69
70 * The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
71 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
72 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
73 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
74
75 * Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
76 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
77
78 * Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
79 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
80 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
81
82 * Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
83 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
84 linker.
85
86 Changes in 2.35:
87
88 * Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
89 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
90 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
91 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
92 -T or --silent-truncation options.
93
94 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
95
96 * The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
97 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
98 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
99 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
100 was expecting them to actually contain something.
101
102 Changes in 2.34:
103
104 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
105 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
106 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
107 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
108 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
109 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
110 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
111 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
112
113 * Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
114 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
115
116 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
117 specified section from being removed.
118
119 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
120 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
121 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
122 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
123
124 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
125 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
126 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
127 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
128 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
129 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
130 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
131 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
132 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
133 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
134
135 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
136 output.
137
138 Changes in 2.33:
139
140 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
141 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
142
143 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
144 the changing of section alignments.
145
146 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
147 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
148
149 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
150 instructions.
151
152 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
153 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
154 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
155 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
156 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
157
158 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
159 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
160 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
161 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
162 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
163 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
164
165 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
166 to objdump and readelf.
167
168 Changes in 2.32:
169
170 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
171 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
172 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
173 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
174 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
175
176 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
177 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
178 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
179 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
180
181 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
182 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
183 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
184
185 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
186 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
187 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
188 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
189
190 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
191 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
192 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
193 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
194
195 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
196 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
197 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
198 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
199 compatibility.
200
201 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
202 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
203 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
204 Additionally the total is only included once.
205
206 Changes in 2.31:
207
208 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
209
210 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
211 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
212 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
213 to objdump.
214
215 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
216 a named register could be invalid.
217
218 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
219
220 Changes in 2.30:
221
222 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
223 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
224 sections.
225
226 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
227 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
228 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
229
230 Changes in 2.29:
231
232 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
233 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
234
235 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
236 disassembly.
237
238 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
239 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
240 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
241
242 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
243 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
244
245 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
246
247 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
248
249 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
250
251 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
252 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
253
254 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
255 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
256
257 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
258 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
259 the original file.
260
261 Changes in 2.28:
262
263 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
264 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
265 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
266 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
267 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
268 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
269 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
270 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
271 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
272 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
273 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
274 with the instructions being relocated.
275
276 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
277 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
278 symbol's name.
279
280 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
281 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
282
283 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
284 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
285 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
286 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
287
288 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
289 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
290 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
291 an earlier --only-section pattern.
292
293 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
294 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
295 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
296 the relocation section itself.
297
298 Changes in 2.27:
299
300 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
301 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
302
303 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
304 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
305
306 Changes in 2.26:
307
308 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
309 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
310
311 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
312
313 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
314 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
315 targets.
316
317 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
318
319 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
320
321 Changes in 2.25:
322
323 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
324 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
325 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
326 default behaviour.
327
328 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
329
330 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
331
332 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
333
334 Changes in 2.24:
335
336 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
337 section names.
338
339 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
340
341 Changes in 2.23:
342
343 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
344
345 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
346
347 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
348
349 Changes in 2.22:
350
351 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
352
353 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
354 passed to preprocessor.
355
356 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
357 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
358
359 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
360
361 changes in 2.21:
362
363 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
364 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
365
366 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
367
368 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
369 the -u / --unwind option.
370
371 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
372
373 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
374 binaries.
375
376 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
377 '== <ID>' option.
378
379 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
380 address before function name or source filename.
381
382 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
383 a more human readable output.
384
385 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
386
387 Changes in 2.20:
388
389 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
390 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
391 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
392 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
393 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
394
395 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
396 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
397 instructions.
398
399 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
400 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
401
402 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
403 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
404 file.
405
406 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
407 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
408
409 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
410 for objcopy.
411
412 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
413 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
414 set PE optional header.
415
416 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
417
418 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
419 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
420 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
421 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
422
423 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
424 add absolute paths for -S.
425
426 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
427 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
428
429 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
430 report an error when the import library is associated with
431 multiple DLLs.
432
433 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
434 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
435
436 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
437 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
438 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
439
440 Changes in 2.19:
441
442 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
443
444 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
445 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
446 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
447 added to the archive.
