binutils/NEWS

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