binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
   4   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
   5
   6 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
   7   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
   8   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
   9   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
  10
  11 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
  12   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  13   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  14   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  15
  16 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
  17   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
  18   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
  19   the relocation section itself.
  20
  21 Changes in 2.27:
  22
  23 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  24   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  25
  26 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
  27   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
  28
  29 Changes in 2.26:
  30
  31 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
  32   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
  33
  34 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  35
  36 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
  37   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
  38   targets.
  39
  40 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
  41
  42 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
  43
  44 Changes in 2.25:
  45
  46 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
  47   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
  48   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
  49   default behaviour.
  50
  51 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
  52
  53 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
  54
  55 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  56
  57 Changes in 2.24:
  58
  59 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  60   section names.
  61
  62 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  63
  64 Changes in 2.23:
  65
  66 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  67
  68 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  69
  70 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  71
  72 Changes in 2.22:
  73
  74 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  75
  76 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  77   passed to preprocessor.
  78
  79 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  80   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  81
  82 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  83
  84 changes in 2.21:
  85
  86 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  87   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  88
  89 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  90
  91 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  92   the -u / --unwind option.
  93
  94 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  95
  96 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  97   binaries.
  98
  99 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 100   '== <ID>' option.
 101
 102 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 103   address before function name or source filename.
 104
 105 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 106   a more human readable output.
 107
 108 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 109
 110 Changes in 2.20:
 111
 112 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 113   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 114   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 115   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 116   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 117
 118 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 119   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 120   instructions.
 121
 122 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 123   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 124
 125 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 126   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 127   file.
 128
 129 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 130   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 131
 132 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 133   for objcopy.
 134
 135 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 136   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 137   set PE optional header.
 138
 139 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 140
 141 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 142   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 143   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 144   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 145
 146 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 147   add absolute paths for -S.
 148
 149 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 150   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 151
 152 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 153   report an error when the import library is associated with
 154   multiple DLLs.
 155
 156 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 157   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 158
 159 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 160   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 161   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 162
 163 Changes in 2.19:
 164
 165 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 166
 167 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 168   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 169   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 170   added to the archive.
 171
 172 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 173
 174 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 175
 176 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 177
 178 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 179
 180 Changes in 2.18:
 181
 182 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 183   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 184   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 185
 186 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 187   Public License.
 188
 189 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 190   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 191
 192 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 193   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 194   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 195   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 196   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 197   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 198
 199 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 200   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 201   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 202   to some OSes.
 203
 204 Changes in 2.17:
 205
 206 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 207
 208 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 209   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 210   of types.
 211
 212 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 213   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 214
 215 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 216   debug sections.
 217
 218 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 219   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 220
 221 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 222   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 223   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 224   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 225
 226 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 227   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 228
 229 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 230
 231 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 232   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 233
 234 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 235   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 236
 237 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 238   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 239
 240 Changes in 2.16:
 241
 242 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 243
 244 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 245   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 246   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 247   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 248
 249 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 250   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 251   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 252   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 253
 254 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 255   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 256   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 257   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 258   between ARM and THUMB code.
 259
 260 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 261   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 262
 263 Changes in 2.15:
 264
 265 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 266   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 267   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 268   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 269
 270 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 271   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 272
 273 * readelf can now parse archives.
 274
 275 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 276   format compatible with ctags tool.
 277
 278 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 279   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 280   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 281   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 282   debugging info.
 283
 284 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 285   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 286   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 287
 288 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 289   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 290   with the -a switch.
 291
 292 Changes in 2.14:
 293
 294 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 295
 296 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 297
 298 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 299
 300 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 301   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 302
 303 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 304   Parallel C compiler.
 305
 306 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 307   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 308   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 309
 310 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 311
 312 Changes in 2.13:
 313
 314 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 315   and FR500 included.
 316
 317 Changes in version 2.12:
 318
 319 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 320
 321 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 322
 323 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 324   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 325
 326 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 327
 328 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 329
 330 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 331   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 332
 333 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 334   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 335   by Honda Hiroki.
 336
 337 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 338
 339 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 340   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 341   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 342
 343 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 344   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 345   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 346   By Stefan Geuken.
 347
 348 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 349
 350 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 351
 352 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 353   extenstions.
 354
 355 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 356   By Luciano Gemme.
 357
 358 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 359
 360 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 361
 362 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 363
 364 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 365
 366 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 367
 368 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 369   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 370   file.
 371
 372 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 373   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 374   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 375   raw verions.
 376
 377 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 378   with intel syntax.
 379
 380 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 381   regardless of target machine.
 382
 383 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 384   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 385   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 386   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 387
 388 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 389
 390 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 391   sections.
 392
 393 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 394
 395 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 396   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 397
 398 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 399
 400 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 401   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 402
 403 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 404   the VMA of the sections.
 405
 406 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 407
 408 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 409
 410 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 411   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 412   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 413   output.
 414
 415 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 416   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 417   so they must be in canonical form.
 418
 419 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 420   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 421
 422 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 423
 424 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 425
 426 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 427
 428 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 429
 430 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 431
 432 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 433
 434 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 435
 436 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 437
 438 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 439
 440 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 441
 442 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 443
 444 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 445
 446 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 447
 448 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 449
 450 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 451
 452 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 453
 454 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 455
 456 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 457   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 458   generating plain binary files.
 459
 460 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 461
 462 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 463
 464 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 465
 466 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 467   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 468
 469 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 470   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 471
 472 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 473
 474 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 475   executables.
 476
 477 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 478
 479 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 480   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 481
 482 * Support for Irix 5.
 483
 484 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 485   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 486
 487 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 488
 489 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 490   ELF and COFF files.
 491
 492 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 493   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 494
 495 * The strings program has been added.
 496
 497 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 498
 499 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 500   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 501   'cp'.
 502
 503 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 504   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 505   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 506
 507 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 508   the output from BSD nm.
 509
 510 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 511
 512 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 513
 514 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 515
 516 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 517
 518 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 519
 520 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 521
 522 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 523   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 524
 525 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 526   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 527   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 528   for Posix.2 conformance.
 529
 530 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 531   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 532   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 533
 534 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 535   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 536
 537 \f
 538 Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 539
 540 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 541 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 542 notice and this notice are preserved.
 543
 544 Local variables:
 545 fill-column: 79
 546 End: