gas/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * arm-symbianelf support removed.
   4
   5 * Add support for Realm Management Extension (RME) for AArch64.
   6
   7 Changes in 2.36:
   8
   9 * Add support for Intel AVX VNNI instructions.
  10
  11 * Add support for Intel HRESET instruction.
  12
  13 * Add support for Intel UINTR instructions.
  14
  15 * Support non-absolute segment values for i386 lcall and ljmp.
  16
  17 * When setting the link order attribute of ELF sections, it is now possible to
  18   use a numeric section index instead of symbol name.
  19
  20 * Add support for Cortex-A78, Cortex-A78AE, Cortex-A78C and Cortex-X1 for
  21   AArch64 and ARM.
  22   Add support for Cortex-R82, Neoverse V1, and Neoverse N2 for ARM.
  23
  24 * Add support for ETMv4 (Embedded Trace Macrocell), ETE (Embedded Trace
  25   Extension), TRBE (Trace Buffer Extension)and BRBE (Branch Record Buffer
  26   Extension) system registers for AArch64.
  27
  28 * Add support for Armv8-R and Armv8.7-A AArch64.
  29
  30 * Add support for DSB memory nXS barrier, WFET and WFIT instruction for Armv8.7
  31   AArch64.
  32
  33 * Add support for +flagm feature for -march in Armv8.4 AArch64.
  34
  35 * Add support for +ls64 feature for -march in Armv8.7 AArch64. Add atomic
  36   64-byte load/store instructions for this feature.
  37
  38 * Add support for +pauth (Pointer Authentication) feature for -march in
  39   AArch64.
  40
  41 * Add support for Intel TDX instructions.
  42
  43 * Add support for Intel Key Locker instructions.
  44
  45 * Added a .nop directive to generate a single no-op instruction in a target
  46   neutral manner.  This instruction does have an effect on DWARF line number
  47   generation, if that is active.
  48
  49 * Removed --reduce-memory-overheads and --hash-size as gas now
  50   uses hash tables that can be expand and shrink automatically.
  51
  52 * Add {disp16} pseudo prefix to x86 assembler.
  53
  54 * Add support for Intel AMX instructions.
  55
  56 * Configure with --enable-x86-used-note by default for Linux/x86.
  57
  58 * Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN flag, which can be applied to
  59   sections using the 'R' flag in the .section directive.
  60   SHF_GNU_RETAIN specifies that the section should not be garbage
  61   collected by the linker.  It requires the GNU or FreeBSD ELF OSABIs.
  62
  63 Changes in 2.35:
  64
  65 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
  66
  67 * Extend .symver directive to update visibility of the original symbol
  68   and assign one original symbol to different versioned symbols.
  69
  70 * Add support for Intel SERIALIZE and TSXLDTRK instructions.
  71
  72 * Add -mlfence-after-load=, -mlfence-before-indirect-branch= and
  73   -mlfence-before-ret= options to x86 assembler to help mitigate
  74   CVE-2020-0551.
  75
  76 * Add --gdwarf-5 option to the assembler to generate DWARF 5 debug output
  77   (if such output is being generated).  Added the ability to generate
  78   version 5 .debug_line sections.
  79
  80 * Add -mbig-obj support to i386 MingW targets.
  81
  82 Changes in 2.34:
  83
  84 * Add -malign-branch-boundary=NUM, -malign-branch=TYPE[+TYPE...],
  85   -malign-branch-prefix-size=NUM and -mbranches-within-32B-boundaries
  86   options to x86 assembler to align branches within a fixed boundary
  87   with segment prefixes or NOPs.
  88
  89 * Add support for Zilog eZ80 and Zilog Z180 CPUs.
  90
  91 * Add support for z80-elf target.
  92
  93 * Add support for relocation of each byte or word of multibyte value to Z80
  94   targets (just use right shift to 0, 8, 16, or 24 bits or AND operation
  95   with 0xff/0xffff mask): ld a, label >> 16 \ ld hl, label & 0xffff
  96
  97 * Add SDCC support for Z80 targets.
  98
  99 Changes in 2.33:
 100
 101 * Add support for the Arm Scalable Vector Extension version 2 (SVE2)
 102   instructions.
 103
 104 * Add support for the Arm Transactional Memory Extension (TME)
 105   instructions.
 106
 107 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
 108   instructions.
