binutils/NEWS

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