Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
cf13d699 NC |
2 | * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence |
3 | of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option. | |
4 | ||
0e27a8f6 NC |
5 | * The gprof program has been given a new command line option: |
6 | --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified | |
7 | file. | |
6e33da12 | 8 | |
ce3c775b NC |
9 | * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects |
10 | used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats. | |
11 | ||
43cd3ced AG |
12 | * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format |
13 | for objcopy. | |
c067354b | 14 | |
92dd4511 L |
15 | * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment, |
16 | --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will | |
17 | set PE optional header. | |
18 | ||
4cb93e3b TG |
19 | * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w. |
20 | ||
21 | * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined | |
22 | symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the | |
23 | latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED | |
24 | entry of one of the libraries already linked. | |
25 | ||
0dafdf3f | 26 | * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to |
28024d9d | 27 | add absolute paths for -S. |
0dafdf3f | 28 | |
e77b97d4 KT |
29 | * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall- |
30 | back to old import table generation with null element prefix. | |
31 | ||
71c57c16 NC |
32 | * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to |
33 | report an error when the import library is associated with | |
34 | multiple DLLs. | |
35 | ||
36 | * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the | |
37 | name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>. | |
38 | ||
2f3bb96a BE |
39 | * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no |
40 | longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts | |
41 | -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used. | |
42 | ||
6e33da12 TG |
43 | Changes in 2.19: |
44 | ||
a262ae96 NC |
45 | * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line. |
46 | ||
a8da6403 NC |
47 | * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to |
48 | object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a | |
49 | flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been | |
50 | added to the archive. | |
51 | ||
98ec6e72 NC |
52 | * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly. |
53 | ||
4145f1d5 NC |
54 | * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index. |
55 | ||
85f10a01 MM |
56 | * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port. |
57 | ||
09c11c86 NC |
58 | * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections. |
59 | ||
876c34bf | 60 | Changes in 2.18: |
98ec6e72 | 61 | |
ad71ef64 NC |
62 | * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null |
63 | pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as | |
64 | revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com). | |
1e4cf259 | 65 | |
32866df7 NC |
66 | * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General |
67 | Public License. | |
68 | ||
692ed3e7 NC |
69 | * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message |
70 | compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version. | |
71 | ||
72 | * Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new | |
73 | resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation | |
74 | for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems | |
75 | for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be | |
76 | re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors. | |
77 | Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected. | |
d856f2dd | 78 | |
d3e52d40 RS |
79 | * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will |
80 | strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except | |
81 | for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful | |
82 | to some OSes. | |
83 | ||
32866df7 NC |
84 | Changes in 2.17: |
85 | ||
aef1f6d0 DJ |
86 | * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER". |
87 | ||
cbf1f5df NC |
88 | * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation |
89 | specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling | |
90 | of types. | |
91 | ||
92 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so | |
93 | that extra switches can be read from <file>. | |
94 | ||
4de2ad99 | 95 | * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF |
cbf1f5df | 96 | debug sections. |
4de2ad99 | 97 | |
5477e8a0 | 98 | * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details. |
cbf1f5df | 99 | "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated. |
5477e8a0 | 100 | |
b12fe839 AM |
101 | * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security |
102 | conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all | |
103 | code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT | |
104 | and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt. | |
105 | ||
0c552dc1 FF |
106 | * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information |
107 | for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function. | |
108 | ||
81fc812e L |
109 | * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name. |
110 | ||
ec72cfe5 NC |
111 | * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address |
112 | when disassembling VAX binaries. | |
113 | ||
7b4a0685 NC |
114 | * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches |
115 | to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols. | |
9fbad737 VP |
116 | |
117 | * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for | |
118 | several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint. | |
7b4a0685 NC |
119 | |
120 | Changes in 2.16: | |
121 | ||
b12fe839 | 122 | * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups. |
81fc812e | 123 | |
bcf32829 JB |
124 | * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and |
125 | --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard | |
126 | matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but | |
127 | retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations. | |
128 | ||
18bd398b NC |
129 | * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This |
