ld/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
   4
   5 * When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
   6   change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
   7
   8 Changes in 2.28:
   9
  10 * The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
  11   section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
  12   the list.
  13
  14 * Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
  15
  16 * The command line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
  17   linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
  18
  19 * Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
  20   Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
  21   by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have.  As such,
  22   --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
  23
  24 * Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
  25   targets, to any ELF based target.  This allows the generation of an import
  26   library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
  27   to link against the executable.
  28
  29 Changes in 2.27:
  30
  31 * Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
  32   be enabled in ELF linker by default.  Default to yes for all Linux
  33   targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS.
  34
  35 * Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
  36   relocation overflow check.
  37
  38 * Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
  39   convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
  40
  41 * Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
  42   avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
  43
  44 * The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
  45
  46 * Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
  47   values for dynamic relocations.
  48
  49 Changes in 2.26:
  50
  51 * Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
  52   workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
  53   the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
  54
  55 * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
  56   decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
  57
  58 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  59
  60 * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
  61   has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
  62
  63 * New command line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
  64   sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
  65
  66 * New command line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
  67   adjust how orphan sections are handled.  The default is 'place' which gives
  68   the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
  69   respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
  70   orphan sections.
  71
  72 * Add support for LLVM plugin.
  73
  74 * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
  75
  76 * Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
  77   must be defined by the end of the link.
  78
  79 Changes in 2.25:
  80
  81 * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default.  To disable
  82   the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
  83   command line option.
  84
  85 * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
  86
  87 * Add support for the --build-id command line option to COFF based targets.
  88
  89 * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
  90
  91 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  92
  93 Changes in 2.24:
  94
  95 * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
  96
  97 * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
  98
  99 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 100
 101 * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
 102
 103 * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
 104
 105 * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
 106
 107 * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
 108
 109 * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
 110   an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
 111
 112 Changes in 2.23:
 113
 114 * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
 115
 116 * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
 117
 118 * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
 119
 120 * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
 121   to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
 122   program's memory image.
 123
 124 * Add support for S12X processor.
 125
 126 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 127
 128 * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
 129
 130 * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
 131
 132 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 133
 134 * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
 135
 136 Changes in 2.22:
 137
 138 * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default.  Instead
 139   --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
 140
 141 * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
 142   to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
 143
 144 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 145
 146 * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
 147   sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
 148   encoded in the section name.
 149
 150 Changes in 2.21:
 151
 152 * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane.  This may
 153   break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
 154
 155 * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets.  For old behavior the
 156   option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
 157   bfd.
 158
 159 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 160
 161 * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
 162   with --as-needed option.
 163
 164 * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
 165   to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
 166
 167 * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers.  This prevents all
 168   symbols from automatically being exported.
 169
 170 * Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
 171
 172 * Add support for alpha-vms target.
 173
 174 Changes in 2.20:
 175
 176 * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding.  This is a
 177   GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings.  The binding will
 178   be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
 179   process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
 180
 181 * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
 182   common symbols to be specified.  This support uses custom options in
 183   the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
 184
 185 * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
 186   are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
 187   are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
 188
 189 * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
 190   --export-dynamic options.
 191
 192 * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
 193   ELF machine code.
 194
 195 * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
 196
 197 * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
 198   the COFF format when generating executable images, by default.  The old
 199   (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
 200   new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option.  It is also enabled
 201   automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
 202   needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
 203
 204 * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
 205   made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
 206   the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
 207
 208 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 209   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 210   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 211   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 212
 213 * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
 214   to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
 215
 216 * Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
 217
 218 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
 219   allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 220
 221 * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
 222   allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
 223   and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
 224
 225 * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
 226
 227 * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
 228   for Embedded-PIC code) option.
 229
 230 * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
 231   pseudo-relocations.  They can be selected by the switches
 232   --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
 233   For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
 234   runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
 235
 236 Changes in 2.19:
 237
 238 * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
 239   augment the default script.
 240
 241 * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
 242   archive by writing "archive:file".
