Change version to 2.32.51 and regenerate configure and pot files.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS
CommitLineData
252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
f48dfe41
NC
3Changes in 2.32:
4
d2ef37eb
L
5* Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties.
6
b8891f8d
AJ
7* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
8
719d8288
NC
9Changes in 2.31:
10
142b7a14
EB
11* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
12
f6aec96d
L
13* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
14 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
15 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
16 disk and memory size.
17
9176ac5b
NC
18Changes in 2.30:
19
47acac12
L
20* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
21
a05a5b64 22* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 23
a05a5b64 24* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 25 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 26 supports this functionality.
7feec526 27
2b94abd4
AB
28* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
29 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
30 previously be accepted but had no effect.
31
32* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
33 within input section lists.
34
55a09eb6
TG
35Changes in 2.29:
36
48580982
L
37* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
38 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
39
40* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
41 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
42
ee2fdd6f 43* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 44 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
ee2fdd6f
L
45
46* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
47 PLT.
48
49* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
50 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
51 properties.
52
a91e1603
L
53* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
54
46bed679
L
55* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
56
0220170b
DD
57* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
58
d7488716
AB
59* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
60 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
61
77f5e65e
AB
62* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
63 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
64
14ea2c1b
AB
65* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
66 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
67
7bdf4127
AB
68* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
69 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
70 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
71 linker script.
72
9703a4ef
TG
73Changes in 2.28:
74
8f1732fc
AB
75* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
76 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
77 the list.
78
e23eba97 79* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 80
a05a5b64 81* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
29063f8b
NC
82 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
83
0955507f
TP
84* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
85 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
86 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
87 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
88
76359541
TP
89* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
90 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
91 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
92 to link against the executable.
93
96a84ea3
TG
94Changes in 2.27:
95
647e4d46
L
96* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
97 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
9194f82d
AM
98 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
99 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 100
4c10bbaa
L
101* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
102 relocation overflow check.
103
b8871f35
L
104* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
105 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
106
aec6b87e
L
107* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
108 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
109
cdf96953
MF
110* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
111
1f56df9d
JW
112* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
113 values for dynamic relocations.
114
7feec526
TG
115Changes in 2.26:
116
a504d23a
LA
117* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
118 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
119 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 120
6c3bc0f8
NC
121* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
122 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
123
886a2506
NC
124* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
125
0f088b2a
KT
126* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
127 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
128
a05a5b64 129* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
ea556d25
L
130 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
131
a05a5b64 132* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
c005eb9e
AB
133 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
134 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
135 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
136 orphan sections.
3ea60775 137
b0619670
L
138* Add support for LLVM plugin.
139
3604cb1f
TG
140* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
141
0a618243
AB
142* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
143 must be defined by the end of the link.
144
c50415e2
TG
145Changes in 2.25:
146
eeb14e5a
LZ
147* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
148 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 149 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 150
73589c9d
CS
151* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
152
a05a5b64 153* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
61e2488c
JT
154
155* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
156
35c08157
KLC
157* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
158
58ca03a2
TG
159Changes in 2.24:
160
2e53f7d6
NC
161* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
162
13761a11
NC
163* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
164
36591ba1
SL
165* Add support for Altera Nios II.
166
78c8d46c
NC
167* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
168
a3c62988
NC
169* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
170
b1b00fcc
MF
171* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
172
e8044f35
RS
173* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
174
1eec346e
NC
175* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
176 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
177
af18cb59
TG
178Changes in 2.23:
179
8d55a8a0
KT
180* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
181
da2bb560
NC
182* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
183
eda680f8
L
184* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
185
62655c7b
RM
186* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
187 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
188 program's memory image.
189
6927f982
NC
190* Add support for S12X processor.
191
b9c361e0
JL
192* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
193
f6c1a2d5
NC
194* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
195
a72173de
TG
196* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
197
99c513f6
DD
198* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
199
cfb8c092
NC
200* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
201
a7142d94
TG
202Changes in 2.22:
203
d064f206
NC
204* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
205 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
206
ae17ab41 207* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 208 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 209
69f56ae1 210* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 211
02ecc8e9 212* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
cfb8c092
NC
213 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
214 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 215
44f45767
TG
216Changes in 2.21:
217
5fec8599
L
218* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
219 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
220
17f73277
KT
221* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
222 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
223 bfd.
224
40b36596
JM
225* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
226
ddbb8a31
NC
227* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
228 with --as-needed option.
229
7fcab871
KT
230* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
231 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
232
a72173de 233* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
2927aaca
NC
234 symbols from automatically being exported.
235
c7927a3c
NC
236* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
237
75875724
TG
238* Add support for alpha-vms target.
239
81c23f82
TG
240Changes in 2.20:
241
3e7a7d11
NC
242* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
243 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
244 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
245 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 246
c1711530
DK
247* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
248 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
249 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
250
09e2aba4
DK
251* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
252 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
253 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
254
267e2722
CD
255* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
256 --export-dynamic options.
257
a0c402a5
L
258* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
259 ELF machine code.
260
4a93e180
NC
261* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
262
88183869
DK
263* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
264 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
265 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
3efd345c
DK
266 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
267 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
268 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 269
d8045f23
NC
270* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
271 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
272 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
273
28024d9d
L
274* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
275 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
276 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
277 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
278
a05a5b64 279* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
258795f5
L
280 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
281
c3b7224a
NC
282* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
283
ce11ba6c
KT
284* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
285 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
286
e1c37eb5
DK
287* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
288 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
289 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
290
84e94c90
NC
291* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
292
62655c7b 293* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
7251ccbf
SR
294 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
295
6cb442d3
KT
296* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
297 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
298 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
299 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
300 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
301
6e33da12
TG
302Changes in 2.19:
303
66c103b7
AM
304* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
305 augment the default script.
306
967928e9 307* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 308 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 309
de7dd2bd
NC
310* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
311 direction of sorting.
312
7fb9f789 313* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 314 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 315
66c103b7
AM
316* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
317 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 318 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 319
7c3d153f
NC
320Changes in 2.18:
321
f96b4a7b
NC
322* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
323 License.
324
c0065db7
RM
325* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
326 embedded in a note section.
327
3d3d428f 328* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 329
bcb674cf
RS
330* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
331 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
332
a05a5b64 333* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
14be8564
L
334 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
335 script.
336
40b36307
L
337* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
338 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
339 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
340 dynamic list.
341
99ad8390
NC
342* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
343
1c0d3aa6
NC
344* Add support for Score target.
345
55255dae
L
346* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
347 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
348 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
349 symbol table in the executable.
350
dc0b6aa0
AM
351* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
352 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
353 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
354 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
355 differing from the VMA for some sections.
356
c17d87de
NC
357* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
358 collection.
359
c6dd86c6 360* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 361 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 362
c17d87de 363Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 364
d70c5fc7
NC
365* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
366
dfcffada
AM
367* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
368 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
369 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
370 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 371
4b5bd4e7
DS
372* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
373 passed directly to ld.
374
3c9b82ba
NC
375* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
376
3e8a519c
MM
377* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
378 switches can be read from <file>.
379
957d91c1
NC
380Changes in 2.16:
381
319850b4
JB
382* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
383 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
384
b717d30e
JJ
385* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
386 for input files listed inside of it.
387
e2243057
RS
388* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
389 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
390 configured using --with-sysroot.
391
3ec57632
NC
392* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
393 about a specified memory region.
394
7499d566
NC
395* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
396
ba916c8a
MM
397* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
398 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
399
8fdd7217
NC
400* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
401 object.
402
bcaa7b3e
L
403* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
404 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
405 maximum alignment.
406
a05a5b64 407* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
bcaa7b3e
L
408 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
409
8fdd7217
NC
410* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
411 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 412
1fe1f39c
NC
413* Support for the crx-elf target added.
414
1a320fbb 415* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 416
a05a5b64 417* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
2d643429
NC
418 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
419 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
420 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
421 to 1021.
422
35835446
JR
423* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
424 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
425 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
426 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
427 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
428
2d643429 429Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 430
8fdd7217
NC
431* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
432 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 433
8fdd7217 434* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
26d2d8a2
BF
435 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
436
1b169501
BF
437* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
438
c894ddfb
HPN
439* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
440 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
441
7a7f4e42
CD
442* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
443 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
444
0949843d
NC
445* cr16c support added by NSC.
