binutils/NEWS

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