 109
 110 * For MIPS, Add -m[no-]fix-loongson3-llsc option to fix (or not) Loongson3
 111   LLSC Errata.  Add a --enable-mips-fix-loongson3-llsc=[yes|no] configure
 112   time option to set the default behavior. Set the default if the configure
 113   option is not used to "no".
 114
 115 * Add support for the Arm Cortex-A76AE, Cortex-A77 and Cortex-M35P
 116   processors.
 117
 118 * Add support for the AArch64 Cortex-A34, Cortex-A65, Cortex-A65AE,
 119   Cortex-A76AE, and Cortex-A77 processors.
 120
 121 * Add .float16 directive for both Arm and AArch64 to allow encoding of 16-bit
 122   floating point literals.  Add .float16_format directive and
 123   -mfp16-format=[ieee|alternative] option for Arm to control the format of the
 124   encoding.
 125
 126 * Add --gdwarf-cie-version command line flag.  This allows control over which
 127   version of DWARF CIE the assembler creates.
 128
 129 Changes in 2.32:
 130
 131 * Add -mvexwig=[0|1] option to x86 assembler to control encoding of
 132   VEX.W-ignored (WIG) VEX instructions.
 133
 134 * Add -mx86-used-note=[yes|no] option to generate (or not) x86 GNU property
 135   notes.  Add a --enable-x86-used-note configure time option to set the
 136   default behavior.  Set the default if the configure option is not used
 137   to "no".
 138
 139 * Add support for the MIPS Loongson EXTensions R2 (EXT2) instructions.
 140
 141 * Add support for the MIPS Loongson EXTensions (EXT) instructions.
 142
 143 * Add support for the MIPS Loongson Content Address Memory (CAM) ASE.
 144
 145 * Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
 146
 147 * Add support for the MIPS Loongson MultiMedia extensions Instructions (MMI)
 148   ASE.
 149
 150 Changes in 2.31:
 151
 152 * The ADR and ADRL pseudo-instructions supported by the ARM assembler
 153   now only set the bottom bit of the address of thumb function symbols
 154   if the -mthumb-interwork command line option is active.
 155
 156 * Add support for the MIPS Global INValidate (GINV) ASE.
 157
 158 * Add support for the MIPS Cyclic Redudancy Check (CRC) ASE.
 159
 160 * Add support for the Freescale S12Z architecture.
 161
 162 * Add --generate-missing-build-notes=[yes|no] option to create (or not) GNU
 163   Build Attribute notes if none are present in the input sources.  Add a
 164   --enable-generate-build-notes=[yes|no] configure time option to set the
 165   default behaviour.  Set the default if the configure option is not used
 166   to "no".
 167
 168 * Remove -mold-gcc command-line option for x86 targets.
 169
 170 * Add -O[2|s] command-line options to x86 assembler to enable alternate
 171   shorter instruction encoding.
 172
 173 * Add support for .nops directive.  It is currently supported only for
 174   x86 targets.
 175
 176 Changes in 2.30:
 177
 178 * Add support for loaction views in DWARF debug line information.
 179
 180 Changes in 2.29:
 181
 182 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND.
 183
 184 * Add support for the WebAssembly file format and wasm32 ELF conversion.
 185
 186 * PowerPC gas now checks that the correct register class is used in
 187   instructions.  For instance, "addi %f4,%cr3,%r31" warns three times
 188   that the registers are invalid.
 189
 190 * Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
 191
 192 * Support for the ARMv8-R architecture and Cortex-R52 processor has been
 193   added to the ARM port.
 194
 195 Changes in 2.28:
 196
 197 * Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
 198
 199 * Add support for the ARM Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors.
 200
 201 Changes in 2.27:
 202
 203 * Default to --enable-compressed-debug-sections=gas for Linux/x86 targets.
 204
 205 * Add --no-pad-sections to stop the assembler from padding the end of output
 206   sections up to their alignment boundary.
 207
 208 * Support for the ARMv8-M architecture has been added to the ARM port.  Support
 209   for the ARMv8-M Security and DSP Extensions has also been added to the ARM
 210   port.
 211
 212 * ARC backend accepts .extInstruction, .extCondCode, .extAuxRegister, and
 213   .extCoreRegister pseudo-ops that allow an user to define custom
 214   instructions, conditional codes, auxiliary and core registers.
 215
 216 * Add a configure option --enable-elf-stt-common to decide whether ELF
 217   assembler should generate common symbols with the STT_COMMON type by
 218   default.  Default to no.