448
449 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
450
451 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
452
453 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
454
455 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
456
457 Changes in 2.18:
458
459 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
460 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
461 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
462
463 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
464 Public License.
465
466 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
467 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
468
469 * Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
470 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
471 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
472 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
473 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
474 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
475
476 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
477 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
478 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
479 to some OSes.
480
481 Changes in 2.17:
482
483 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
484
485 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
486 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
487 of types.
488
489 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
490 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
491
492 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
493 debug sections.
494
495 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
496 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
497
498 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
499 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
500 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
501 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
502
503 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
504 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
505
506 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
507
508 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
509 when disassembling VAX binaries.
510
511 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
512 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
513
514 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
515 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
516
517 Changes in 2.16:
518
519 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
520
521 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
522 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
523 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
524 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
525
526 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
527 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
528 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
529 the contents of the .debug_range section.
530
531 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
532 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
533 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
534 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
535 between ARM and THUMB code.
536
537 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
538 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
539
540 Changes in 2.15:
541
542 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
543 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
544 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
545 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
546
547 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
548 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
549
550 * readelf can now parse archives.
551
552 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
553 format compatible with ctags tool.
554
555 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
556 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
557 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
558 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
559 debugging info.
560
561 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
562 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
563 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
564
565 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
566 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
567 with the -a switch.
568
569 Changes in 2.14:
570
571 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
572
573 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
574
575 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
576
577 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
578 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
579
580 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
581 Parallel C compiler.
582
583 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
584 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
585 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
586
587 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
588
589 Changes in 2.13:
590
591 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
592 and FR500 included.
593
594 Changes in version 2.12:
595
596 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
597
598 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
599
600 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
601 lines to fit into 80 columns.
602
603 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
604
605 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
606
607 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
608 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
609
610 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
611 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
612 by Honda Hiroki.
613
614 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
615
616 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
617 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
618 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
619
620 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
621 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
622 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
623 By Stefan Geuken.
624
625 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
626
627 Changes in binutils 2.11:
628
629 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
630 extenstions.
631
632 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
633 By Luciano Gemme.
634
635 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
636
637 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
638
639 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
640
641 Changes in binutils 2.10:
642
643 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
644
645 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
646 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
647 file.
648
649 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
650 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
651 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
652 raw verions.
653
654 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
655 with intel syntax.
656
657 * New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
658 regardless of target machine.
659
660 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
661 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
662 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
663 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
664
665 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
666
667 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
668 sections.
669
670 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
671
672 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
673 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
674
675 Changes in binutils 2.9:
676
677 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
678 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
679
680 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
681 the VMA of the sections.
682
683 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
684
685 Changes in binutils 2.8:
686
687 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
688 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
689 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
690 output.
691
692 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
693 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
694 so they must be in canonical form.
695
696 * Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
697 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
698
699 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
700
701 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
702
703 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
704
705 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
706
707 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
708
709 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
710
711 Changes in binutils 2.7:
712
713 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
714
715 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
716
717 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
718
719 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
720
721 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
722
723 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
724
725 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
726
727 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
728
729 Changes in binutils 2.6:
730
731 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
732
733 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
734 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
735 generating plain binary files.
736
737 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
738
739 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
740
741 Changes in binutils 2.5:
742
743 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
744 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
745
746 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
747 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
748
749 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
750
751 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
752 executables.
753
754 Changes in binutils 2.4:
755
756 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
757 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
758
759 * Support for Irix 5.
760
761 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
762 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
763
764 Changes in binutils 2.3:
765
766 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
767 ELF and COFF files.
768
769 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
770 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
771
772 * The strings program has been added.
773
774 Changes in binutils 2.2:
775
776 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
777 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
778 'cp'.
779
780 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
781 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
782 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
783
784 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
785 the output from BSD nm.
786
787 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
788
789 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
790
791 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
792
793 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
794
795 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
796
797 Changes in binutils 2.1:
798
799 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
800 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
801
802 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
803 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
804 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
805 for Posix.2 conformance.
806
807 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
808 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
809 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
810
811 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
812 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
813
814 \f
815 Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
816
817 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
818 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
819 notice and this notice are preserved.
820
821 Local variables:
822 fill-column: 79
823 End:
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