130 | happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The | |
131 | command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display | |
132 | the contents of the .debug_range section. | |
133 | ||
3c9458e9 NC |
134 | * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of |
135 | symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols | |
136 | are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping | |
137 | symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and | |
138 | between ARM and THUMB code. | |
139 | ||
607dea97 NC |
140 | * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional |
141 | import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them. | |
142 | ||
143 | Changes in 2.15: | |
144 | ||
e39893d7 | 145 | * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the |
9d317d34 | 146 | disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some |
e39893d7 FF |
147 | pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move", |
148 | "sll" instead of "nop", etc. | |
149 | ||
5fe11841 NC |
150 | * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on |
151 | the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them. | |
152 | ||
fb52b2f4 NC |
153 | * readelf can now parse archives. |
154 | ||
51cdc6e0 NC |
155 | * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a |
156 | format compatible with ctags tool. | |
157 | ||
ed1653a7 NC |
158 | * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing |
159 | those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that | |
160 | this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create | |
161 | a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the | |
162 | debugging info. | |
163 | ||
2593f09a NC |
164 | * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink |
165 | section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug | |
50c2245b | 166 | information for the file to be held in a separate file. |
2593f09a | 167 | |
a3b6428f NC |
168 | * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX |
169 | single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm | |
170 | with the -a switch. | |
171 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
172 | Changes in 2.14: |
173 | ||
7c29036b NC |
174 | * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip. |
175 | ||
3b36097d SC |
176 | * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat. |
177 | ||
8745eafa NC |
178 | * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters. |
179 | ||
d7fb0dd2 NC |
180 | * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and |
181 | --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy. | |
182 | ||
84ad6ede NC |
183 | * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified |
184 | Parallel C compiler. | |
185 | ||
7d036af2 AM |
186 | * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other |
187 | headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean, | |
188 | false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type. | |
189 | ||
1e4cf259 NC |
190 | * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov. |
191 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
192 | Changes in 2.13: |
193 | ||
194 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
195 | and FR500 included. | |
252b5132 | 196 | |
9a66911f NC |
197 | Changes in version 2.12: |
198 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
199 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
200 | ||
15c82623 NC |
201 | * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only). |
202 | ||
d974e256 JJ |
203 | * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing |
204 | lines to fit into 80 columns. | |
205 | ||
d132876a NC |
206 | * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn. |
207 | ||
594ef5db NC |
208 | * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names. |
209 | ||
e0c60db2 NC |
210 | * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for |
211 | displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections. | |
212 | ||
16b2b71c NC |
213 | * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as |
214 | global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols. | |
215 | by Honda Hiroki. | |
216 | ||
87e6d782 NC |
217 | * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg. |
218 | ||
1ae8b3d2 AO |
219 | * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary |
220 | with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture | |
221 | description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva. | |
222 | ||
43a0748c | 223 | * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets |
09ad7db3 | 224 | the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only |
43a0748c NC |
225 | makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored. |
226 | By Stefan Geuken. | |
227 | ||
e135f41b NC |
228 | * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff. |
229 | ||
09ad7db3 AM |
230 | Changes in binutils 2.11: |
231 | ||
077b8428 NC |
232 | * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM |
233 | extenstions. | |
234 | ||
235 | * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy. | |
236 | By Luciano Gemme. | |
7d036af2 | 237 | |
156c2f8b NC |
238 | * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander. |
239 | ||
22b36938 JE |
240 | * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt. |
241 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
242 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
243 | ||
252b5132 RH |
244 | Changes in binutils 2.10: |
245 | ||
09ad7db3 AM |
246 | * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA. |
247 | ||
f1563258 TW |
248 | * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the |
249 | entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given | |
7d036af2 | 250 | file. |
f1563258 | 251 | |
dd92f639 NC |
252 | * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes |
253 | a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the | |
254 | disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or | |
255 | raw verions. | |
7d036af2 | 256 | |
c2c40d93 ILT |
257 | * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed |
258 | with intel syntax. | |
252b5132 RH |
259 | |
260 | * New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files, | |
