binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
   4
   5 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
   6   the -u / --unwind option.
   7
   8 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
   9
  10 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  11   binaries.
  12
  13 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  14   '== <ID>' option.
  15
  16 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  17   address before function name or source filename.
  18
  19 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  20   a more human readable output.
  21
  22 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  23
  24 Changes in 2.20:
  25
  26 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  27   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  28   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  29   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  30   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  31
  32 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  33   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  34   instructions.
  35
  36 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  37   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  38
  39 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  40   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  41   file.
  42
  43 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  44   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  45
  46 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
  47   for objcopy.
  48
  49 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
  50   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
  51   set PE optional header.
  52
  53 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
  54
  55 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
  56   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
  57   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
  58   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
  59
  60 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
  61   add absolute paths for -S.
  62
  63 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
  64   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
  65
  66 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
  67   report an error when the import library is associated with
  68   multiple DLLs.
  69
  70 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
  71   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
  72
  73 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
  74   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
  75   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
  76
  77 Changes in 2.19:
  78
  79 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
  80
  81 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
  82   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
  83   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
  84   added to the archive.
  85
  86 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
  87
  88 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
  89
  90 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
  91
  92 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
  93
  94 Changes in 2.18:
  95
  96 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
  97   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
  98   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
  99
 100 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 101   Public License.
 102
 103 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 104   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 105
 106 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 107   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 108   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 109   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 110   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 111   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 112
 113 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 114   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 115   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 116   to some OSes.
 117
 118 Changes in 2.17:
 119
 120 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 121
 122 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 123   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 124   of types.
 125
 126 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 127   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 128
 129 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 130   debug sections.
 131
 132 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 133   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 134
 135 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 136   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 137   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 138   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 139
 140 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 141   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 142
 143 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 144
 145 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 146   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 147
 148 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 149   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 150
 151 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 152   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 153
 154 Changes in 2.16:
 155
 156 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 157
 158 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 159   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 160   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 161   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 162
 163 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 164   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 165   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 166   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 167
 168 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 169   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 170   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 171   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 172   between ARM and THUMB code.
 173
 174 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 175   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 176
 177 Changes in 2.15:
 178
 179 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 180   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 181   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 182   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 183
 184 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 185   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 186
 187 * readelf can now parse archives.
 188
 189 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 190   format compatible with ctags tool.
 191
 192 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 193   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 194   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 195   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 196   debugging info.
 197
 198 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 199   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 200   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 201
 202 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 203   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 204   with the -a switch.
 205
 206 Changes in 2.14:
 207
 208 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 209
 210 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 211
 212 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 213
 214 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 215   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 216
 217 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 218   Parallel C compiler.
 219
 220 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 221   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 222   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 223
 224 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 225
 226 Changes in 2.13:
 227
 228 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 229   and FR500 included.
 230
 231 Changes in version 2.12:
 232
 233 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 234
 235 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 236
 237 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 238   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 239
 240 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 241
 242 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 243
 244 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 245   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 246
 247 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 248   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 249   by Honda Hiroki.
 250
 251 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 252
 253 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 254   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 255   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 256
 257 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 258   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 259   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 260   By Stefan Geuken.
 261
 262 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 263
 264 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 265
 266 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 267   extenstions.
 268
 269 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 270   By Luciano Gemme.
 271
 272 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 273
 274 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 275
 276 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 277
 278 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 279
 280 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 281
 282 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 283   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 284   file.
 285
 286 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 287   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 288   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 289   raw verions.
 290
 291 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 292   with intel syntax.
 293
 294 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 295   regardless of target machine.
 296
 297 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 298   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 299   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 300   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 301
 302 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 303
 304 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 305   sections.
 306
 307 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 308
 309 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 310   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 311
 312 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 313
 314 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 315   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 316
 317 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 318   the VMA of the sections.
 319
 320 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 321
 322 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 323
 324 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 325   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 326   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 327   output.
 328
 329 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 330   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 331   so they must be in canonical form.
 332
 333 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 334   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 335
 336 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 337
 338 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 339
 340 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 341
 342 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 343
 344 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 345
 346 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 347
 348 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 349
 350 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 351
 352 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 353
 354 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 355
 356 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 357
 358 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 359
 360 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 361
 362 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 363
 364 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 365
 366 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 367
 368 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 369
 370 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 371   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 372   generating plain binary files.
 373
 374 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 375
 376 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 377
 378 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 379
 380 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 381   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 382
 383 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 384   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 385
 386 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 387
 388 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 389   executables.
 390
 391 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 392
 393 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 394   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 395
 396 * Support for Irix 5.
 397
 398 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 399   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 400
 401 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 402
 403 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 404   ELF and COFF files.
 405
 406 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 407   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 408
 409 * The strings program has been added.
 410
 411 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 412
 413 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 414   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 415   'cp'.
 416
 417 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 418   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 419   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 420
 421 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 422   the output from BSD nm.
 423
 424 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 425
 426 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 427
 428 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 429
 430 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 431
 432 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 433
 434 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 435
 436 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 437   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 438
 439 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 440   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 441   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 442   for Posix.2 conformance.
 443
 444 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 445   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 446   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 447
 448 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 449   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 450
 451 \f
 452 Local variables:
 453 fill-column: 79
 454 End: