binutils/NEWS

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