binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
   4   ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
   5   debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
   6   servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
   7   To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
   8   This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
   9   is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
  10   information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
  11
  12 * Add --output option to the "ar" program.  This option can be used to specify
  13   the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
  14
  15 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip.  This option keeps the
  16   specified section from being removed.
  17
  18 Changes in 2.33:
  19
  20 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
  21   provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
  22
  23 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
  24   the changing of section alignments.
  25
  26 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
  27   width of data elements in verilog hex format.
  28
  29 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
  30   instructions.
  31
  32 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
  33   and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
  34   --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
  35   more than one are present in a file.  (This usually happens when gcc's
  36   -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
  37
  38   In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
  39   display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
  40   cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
  41   displayed.  In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
  42   follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
  43   files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
  44
  45  * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
  46    to objdump and readelf.
  47
  48 Changes in 2.32:
  49
  50 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
  51   maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
  52   The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
  53   constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file.  At the time
  54   of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
  55
  56   The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
  57   the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools.  This may be needed in
  58   order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
  59   vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
  60
  61 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
  62   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
  63   symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
  64
  65 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
  66   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
  67   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
  68   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
  69
  70 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
  71   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
  72   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
  73   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
  74
  75 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
  76   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
  77   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
  78   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
  79   compatibility.
  80
  81 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'.  The
  82   results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
  83   except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
  84   Additionally the total is only included once.
  85
  86 Changes in 2.31:
  87
  88 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
  89
  90 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
  91   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
  92   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
  93   to objdump.
  94
  95 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
  96   a named register could be invalid.
  97
  98 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
  99
 100 Changes in 2.30:
 101
 102 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
 103   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
 104   sections.
 105
 106   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
 107   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
 108   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
 109
 110 Changes in 2.29:
 111
 112 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
 113   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
 114
 115 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
 116   disassembly.
 117
 118 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
 119   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
 120   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
 121
 122 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
 123   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
 124
 125 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
 126
 127 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
 128
 129 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
 130
 131 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
 132   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
 133
 134 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
 135   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
 136
 137 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
 138   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
 139   the original file.
 140
 141 Changes in 2.28:
 142
 143 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
 144   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
 145   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
 146   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
 147   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
 148   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
 149   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
 150   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
 151   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
 152   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
 153   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
 154   with the instructions being relocated.
 155
 156 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
 157   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
 158   symbol's name.
 159
 160 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
 161   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
 162
 163 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 164   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 165   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 166   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 167
 168 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 169   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 170   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 171   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 172
 173 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 174   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 175   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 176   the relocation section itself.
 177
 178 Changes in 2.27:
 179
 180 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 181   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 182
 183 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 184   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 185
 186 Changes in 2.26:
 187
 188 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 189   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 190
 191 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 192
 193 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 194   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 195   targets.
 196
 197 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 198
 199 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 200
 201 Changes in 2.25:
 202
 203 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 204   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 205   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 206   default behaviour.
 207
 208 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 209
 210 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 211
 212 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 213
 214 Changes in 2.24:
 215
 216 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 217   section names.
 218
 219 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 220
 221 Changes in 2.23:
 222
 223 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 224
 225 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 226
 227 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 228
 229 Changes in 2.22:
 230
 231 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 232
 233 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 234   passed to preprocessor.
 235
 236 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 237   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 238
 239 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 240
 241 changes in 2.21:
 242
 243 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 244   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 245
 246 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 247
 248 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 249   the -u / --unwind option.
 250
 251 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 252
 253 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 254   binaries.
 255
 256 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 257   '== <ID>' option.
 258
 259 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 260   address before function name or source filename.
 261
 262 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 263   a more human readable output.
 264
 265 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 266
 267 Changes in 2.20:
 268
 269 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 270   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 271   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 272   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 273   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 274
 275 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 276   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 277   instructions.
 278
 279 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 280   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 281
 282 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 283   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 284   file.
 285
 286 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 287   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 288
 289 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 290   for objcopy.
 291
 292 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 293   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 294   set PE optional header.
 295
 296 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 297
 298 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 299   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 300   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 301   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 302
 303 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 304   add absolute paths for -S.
 305
 306 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 307   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 308
 309 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 310   report an error when the import library is associated with
 311   multiple DLLs.
 312
 313 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 314   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 315
 316 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 317   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 318   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 319
 320 Changes in 2.19:
 321
 322 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 323
 324 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 325   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 326   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 327   added to the archive.