 243
 244 * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
 245   direction of sorting.
 246
 247 * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
 248   the --got=<type> command line option.
 249
 250 * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
 251   that are too far away.  The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
 252   linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N.
 253
 254 Changes in 2.18:
 255
 256 * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
 257   License.
 258
 259 * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
 260   embedded in a note section.
 261
 262 * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
 263
 264 * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
 265   without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
 266
 267 * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
 268   which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
 269   script.
 270
 271 * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
 272   operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
 273   builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
 274   dynamic list.
 275
 276 * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
 277
 278 * Add support for Score target.
 279
 280 * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
 281   whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
 282   shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
 283   symbol table in the executable.
 284
 285 * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
 286   being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
 287   the previous output section in the same region.  This is a more useful
 288   default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
 289   differing from the VMA for some sections.
 290
 291 * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
 292   collection.
 293
 294 * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
 295   VFP11 coprocessors.
 296
 297 Changes in 2.17:
 298
 299 * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
 300
 301 * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
 302   Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
 303   searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
 304   Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
 305
 306 * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
 307   passed directly to ld.
 308
 309 * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
 310
 311 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
 312   switches can be read from <file>.
 313
 314 Changes in 2.16:
 315
 316 * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
 317   specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
 318
 319 * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
 320   for input files listed inside of it.
 321
 322 * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
 323   default sysroot location.  It only applies to toolchains that were
 324   configured using --with-sysroot.
 325
 326 * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
 327   about a specified memory region.
 328
 329 * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
 330
 331 * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
 332   override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
 333
 334 * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
 335   object.
 336
 337 * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
 338   language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
 339   maximum alignment.
 340
 341 * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
 342   to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
 343
 344 * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
 345   should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
 346
 347 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
 348
 349 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
 350
 351 * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table
 352   size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument.  This switch
 353   is --hash-size=<NUMBER>.  Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
 354   used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
 355   to 1021.
 356
 357 * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
 358   that are defined in each section.  This uses about 40% more memory for
 359   symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm.  You can use the new
 360   --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
 361   might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
 362
 363 Changes in 2.15:
 364
 365 * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
 366   be added only when a shared library is referenced.
 367
 368 * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
 369   addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
 370
 371 * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
 372
 373 * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
 374   is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
 375
 376 * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
 377   Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
 378
 379 * cr16c support added by NSC.
 380
 381 * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
 382
 383 * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols.  The switch
 384   --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
 385   should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
 386   make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
 387
 388 Changes in 2.14:
 389
 390 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
 391
 392 * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
 393   linking against a target filesystem image.
 394
 395 * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
 396   2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
 397   file format.
 398
 399 * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
 400
 401 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
 402   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
 403
 404 * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
 405   LIB_PATH.
 406
 407 * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
 408
 409 * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
 410
 411 Changes in 2.13:
 412
 413 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 414   and FR500 included.
 415
 416 Changes in version 2.13:
 417
 418 * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
 419
 420 Changes in version 2.12:
 421
 422 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 423
 424 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
 425
 426 * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
 427   production of copy relocs.  Warning: using this option may result in
 428   non-sharable applications.
 429
 430 * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
 431   relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
 432   can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
 433
 434 * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
 435
 436 Changes in version 2.11:
 437
 438 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
 439
 440 * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
 441   having the compiler generate the information in sections called
 442   .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents.  The
 443   linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
 444   section.
 445
 446 * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
 447   DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
 448
 449 * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
 450
 451 * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
 452   specified section.
 453
 454 * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
 455   enabled by --emit-relocs.  Some post-linkage optimization tools need
 456   this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
 457   symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
 458   (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
 459
 460 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
 461
 462 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 463
 464 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
 465
 466 Changes in version 2.10:
 467
 468 * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
 469   sections into regions.
 470
 471 * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
 472   It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
 473   arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
 474   mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
 475   Others will ignore the option.
 476
 477 * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
 478   name or section name.
 479
 480 * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
 481   command-line option.