261 | regardless of target machine. | |
262 | ||
263 | * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and | |
264 | --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is | |
265 | equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now | |
266 | renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work. | |
267 | ||
57938635 AM |
268 | * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols. |
269 | ||
270 | * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified | |
271 | sections. | |
272 | ||
252b5132 RH |
273 | * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command. |
274 | ||
275 | * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols, | |
276 | --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options. | |
277 | ||
278 | Changes in binutils 2.9: | |
279 | ||
280 | * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32 | |
281 | files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT. | |
282 | ||
283 | * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than | |
284 | the VMA of the sections. | |
285 | ||
286 | * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table. | |
287 | ||
288 | Changes in binutils 2.8: | |
289 | ||
290 | * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use | |
291 | the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new | |
292 | --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler | |
293 | output. | |
294 | ||
295 | * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example, | |
296 | objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub, | |
297 | so they must be in canonical form. | |
298 | ||
299 | * Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert | |
300 | an address into a file name and line number within a program. | |
301 | ||
302 | * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy. | |
303 | ||
304 | * Added --weaken argument to objcopy. | |
305 | ||
306 | * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries. | |
307 | ||
308 | * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump. | |
309 | ||
310 | * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump. | |
311 | ||
312 | * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy. | |
313 | ||
314 | Changes in binutils 2.7: | |
315 | ||
316 | * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure. | |
317 | ||
318 | * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy. | |
319 | ||
320 | * Added --defined-only argument to nm. | |
321 | ||
322 | * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy. | |
323 | ||
324 | * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc. | |
325 | ||
326 | * Added --line-numbers option to nm. | |
327 | ||
328 | * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump. | |
329 | ||
330 | * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP. | |
331 | ||
332 | Changes in binutils 2.6: | |
333 | ||
334 | * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy. | |
335 | ||
336 | * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new | |
337 | file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit | |
338 | generating plain binary files. | |
339 | ||
340 | * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump. | |
341 | ||
342 | * ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX. | |
343 | ||
344 | Changes in binutils 2.5: | |
345 | ||
346 | * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly | |
1049f94e | 347 | listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files. |
252b5132 RH |
348 | |
349 | * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections. | |
350 | Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections. | |
351 | ||
352 | * Added --size-sort option to nm. | |
353 | ||
354 | * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF | |
355 | executables. | |
356 | ||
357 | Changes in binutils 2.4: | |
358 | ||
359 | * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and | |
360 | PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor). | |
361 | ||
362 | * Support for Irix 5. | |
363 | ||
364 | * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked | |
365 | ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly. | |
366 | ||
367 | Changes in binutils 2.3: | |
368 | ||
369 | * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in | |
370 | ELF and COFF files. | |
371 | ||
372 | * A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into | |
373 | Novell NetWare Loadable Modules. | |
374 | ||
375 | * The strings program has been added. | |
376 | ||
377 | Changes in binutils 2.2: | |
378 | ||
379 | * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with | |
380 | 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for | |
381 | 'cp'. | |
382 | ||
383 | * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded | |
384 | (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This | |
385 | may get moved to the gcc distribution.) | |
386 | ||
387 | * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching | |
388 | the output from BSD nm. | |
389 | ||
390 | * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives. | |
391 | ||
392 | * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH. | |
393 | ||
394 | * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb. | |
395 | ||
396 | * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use. | |
397 | ||
398 | * There is the beginnings of a test suite. | |
399 | ||
400 | Changes in binutils 2.1: | |
401 | ||
402 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities | |
403 | should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works. | |
404 | ||
405 | * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD | |
406 | version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is | |
407 | now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required | |
408 | for Posix.2 conformance. | |
409 | ||
410 | * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives | |
411 | independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to | |
412 | switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages. | |
413 | ||
414 | * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only | |
415 | and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options. | |
416 | ||
417 | \f | |
418 | Local variables: | |
419 | fill-column: 79 | |
420 | End: |