 328
 329 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 330
 331 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 332
 333 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 334
 335 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 336
 337 Changes in 2.18:
 338
 339 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 340   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 341   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 342
 343 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 344   Public License.
 345
 346 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 347   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 348
 349 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 350   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 351   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 352   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 353   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 354   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 355
 356 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 357   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 358   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 359   to some OSes.
 360
 361 Changes in 2.17:
 362
 363 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 364
 365 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 366   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 367   of types.
 368
 369 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 370   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 371
 372 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 373   debug sections.
 374
 375 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 376   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 377
 378 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 379   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 380   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 381   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 382
 383 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 384   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 385
 386 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 387
 388 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 389   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 390
 391 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 392   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 393
 394 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 395   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 396
 397 Changes in 2.16:
 398
 399 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 400
 401 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 402   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 403   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 404   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 405
 406 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 407   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 408   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 409   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 410
 411 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 412   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 413   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 414   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 415   between ARM and THUMB code.
 416
 417 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 418   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 419
 420 Changes in 2.15:
 421
 422 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 423   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 424   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 425   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 426
 427 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 428   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 429
 430 * readelf can now parse archives.
 431
 432 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 433   format compatible with ctags tool.
 434
 435 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 436   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 437   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 438   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 439   debugging info.
 440
 441 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 442   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 443   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 444
 445 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 446   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 447   with the -a switch.
 448
 449 Changes in 2.14:
 450
 451 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 452
 453 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 454
 455 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 456
 457 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 458   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 459
 460 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 461   Parallel C compiler.
 462
 463 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 464   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 465   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 466
 467 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 468
 469 Changes in 2.13:
 470
 471 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 472   and FR500 included.
 473
 474 Changes in version 2.12:
 475
 476 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 477
 478 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 479
 480 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 481   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 482
 483 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 484
 485 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 486
 487 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 488   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 489
 490 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 491   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 492   by Honda Hiroki.
 493
 494 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 495
 496 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 497   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 498   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 499
 500 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 501   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 502   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 503   By Stefan Geuken.
 504
 505 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 506
 507 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 508
 509 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 510   extenstions.
 511
 512 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 513   By Luciano Gemme.
 514
 515 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 516
 517 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 518
 519 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 520
 521 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 522
 523 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 524
 525 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 526   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 527   file.
 528
 529 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 530   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 531   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 532   raw verions.
 533
 534 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 535   with intel syntax.
 536
 537 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 538   regardless of target machine.
 539
 540 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 541   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 542   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 543   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 544
 545 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 546
 547 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 548   sections.
 549
 550 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 551
 552 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 553   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 554
 555 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 556
 557 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 558   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 559
 560 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 561   the VMA of the sections.
 562
 563 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 564
 565 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 566
 567 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 568   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 569   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 570   output.
 571
 572 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 573   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 574   so they must be in canonical form.
 575
 576 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 577   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 578
 579 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 580
 581 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 582
 583 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 584
 585 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 586
 587 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 588
 589 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 590
 591 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 592
 593 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 594
 595 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 596
 597 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 598
 599 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 600
 601 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 602
 603 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 604
 605 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 606
 607 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 608
 609 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 610
 611 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 612
 613 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 614   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 615   generating plain binary files.
 616
 617 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 618
 619 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 620
 621 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 622
 623 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 624   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 625
 626 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 627   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 628
 629 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 630
 631 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 632   executables.
 633
 634 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 635
 636 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 637   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 638
 639 * Support for Irix 5.
 640
 641 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 642   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 643
 644 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 645
 646 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 647   ELF and COFF files.
 648
 649 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 650   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 651
 652 * The strings program has been added.
 653
 654 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 655
 656 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 657   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 658   'cp'.
 659
 660 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 661   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 662   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 663
 664 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 665   the output from BSD nm.
 666
 667 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 668
 669 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 670
 671 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 672
 673 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 674
 675 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 676
 677 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 678
 679 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 680   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 681
 682 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 683   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 684   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 685   for Posix.2 conformance.
 686
 687 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 688   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 689   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 690
 691 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 692   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 693
 694 \f
 695 Copyright (C) 2012-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 696
 697 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 698 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 699 notice and this notice are preserved.
 700
 701 Local variables:
 702 fill-column: 79
 703 End: