binutils/NEWS

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