 219
 220 * New command-line option --elf-stt-common= for ELF targets to control
 221   whether to generate common symbols with the STT_COMMON type.
 222
 223 * Add ability to set section flags and types via numeric values for ELF
 224   based targets.
 225
 226 * Add a configure option --enable-x86-relax-relocations to decide whether
 227   x86 assembler should generate relax relocations by default.  Default to
 228   yes, except for x86 Solaris targets older than Solaris 12.
 229
 230 * New command-line option -mrelax-relocations= for x86 target to control
 231   whether to generate relax relocations.
 232
 233 * New command-line option -mfence-as-lock-add=yes for x86 target to encode
 234   lfence, mfence and sfence as "lock addl $0x0, (%[re]sp)".
 235
 236 * Add assembly-time relaxation option for ARC cpus.
 237
 238 * Add --with-cpu=TYPE configure option for ARC gas.  This allows the default
 239   cpu type to be adjusted at configure time.
 240
 241 Changes in 2.26:
 242
 243 * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,gas} to
 244   decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
 245
 246 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.  Remove
 247   assembler support for Argonaut RISC architectures.
 248
 249 * Symbol and label names can now be enclosed in double quotes (") which allows
 250   them to contain characters that are not part of valid symbol names in high
 251   level languages.
 252
 253 * Added the correctly spelled -march=armv6kz, for ARMv6KZ support.  The
 254   previous spelling, -march=armv6zk, is still accepted.
 255
 256 * Support for the ARMv8.1 architecture has been added to the Aarch64 port.
 257   Support for the individual ARMv8.1 Adv.SIMD, LOR and PAN architecture
 258   extensions has also been added to the Aarch64 port.
 259
 260 * Support for the ARMv8.1 architecture has been added to the ARM port.  Support
 261   for the individual ARMv8.1 Adv.SIMD and PAN architecture extensions has also
 262   been added to the ARM port.
 263
 264 * Extend --compress-debug-sections option to support
 265   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 266   targets.
 267
 268 * --compress-debug-sections is turned on for Linux/x86 by default.
 269
 270 Changes in 2.25:
 271
 272 * Add support for the AVR Tiny microcontrollers.
 273
 274 * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
 275
 276 * Enhanced the ARM port to accept the assembler output from the CodeComposer
 277   Studio tool.  Support is enabled via the new command-line option -mccs.
 278
 279 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 280
 281 Changes in 2.24:
 282
 283 * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
 284
 285 * Add -gdwarf-sections command-line option to enable per-code-section
 286   generation of DWARF .debug_line sections.
 287
 288 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 289
 290 * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
 291
 292 * Add support for the v850e3v5.
 293
 294 * Remove assembler support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
 295
 296 Changes in 2.23:
 297
 298 * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
 299
 300 * Add support for S12X processor.
 301
 302 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 303
 304 * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
 305
 306 * Add support for .bundle_align_mode, .bundle_lock, and .bundle_unlock
 307   directives.  These are currently available only for x86 and ARM targets.
 308
 309 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 310
 311 * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
 312
 313 * For x86, allow 'rep bsf', 'rep bsr', and 'rep ret' syntax.
 314
 315 Changes in 2.22:
 316
 317 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 318
 319 Changes in 2.21:
 320
 321 * Gas no longer requires doubling of ampersands in macros.
 322
 323 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 324
 325 * GAS now understands an extended syntax in the .section directive flags
 326   for COFF targets that allows the section's alignment to be specified.  This
 327   feature has also been backported to the 2.20 release series, starting with
 328   2.20.1.
 329
 330 * Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
 331
 332 * New command-line option, --compress-debug-sections, which requests
 333   compression of DWARF debug information sections in the relocatable output
 334   file.  Compressed debug sections are supported by readelf, objdump, and
 335   gold, but not currently by Gnu ld.
 336
 337 Changes in 2.20:
 338
 339 * Added support for v850e2 and v850e2v3.
 340
 341 * GNU/Linux targets now supports "gnu_unique_object" as a value in the .type
 342   pseudo op.  It marks the symbol as being globally unique in the entire
 343   process.
 344
 345 * ARM assembler now supports .inst[.nw] pseudo-ops to insert opcodes specified
 346   in binary rather than text.
 347
 348 * Add support for common symbol alignment to PE formats.
 349
 350 * Add support for the new discriminator column in the DWARF line table,
 351   with a discriminator operand for the .loc directive.
