binutils/NEWS

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