446
6edf0760
NC
447* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
448
560e09e9
NC
449* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
450 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
451 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
452 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
453
43c58ae6
CD
454Changes in 2.14:
455
e8fd7476
NC
456* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
457
9c8ebd6a
DJ
458* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
459 linking against a target filesystem image.
460
312b768e
NC
461* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
462 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
463 file format.
464
63fd3b82
NC
465* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
466
004d9caf
NC
467* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
468 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 469
8e523c23
NC
470* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
471 LIB_PATH.
472
7e392df6
NC
473* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
474
cf88bb9f
NC
475* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
476
2cbb2eef
NC
477Changes in 2.13:
478
479* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
480 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 481
37020578
JT
482Changes in version 2.13:
483
484* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
485
9a66911f
NC
486Changes in version 2.12:
487
49fda6c8
HPN
488* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
489
3b16e843
NC
490* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
491
8bd621d8
AM
492* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
493 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
494 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 495
db6751f2
JJ
496* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
497 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
498 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
499
500* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
501
9a66911f
NC
502Changes in version 2.11:
503
b8355149
JH
504* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
505
18e03609
NC
506* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
507 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
508 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
509 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
510 section.
252b5132 511
ec4eb78a
L
512* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
513 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
514
2d30b3da
TW
515* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
516
a05a5b64 517* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 518 specified section.
176355da 519
a712da20
NC
520* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
521 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
522 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
523 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
524 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
525
22b36938
JE
526* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
527
5bcac8a4
HPN
528* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
529
500800ca
NC
530* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
531
919e4093
AM
532Changes in version 2.10:
533
c0065db7 534* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
5948916f
TW
535 sections into regions.
536
c0065db7 537* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 538 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
4667035e
AM
539 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
540 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 541 Others will ignore the option.
252b5132
RH
542
543* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
544 name or section name.
545
546* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
547 command-line option.
548
549* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
550
277c9afe
ILT
551* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
552 wildcard file names.
553
252b5132 554* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 555 affects ELF shared library generation).
252b5132
RH
556
557* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
558
2575273d
ILT
559* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
560 shared library.
561
9b1d3b78
ILT
562* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
563 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
564 behaviour.
565
252b5132
RH
566* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
567
568Changes in version 2.9:
569
570* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
571
572* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
573
574* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
575 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
576
577Changes in version 2.8:
578
579* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
580 names.
581
582* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
583
584* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
585
586* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
587
588* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
589
590* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
591
592* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
593 changes due to alignment of an input section.
594
595* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
596
597Changes in version 2.7:
598
599* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
600
601* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
602
603* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
604
605* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
606 are not included in the output file.
607
608* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
609 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
610 information generated.
611
612Changes in version 2.6:
613
614* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
45f111cc
NC
615of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
616__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
617beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
618
619 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
620and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
621symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
622sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
252b5132
RH
623
624* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
625contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
626not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
627
628* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
629file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
630the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 631the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
252b5132
RH
632glibc.
633
634* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
635
636* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
637also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
638will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
639nor the -r option was used.
640
641* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
642searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
643-L options.
644
645* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
646enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
647only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
648prevent this optimization.
649
650Changes in version 2.5:
651
652* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
653not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 654generate shared libraries.
252b5132
RH
655
656* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
657(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
658used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
659tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
660Solaris again.
661
662* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
663Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
664
665* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
666ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
667this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
6685), and HPPA ELF targets.
669
670* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
671support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
672This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
673
674* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
675it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
676file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
677default linker script.
678
679* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
680undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
681
682* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
683use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
684far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
685
686* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
687behaviour is available via --verbose.
688
689Changes in version 2.4:
690
691* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
692 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
693 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
694 before for formats not converted yet.
695
696* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
697 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
698 separators.
699
700* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
701
702* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
703
704* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
705 libraries are not yet supported).
706
707* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
708
709* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
710 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
711 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
712
713Changes in version 2.3:
714
715* Weak symbols are now supported.
716
717* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
718 UnixWare and Solaris.
719
720* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
721
722Changes in version 2.2:
723
724* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
725 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
726 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
727 static symbols) should be much smaller.
728
729Changes in version 2.1:
730
731* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
732
733* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
734 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
735
736\f
82704155 737Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5bf135a7
NC
738
739Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
740are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
741notice and this notice are preserved.
742
252b5132
RH
743Local variables:
744fill-column: 79
745End:
This page took 0.827738 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.