 352
 353 * Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
 354
 355 * The .type pseudo-op now accepts a type of STT_GNU_IFUNC which can be used to
 356   indicate that if the symbol is the target of a relocation, its value should
 357   not be use.  Instead the function should be invoked and its result used as
 358   the value.
 359
 360 * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
 361
 362 * Add support for Xilinx MicroBlaze architecture.
 363
 364 Changes in 2.19:
 365
 366 * New pseudo op .cfi_val_encoded_addr, to record constant addresses in unwind
 367   tables without runtime relocation.
 368
 369 * New command-line option, -h-tick-hex, for sh, m32c, and h8/300 targets, which
 370   adds compatibility with H'00 style hex constants.
 371
 372 * New command-line option, -msse-check=[none|error|warning], for x86
 373   targets.
 374
 375 * New sub-option added to the assembler's -a command-line switch to
 376   generate a listing output.  The 'g' sub-option will insert into the listing
 377   various information about the assembly, such as assembler version, the
 378   command-line options used, and a time stamp.
 379
 380 * New command-line option -msse2avx for x86 target to encode SSE
 381   instructions with VEX prefix.
 382
 383 * Add Intel XSAVE, EPT, MOVBE, AES, PCLMUL, AVX/FMA support for x86 target.
 384
 385 * New command-line options, -march=CPU[,+EXTENSION...], -mtune=CPU,
 386   -mmnemonic=[att|intel], -msyntax=[att|intel], -mindex-reg,
 387   -mnaked-reg and -mold-gcc, for x86 targets.
 388
 389 * Support for generating wide character strings has been added via the new
 390   pseudo ops: .string16, .string32 and .string64.
 391
 392 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 393
 394 Changes in 2.18:
 395
 396 * The GAS sources are now released under the GPLv3.
 397
 398 * Support for the National Semiconductor CR16 target has been added.
 399
 400 * Added gas .reloc pseudo.  This is a low-level interface for creating
 401   relocations.
 402
 403 * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
 404
 405 * Add support for Score target.
 406
 407 Changes in 2.17:
 408
 409 * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
 410
 411 * Support for ms2 architecture has been added.
 412
 413 * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
 414
 415 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
 416   switches can be read from <file>.
 417
 418 * The SH target supports a new command-line switch --enable-reg-prefix which,
 419   if enabled, will allow register names to be optionally prefixed with a $
 420   character.  This allows register names to be distinguished from label names.
 421
 422 * Macros with a variable number of arguments are now supported. See the
 423   documentation for how this works.
 424
 425 * Added --reduce-memory-overheads switch to reduce the size of the hash
 426   tables used, at the expense of longer assembly times, and
 427   --hash-size=<NUMBER> to set the size of the hash tables used by gas.
 428
 429 * Macro names and macro parameter names can now be any identifier that would
 430   also be legal as a symbol elsewhere. For macro parameter names, this is
 431   known to cause problems in certain sources when the respective target uses
 432   characters inconsistently, and thus macro parameter references may no longer
 433   be recognized as such (see the documentation for details).
 434
 435 * Support the .f_floating, .d_floating, .g_floating and .h_floating directives
 436   for the VAX target in order to be more compatible with the VAX MACRO
 437   assembler.
 438
 439 * New command-line option -mtune=[itanium1|itanium2] for IA64 targets.
 440
 441 Changes in 2.16:
 442
 443 * Redefinition of macros now results in an error.
 444
 445 * New command-line option -mhint.b=[ok|warning|error] for IA64 targets.
 446
 447 * New command-line option -munwind-check=[warning|error] for IA64
 448   targets.
 449
 450 * The IA64 port now uses automatic dependency violation removal as its default
 451   mode.
 452
 453 * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
 454
 455 * Added support for generating unwind tables for ARM ELF targets.
 456
 457 * Add a -g command-line option to generate debug information in the target's
 458   preferred debug format.
 459
 460 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
 461
 462 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
 463
 464 * Added a pseudo-op (.secrel32) to generate 32 bit section relative relocations
 465   on pe[i]-i386; required for this target's DWARF 2 support.
 466
 467 * Support for Motorola MCF521x/5249/547x/548x added.
 468
 469 * Support for ColdFire EMAC instructions added and Motorola syntax for MAC/EMAC
 470   instrucitons.
 471
 472 * New command-line option -mno-shared for MIPS ELF targets.
