binutils/NEWS

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