binutils/NEWS

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