 473
 474 * New command-line option --alternate and pseudo-ops .altmacro and .noaltmacro
 475   added to enter (and leave) alternate macro syntax mode.
 476
 477 Changes in 2.15:
 478
 479 * The MIPS -membedded-pic option (Embedded-PIC code generation) is
 480   deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
 481
 482 * Added PIC m32r Linux (ELF) and support to M32R assembler.
 483
 484 * Added support for ARM V6.
 485
 486 * Added support for sh4a and variants.
 487
 488 * Support for Renesas M32R2 added.
 489
 490 * Limited support for Mapping Symbols as specified in the ARM ELF
 491   specification has been added to the arm assembler.
 492
 493 * On ARM architectures, added a new gas directive ".unreq" that undoes
 494   definitions created by ".req".
 495
 496 * Support for Motorola ColdFire MCF528x added.
 497
 498 * Added --gstabs+ switch to enable the generation of STABS debug format
 499   information with GNU extensions.
 500
 501 * Added support for MIPS64 Release 2.
 502
 503 * Added support for v850e1.
 504
 505 * Added -n switch for x86 assembler.  By default, x86 GAS replaces
 506   multiple nop instructions used for alignment within code sections
 507   with multi-byte nop instructions such as leal 0(%esi,1),%esi.  This
 508   switch disables the optimization.
 509
 510 * Removed -n option from MIPS assembler.  It was not useful, and confused the
 511   existing -non_shared option.
 512
 513 Changes in 2.14:
 514
 515 * Added support for MIPS32 Release 2.
 516
 517 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
 518
 519 * Support for Intel's iWMMXt processor (an ARM variant) added.
 520
 521 * An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
 522   uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
 523
 524 * Support for SH2E added.
 525
 526 * GASP has now been removed.
 527
 528 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
 529   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
 530
 531 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
 532
 533 Changes in 2.13:
 534
 535 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 536   and FR500 included.
 537
 538 * Support for DLX processor added.
 539
 540 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  Use
 541   the macro facilities in GAS instead.
 542
 543 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
 544   explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
 545   the currently specified base.
 546
 547 Changes in 2.12:
 548
 549 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 550
 551 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
 552
 553 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
 554   specifying the target instruction set.  The old method of specifying the
 555   target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
 556   compatibility.
 557
 558 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
 559   the ARM assembler.
 560
 561 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
 562   in the assembly.  Contributed by Anders Norlander.
 563
 564 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
 565   but still works for compatability.
 566
 567 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
 568   generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command-line option
 569   -n will turn on the warning.
 570
 571 Changes in 2.11:
 572
 573 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
 574
 575 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
 576
 577 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
 578
 579 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
 580
 581 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
 582
 583 * Support for IA-64.
 584
 585 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 586
 587 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 588
 589 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
 590
 591 * x86 gas -q command-line option quietens warnings about register size changes
 592   due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
 593   translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
 594
 595 Changes in 2.10:
 596
 597 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
 598   operand when altering the flags field.
 599
 600 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
 601
 602 * Support for IBM 370 ELF.  Somewhat experimental.
 603
 604 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
 605
 606 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
 607
 608 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
 609
 610 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
 611
 612 * New --fatal-warnings option.
 613
 614 * picoJava architecture support added.
 615
 616 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
 617
 618 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
 619   assembly programs with intel syntax.
 620
 621 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
 622
 623 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
 624
 625 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
 626
 627 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386.  This change will
 628   produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
 629   of gas accepted.  If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
 630   older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
 631
 632 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
 633
 634 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
 635
 636 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
 637
 638 * i960 ELF support added.
 639
 640 * ARM ELF support added.
 641
 642 Changes in 2.9:
 643
 644 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
 645
 646 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
 647   and gcc 2.8.  The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
 648
 649 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
 650
 651 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
 652   listing.
 653
 654 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
 655
 656 Changes in 2.8:
 657
 658 * BeOS support added.
 659
 660 * MIPS16 support added.
 661
 662 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
 663
 664 * Alpha/VMS support added.
 665
 666 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
 667   --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
 668
 669 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
 670   maximum number of bytes to skip.  If doing the alignment would require
 671   skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
 672   all.
 673
 674 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
 675
 676 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
 677   conditionals in listings.
 678
 679 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
 680   the symbol is already defined.
