binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
   4
   5 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
   6   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
   7   targets.
   8
   9 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
  10
  11 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
  12
  13 Changes in 2.25:
  14
  15 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
  16   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
  17   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
  18   default behaviour.
  19
  20 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
  21
  22 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
  23
  24 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  25
  26 Changes in 2.24:
  27
  28 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  29   section names.
  30
  31 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  32
  33 Changes in 2.23:
  34
  35 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  36
  37 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  38
  39 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  40
  41 Changes in 2.22:
  42
  43 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  44
  45 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  46   passed to preprocessor.
  47
  48 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  49   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  50
  51 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  52
  53 changes in 2.21:
  54
  55 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  56   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  57
  58 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  59
  60 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  61   the -u / --unwind option.
  62
  63 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  64
  65 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  66   binaries.
  67
  68 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  69   '== <ID>' option.
  70
  71 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  72   address before function name or source filename.
  73
  74 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  75   a more human readable output.
  76
  77 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  78
  79 Changes in 2.20:
  80
  81 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  82   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  83   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  84   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  85   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  86
  87 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  88   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  89   instructions.
  90
  91 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  92   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  93
  94 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  95   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  96   file.
  97
  98 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  99   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 100
 101 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 102   for objcopy.
 103
 104 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 105   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 106   set PE optional header.
 107
 108 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 109
 110 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 111   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 112   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 113   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 114
 115 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 116   add absolute paths for -S.
 117
 118 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 119   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 120
 121 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 122   report an error when the import library is associated with
 123   multiple DLLs.
 124
 125 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 126   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 127
 128 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 129   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 130   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 131
 132 Changes in 2.19:
 133
 134 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 135
 136 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 137   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 138   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 139   added to the archive.
 140
 141 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 142
 143 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 144
 145 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 146
 147 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 148
 149 Changes in 2.18:
 150
 151 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 152   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 153   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 154
 155 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 156   Public License.
 157
 158 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 159   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 160
 161 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 162   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 163   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 164   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 165   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 166   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 167
 168 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 169   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 170   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 171   to some OSes.
 172
 173 Changes in 2.17:
 174
 175 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 176
 177 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 178   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 179   of types.
 180
 181 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 182   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 183
 184 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 185   debug sections.
 186
 187 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 188   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 189
 190 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 191   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 192   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 193   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 194
 195 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 196   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 197
 198 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 199
 200 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 201   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 202
 203 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 204   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 205
 206 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 207   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 208
 209 Changes in 2.16:
 210
 211 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 212
 213 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 214   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 215   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 216   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 217
 218 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 219   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 220   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 221   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 222
 223 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 224   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 225   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 226   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 227   between ARM and THUMB code.
 228
 229 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 230   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 231
 232 Changes in 2.15:
 233
 234 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 235   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 236   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 237   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 238
 239 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 240   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 241
 242 * readelf can now parse archives.
 243
 244 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 245   format compatible with ctags tool.
 246
 247 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 248   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 249   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 250   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 251   debugging info.
 252
 253 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 254   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 255   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 256
 257 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 258   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 259   with the -a switch.
 260
 261 Changes in 2.14:
 262
 263 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 264
 265 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 266
 267 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 268
 269 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 270   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 271
 272 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 273   Parallel C compiler.
 274
 275 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 276   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 277   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 278
 279 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 280
 281 Changes in 2.13:
 282
 283 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 284   and FR500 included.
 285
 286 Changes in version 2.12:
 287
 288 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 289
 290 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 291
 292 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 293   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 294
 295 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 296
 297 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 298
 299 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 300   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 301
 302 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 303   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 304   by Honda Hiroki.
 305
 306 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 307
 308 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 309   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 310   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 311
 312 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 313   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 314   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 315   By Stefan Geuken.
 316
 317 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 318
 319 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 320
 321 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 322   extenstions.
 323
 324 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 325   By Luciano Gemme.
 326
 327 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 328
 329 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 330
 331 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 332
 333 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 334
 335 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 336
 337 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 338   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 339   file.
 340
 341 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 342   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 343   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 344   raw verions.
 345
 346 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 347   with intel syntax.
 348
 349 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 350   regardless of target machine.
 351
 352 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 353   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 354   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 355   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 356
 357 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 358
 359 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 360   sections.
 361
 362 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 363
 364 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 365   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 366
 367 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 368
 369 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 370   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 371
 372 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 373   the VMA of the sections.
 374
 375 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 376
 377 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 378
 379 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 380   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 381   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 382   output.
 383
 384 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 385   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 386   so they must be in canonical form.
 387
 388 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 389   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 390
 391 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 392
 393 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 394
 395 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 396
 397 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 398
 399 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 400
 401 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 402
 403 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 404
 405 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 406
 407 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 408
 409 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 410
 411 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 412
 413 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 414
 415 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 416
 417 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 418
 419 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 420
 421 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 422
 423 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 424
 425 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 426   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 427   generating plain binary files.
 428
 429 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 430
 431 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 432
 433 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 434
 435 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 436   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 437
 438 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 439   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 440
 441 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 442
 443 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 444   executables.
 445
 446 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 447
 448 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 449   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 450
 451 * Support for Irix 5.
 452
 453 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 454   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 455
 456 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 457
 458 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 459   ELF and COFF files.
 460
 461 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 462   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 463
 464 * The strings program has been added.
 465
 466 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 467
 468 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 469   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 470   'cp'.
 471
 472 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 473   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 474   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 475
 476 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 477   the output from BSD nm.
 478
 479 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 480
 481 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 482
 483 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 484
 485 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 486
 487 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 488
 489 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 490
 491 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 492   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 493
 494 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 495   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 496   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 497   for Posix.2 conformance.
 498
 499 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 500   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 501   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 502
 503 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 504   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 505
 506 \f
 507 Copyright (C) 2012-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 508
 509 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 510 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 511 notice and this notice are preserved.
 512
 513 Local variables:
 514 fill-column: 79
 515 End: