binutils/NEWS

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