binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
   4
   5 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
   6
   7 Changes in 2.24:
   8
   9 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  10   section names.
  11
  12 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  13
  14 Changes in 2.23:
  15
  16 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  17
  18 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  19
  20 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  21
  22 Changes in 2.22:
  23
  24 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  25
  26 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  27   passed to preprocessor.
  28
  29 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  30   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  31
  32 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  33
  34 changes in 2.21:
  35
  36 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  37   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  38
  39 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  40
  41 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  42   the -u / --unwind option.
  43
  44 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  45
  46 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  47   binaries.
  48
  49 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  50   '== <ID>' option.
  51
  52 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  53   address before function name or source filename.
  54
  55 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  56   a more human readable output.
  57
  58 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  59
  60 Changes in 2.20:
  61
  62 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  63   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  64   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  65   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  66   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  67
  68 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  69   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  70   instructions.
  71
  72 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  73   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  74
  75 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  76   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  77   file.
  78
  79 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  80   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  81
  82 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
  83   for objcopy.
  84
  85 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
  86   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
  87   set PE optional header.
  88
  89 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
  90
  91 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
  92   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
  93   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
  94   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
  95
  96 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
  97   add absolute paths for -S.
  98
  99 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 100   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 101
 102 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 103   report an error when the import library is associated with
 104   multiple DLLs.
 105
 106 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 107   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 108
 109 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 110   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 111   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 112
 113 Changes in 2.19:
 114
 115 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 116
 117 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 118   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 119   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 120   added to the archive.
 121
 122 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 123
 124 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 125
 126 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 127
 128 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 129
 130 Changes in 2.18:
 131
 132 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 133   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 134   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 135
 136 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 137   Public License.
 138
 139 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 140   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 141
 142 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 143   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 144   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 145   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 146   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 147   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 148
 149 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 150   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 151   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 152   to some OSes.
 153
 154 Changes in 2.17:
 155
 156 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 157
 158 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 159   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 160   of types.
 161
 162 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 163   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 164
 165 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 166   debug sections.
 167
 168 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 169   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 170
 171 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 172   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 173   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 174   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 175
 176 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 177   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 178
 179 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 180
 181 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 182   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 183
 184 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 185   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 186
 187 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 188   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 189
 190 Changes in 2.16:
 191
 192 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 193
 194 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 195   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 196   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 197   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 198
 199 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 200   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 201   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 202   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 203
 204 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 205   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 206   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 207   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 208   between ARM and THUMB code.
 209
 210 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 211   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 212
 213 Changes in 2.15:
 214
 215 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 216   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 217   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 218   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 219
 220 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 221   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 222
 223 * readelf can now parse archives.
 224
 225 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 226   format compatible with ctags tool.
 227
 228 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 229   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 230   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 231   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 232   debugging info.
 233
 234 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 235   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 236   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 237
 238 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 239   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 240   with the -a switch.
 241
 242 Changes in 2.14:
 243
 244 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 245
 246 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 247
 248 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 249
 250 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 251   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 252
 253 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 254   Parallel C compiler.
 255
 256 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 257   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 258   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 259
 260 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 261
 262 Changes in 2.13:
 263
 264 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 265   and FR500 included.
 266
 267 Changes in version 2.12:
 268
 269 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 270
 271 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 272
 273 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 274   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 275
 276 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 277
 278 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 279
 280 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 281   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 282
 283 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 284   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 285   by Honda Hiroki.
 286
 287 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 288
 289 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 290   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 291   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 292
 293 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 294   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 295   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 296   By Stefan Geuken.
 297
 298 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 299
 300 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 301
 302 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 303   extenstions.
 304
 305 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 306   By Luciano Gemme.
 307
 308 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 309
 310 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 311
 312 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 313
 314 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 315
 316 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 317
 318 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 319   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 320   file.
 321
 322 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 323   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 324   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 325   raw verions.
 326
 327 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 328   with intel syntax.
 329
 330 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 331   regardless of target machine.
 332
 333 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 334   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 335   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 336   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 337
 338 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 339
 340 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 341   sections.
 342
 343 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 344
 345 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 346   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 347
 348 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 349
 350 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 351   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 352
 353 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 354   the VMA of the sections.
 355
 356 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 357
 358 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 359
 360 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 361   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 362   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 363   output.
 364
 365 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 366   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 367   so they must be in canonical form.
 368
 369 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 370   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 371
 372 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 373
 374 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 375
 376 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 377
 378 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 379
 380 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 381
 382 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 383
 384 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 385
 386 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 387
 388 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 389
 390 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 391
 392 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 393
 394 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 395
 396 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 397
 398 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 399
 400 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 401
 402 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 403
 404 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 405
 406 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 407   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 408   generating plain binary files.
 409
 410 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 411
 412 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 413
 414 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 415
 416 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 417   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 418
 419 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 420   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 421
 422 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 423
 424 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 425   executables.
 426
 427 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 428
 429 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 430   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 431
 432 * Support for Irix 5.
 433
 434 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 435   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 436
 437 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 438
 439 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 440   ELF and COFF files.
 441
 442 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 443   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 444
 445 * The strings program has been added.
 446
 447 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 448
 449 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 450   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 451   'cp'.
 452
 453 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 454   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 455   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 456
 457 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 458   the output from BSD nm.
 459
 460 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 461
 462 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 463
 464 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 465
 466 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 467
 468 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 469
 470 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 471
 472 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 473   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 474
 475 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 476   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 477   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 478   for Posix.2 conformance.
 479
 480 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 481   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 482   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 483
 484 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 485   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 486
 487 \f
 488 Copyright (C) 2012-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 489
 490 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 491 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 492 notice and this notice are preserved.
 493
 494 Local variables:
 495 fill-column: 79
 496 End: