binutils/NEWS

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