 681
 682 Changes in 2.7:
 683
 684 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
 685   etc.) if -mregnames is used.  Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
 686   can be used any time.  PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
 687   added.
 688
 689 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
 690
 691 * PowerPC ELF support added.
 692
 693 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
 694
 695 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
 696
 697 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
 698
 699 * SCO ELF support added.  For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
 700   default is to build COFF-only support.  To get a set of tools that generate
 701   ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
 702   target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
 703
 704 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
 705
 706 Changes in 2.6:
 707
 708 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
 709
 710 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode.  Use -M or --mri to select
 711   MRI mode.  The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
 712   ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
 713
 714 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
 715
 716 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
 717
 718 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
 719
 720 Changes in 2.4:
 721
 722 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
 723
 724 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
 725
 726 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
 727   debugging support.
 728
 729 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
 730
 731 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
 732   provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
 733   features not available in the native assembler.  If the native assembler is
 734   used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
 735
 736 * Usage message is available with "--help".
 737
 738 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included.  (Actually, it was in 2.3
 739   also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
 740
 741 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
 742
 743 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
 744   Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
 745
 746 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
 747   Paul Kranenburg.
 748
 749 * Improved Alpha support.  Immediate constants can have a much larger range
 750   now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
 751
 752 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
 753
 754 Changes in 2.3:
 755
 756 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
 757
 758 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
 759
 760 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
 761   based on mail received from various people.  The `-h#' option should work
 762   again too.
 763
 764 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law.  Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
 765   with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6.  As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
 766   version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3.  You can retrieve
 767   this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
 768   in the "dist" directory.
 769
 770 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
 771   simple tests okay.  I haven't put it through extensive testing.  (GNU make is
 772   currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
 773
 774 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format).  The gas support is
 775   based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format.  I'm afraid
 776   the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
 777   making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
 778
 779 * Irix 5 support.
 780
 781 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
 782   couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
 783
 784 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
 785   flexibility in evaluating them in some cases.  Some details of relocation
 786   handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
 787   added, to make the Alpha port easier.
 788
 789 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times.  This is
 790   intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
 791   various phases of compilation.  (You should be able to get all of them
 792   printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
 793
 794 Changes in 2.2:
 795
 796 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
 797
 798 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
 799   have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
 800   gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
 801   impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
 802   reliable.
 803
 804 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
 805   displayed.  This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
 806   messages about "internal errors".
 807
 808 * ELF support is falling into place.  Support for the 386 should be working.
 809   Support for SPARC Solaris is in.  HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
 810
 811 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
 812   boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant.  This permits slightly
 813   more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
 814   known.
 815
 816 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
 817   If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
 818   sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section.  The format of the .stab
 819   section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
 820   its string table.  For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
 821   to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
 822   that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
 823
 824 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported.  SPARC LynxOS
 825   support is in progress.
 826
 827 Changes in 2.1:
 828
 829 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
 830   incorporated, but not well tested yet.
 831
 832 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
 833   with gcc now.
 834
 835 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
 836   suggested by Ronald Cole.
 837
 838 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah.  This
 839   includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
 840   2.x.  Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
 841
 842 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
 843
 844 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
 845
 846 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
 847
 848 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
 849
 850 Changes in 2.0:
 851
 852 * Mostly bug fixes.
 853
 854 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
 855
 856 Changes in 1.94:
 857
 858 * BFD merge is partly done.  Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
 859   "--with-bfd-assembler" option.  Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
 860   format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it.  It's the default only for OS "elf"
 861   or "solaris".  (ELF isn't really supported yet.  It needs work.  I've got
 862   some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
 863   fully merged yet.)
 864
 865 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half.  It should now compile under gcc
 866   without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
 867
 868 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size.  This should result in
 869   saving a little bit of space at runtime.
 870
 871 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in.  The OSF
 872   code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet.  (I can
 873   make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.)  Ralph's code, for BSD
 874   4.4, supports a.out format.  We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
 875   coming.
 876
 877 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
 878
 879 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
 880   Youngdale.
 881
 882 Changes in 1.93.01:
 883
 884 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
 885
 886 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
 887
 888 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names.  For COFF format, which
 889   doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
 890   can be distinguished from the register.
 891
 892 * Last public release was 1.38.  Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
 893   of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
 894
 895 \f
 896 Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 897
 898 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 899 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 900 notice and this notice are preserved.
 901
 902 Local variables:
 903 fill-column: 79
 904 End: