binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
   4   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
   5
   6 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
   7
   8 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
   9   when disassembling VAX binaries.
  10
  11 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
  12   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
  13
  14 Changes in 2.16:
  15
  16 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section group.
  17
  18 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
  19   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
  20   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
  21   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
  22
  23 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
  24   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
  25   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
  26   the contents of the .debug_range section.
  27
  28 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
  29   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
  30   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
  31   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
  32   between ARM and THUMB code.
  33
  34 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  35   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  36
  37 Changes in 2.15:
  38
  39 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
  40   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
  41   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
  42   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
  43
  44 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  45   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  46
  47 * readelf can now parse archives.
  48
  49 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  50   format compatible with ctags tool.
  51
  52 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  53   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  54   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  55   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  56   debugging info.
  57
  58 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  59   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  60   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  61
  62 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  63   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  64   with the -a switch.
  65
  66 Changes in 2.14:
  67
  68 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  69
  70 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  71
  72 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  73
  74 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  75   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  76
  77 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  78   Parallel C compiler.
  79
  80 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  81   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  82   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  83
  84 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  85
  86 Changes in 2.13:
  87
  88 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  89   and FR500 included.
  90
  91 Changes in version 2.12:
  92
  93 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  94
  95 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  96
  97 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  98   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  99
 100 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 101
 102 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 103
 104 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 105   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 106
 107 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 108   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 109   by Honda Hiroki.
 110
 111 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 112
 113 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 114   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 115   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 116
 117 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 118   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 119   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 120   By Stefan Geuken.
 121
 122 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 123
 124 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 125
 126 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 127   extenstions.
 128
 129 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 130   By Luciano Gemme.
 131
 132 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 133
 134 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 135
 136 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 137
 138 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 139
 140 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 141
 142 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 143   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 144   file.
 145
 146 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 147   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 148   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 149   raw verions.
 150
 151 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 152   with intel syntax.
 153
 154 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 155   regardless of target machine.
 156
 157 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 158   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 159   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 160   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 161
 162 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 163
 164 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 165   sections.
 166
 167 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 168
 169 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 170   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 171
 172 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 173
 174 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 175   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 176
 177 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 178   the VMA of the sections.
 179
 180 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 181
 182 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 183
 184 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 185   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 186   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 187   output.
 188
 189 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 190   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 191   so they must be in canonical form.
 192
 193 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 194   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 195
 196 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 197
 198 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 199
 200 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 201
 202 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 203
 204 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 205
 206 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 207
 208 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 209
 210 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 211
 212 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 213
 214 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 215
 216 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 217
 218 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 219
 220 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 221
 222 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 223
 224 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 225
 226 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 227
 228 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 229
 230 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 231   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 232   generating plain binary files.
 233
 234 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 235
 236 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 237
 238 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 239
 240 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 241   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 242
 243 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 244   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 245
 246 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 247
 248 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 249   executables.
 250
 251 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 252
 253 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 254   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 255
 256 * Support for Irix 5.
 257
 258 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 259   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 260
 261 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 262
 263 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 264   ELF and COFF files.
 265
 266 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 267   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 268
 269 * The strings program has been added.
 270
 271 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 272
 273 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 274   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 275   'cp'.
 276
 277 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 278   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 279   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 280
 281 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 282   the output from BSD nm.
 283
 284 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 285
 286 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 287
 288 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 289
 290 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 291
 292 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 293
 294 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 295
 296 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 297   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 298
 299 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 300   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 301   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 302   for Posix.2 conformance.
 303
 304 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 305   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 306   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 307
 308 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 309   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 310
 311 \f
 312 Local variables:
 313 fill-column: 79
 314 End: