binutils/NEWS

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