 482
 483 * Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
 484
 485 * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
 486   wildcard file names.
 487
 488 * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
 489   affects ELF shared library generation).
 490
 491 * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
 492
 493 * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
 494   shared library.
 495
 496 * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
 497   using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
 498   behaviour.
 499
 500 * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
 501
 502 Changes in version 2.9:
 503
 504 * Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
 505
 506 * New option --no-warn-mismatch.
 507
 508 * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
 509   are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
 510
 511 Changes in version 2.8:
 512
 513 * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
 514   names.
 515
 516 * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
 517
 518 * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
 519
 520 * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
 521
 522 * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
 523
 524 * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
 525
 526 * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
 527   changes due to alignment of an input section.
 528
 529 * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
 530
 531 Changes in version 2.7:
 532
 533 * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
 534
 535 * New option --wrap SYMBOL.
 536
 537 * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
 538
 539 * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
 540   are not included in the output file.
 541
 542 * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
 543   the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types.  This reduces the amount of debugging
 544   information generated.
 545
 546 Changes in version 2.6:
 547
 548 * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
 549 of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
 550 __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
 551 beginning and the end of the section.  This is used by glibc.
 552
 553   Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
 554 and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature:  The
 555 symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
 556 sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
 557
 558 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
 559 contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
 560 not copied into the output file.  This is used by glibc.
 561
 562 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
 563 file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
 564 the section are displayed as an error message.  The section is not copied into
 565 the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link.  This is used by
 566 glibc.
 567
 568 * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
 569
 570 * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS.  It can
 571 also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
 572 will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
 573 nor the -r option was used.
 574
 575 * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
 576 searched at run time.  This overrides the default of building the list from the
 577 -L options.
 578
 579 * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
 580 enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
 581 only be defined once in the output file.  The --traditional-format switch will
 582 prevent this optimization.
 583
 584 Changes in version 2.5:
 585
 586 * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries.  It still can
 587 not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
 588 generate shared libraries.
 589
 590 * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
 591 (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris).  It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
 592 used to generate shared libraries.  Shared library generation is not well
 593 tested; please report any problems encountered.  The linker is now enabled for
 594 Solaris again.
 595
 596 * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
 597 Linux a.out shared libraries.  The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
 598
 599 * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  To use the new
 600 ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So far,
 601 this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
 602 5), and HPPA ELF targets.
 603
 604 * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
 605 support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
 606 This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
 607
 608 * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
 609 it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
 610 file.  A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
 611 default linker script.
 612
 613 * The -warn-once option was added.  It causes the linker to only warn once per
 614 undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
 615
 616 * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  As with ELF, to
 617 use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So
 618 far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
 619
 620 * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility.  The old -V
 621 behaviour is available via --verbose.
 622
 623 Changes in version 2.4:
 624
 625 * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor.  For a.out and ecoff
 626   formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
 627   and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
 628   before for formats not converted yet.
 629
 630 * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex.  This means
 631   oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
 632   separators.
 633
 634 * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law.  (No SOM support yet.)
 635
 636 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
 637
 638 * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
 639   libraries are not yet supported).
 640
 641 * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
 642
 643 * The linker is disabled for Solaris.  (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
 644   forgot to note it.)  Some of their C library routines don't work when
 645   statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
 646
 647 Changes in version 2.3:
 648
 649 * Weak symbols are now supported.
 650
 651 * ELF support has been added.  The linker has been bootstrapped on
 652   UnixWare and Solaris.
 653
 654 * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
 655
 656 Changes in version 2.2:
 657
 658 * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
 659   table size.  The effect of this is that files linked from many input
 660   files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
 661   static symbols) should be much smaller.
 662
 663 Changes in version 2.1:
 664
 665 * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
 666
 667 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
 668   other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
 669
 670 \f
 671 Copyright (C) 2012-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 672
 673 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 674 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 675 notice and this notice are preserved.
 676
 677 Local variables:
 678 fill-column: 79
 679 End: