binutils/NEWS

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