ld/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.28:
   4
   5 * The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
   6   section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
   7   the list.
   8
   9 * Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
  10
  11 * The command line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
  12   linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
  13
  14 * Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
  15   Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
  16   by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have.  As such,
  17   --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
  18
  19 * Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
  20   targets, to any ELF based target.  This allows the generation of an import
  21   library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
  22   to link against the executable.
  23
  24 Changes in 2.27:
  25
  26 * Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
  27   be enabled in ELF linker by default.  Default to yes for all Linux
  28   targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS.
  29
  30 * Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
  31   relocation overflow check.
  32
  33 * Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
  34   convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
  35
  36 * Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
  37   avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
  38
  39 * The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
  40
  41 * Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
  42   values for dynamic relocations.
  43
  44 Changes in 2.26:
  45
  46 * Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
  47   workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
  48   the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
  49
  50 * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
  51   decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
  52
  53 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  54
  55 * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
  56   has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
  57
  58 * New command line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
  59   sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
  60
  61 * New command line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
  62   adjust how orphan sections are handled.  The default is 'place' which gives
  63   the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
  64   respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
  65   orphan sections.
  66
  67 * Add support for LLVM plugin.
  68
  69 * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
  70
  71 * Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
  72   must be defined by the end of the link.
  73
  74 Changes in 2.25:
  75
  76 * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default.  To disable
  77   the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
  78   command line option.
  79
  80 * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
  81
  82 * Add support for the --build-id command line option to COFF based targets.
  83
  84 * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
  85
  86 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  87
  88 Changes in 2.24:
  89
  90 * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
  91
  92 * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
  93
  94 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  95
  96 * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
  97
  98 * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
  99
 100 * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
 101
 102 * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
 103
 104 * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
 105   an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
 106
 107 Changes in 2.23:
 108
 109 * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
 110
 111 * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
 112
 113 * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
 114
 115 * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
 116   to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
 117   program's memory image.
 118
 119 * Add support for S12X processor.
 120
 121 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 122
 123 * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
 124
 125 * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
 126
 127 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 128
 129 * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
 130
 131 Changes in 2.22:
 132
 133 * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default.  Instead
 134   --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
 135
 136 * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
 137   to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
 138
 139 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 140
 141 * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
 142   sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
 143   encoded in the section name.
 144
 145 Changes in 2.21:
 146
 147 * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane.  This may
 148   break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
 149
 150 * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets.  For old behavior the
 151   option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
 152   bfd.
 153
 154 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 155
 156 * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
 157   with --as-needed option.
 158
 159 * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
 160   to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
 161
 162 * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers.  This prevents all
 163   symbols from automatically being exported.
 164
 165 * Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
 166
 167 * Add support for alpha-vms target.
 168
 169 Changes in 2.20:
 170
 171 * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding.  This is a
 172   GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings.  The binding will
 173   be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
 174   process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
 175
 176 * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
 177   common symbols to be specified.  This support uses custom options in
 178   the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
 179
 180 * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
 181   are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
 182   are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
 183
 184 * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
 185   --export-dynamic options.
 186
 187 * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
 188   ELF machine code.
 189
 190 * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
 191
 192 * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
 193   the COFF format when generating executable images, by default.  The old
 194   (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
 195   new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option.  It is also enabled
 196   automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
 197   needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
 198
 199 * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
 200   made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
 201   the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
 202
 203 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 204   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 205   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 206   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 207
 208 * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
 209   to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
 210
 211 * Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
 212
 213 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
 214   allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 215
 216 * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
 217   allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
 218   and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
 219
 220 * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
 221
 222 * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
 223   for Embedded-PIC code) option.
 224
 225 * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
 226   pseudo-relocations.  They can be selected by the switches
 227   --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
 228   For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
 229   runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
 230
 231 Changes in 2.19:
 232
 233 * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
 234   augment the default script.
 235
 236 * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
 237   archive by writing "archive:file".
 238
 239 * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
 240   direction of sorting.
 241
 242 * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
 243   the --got=<type> command line option.
 244
 245 * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
 246   that are too far away.  The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
 247   linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N.
 248
 249 Changes in 2.18:
 250
 251 * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
 252   License.
 253
 254 * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
 255   embedded in a note section.
 256
 257 * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
 258
 259 * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
 260   without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
 261
 262 * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
 263   which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
 264   script.
 265
 266 * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
 267   operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
 268   builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
 269   dynamic list.
 270
 271 * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
 272
 273 * Add support for Score target.
 274
 275 * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
 276   whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
 277   shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
 278   symbol table in the executable.
 279
 280 * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
 281   being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
 282   the previous output section in the same region.  This is a more useful
 283   default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
 284   differing from the VMA for some sections.
 285
 286 * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
 287   collection.
 288
 289 * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
 290   VFP11 coprocessors.
 291
 292 Changes in 2.17:
 293
 294 * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
 295
 296 * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
 297   Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
 298   searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
 299   Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
 300
 301 * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
 302   passed directly to ld.
 303
 304 * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
 305
 306 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
 307   switches can be read from <file>.
 308
 309 Changes in 2.16:
 310
 311 * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
 312   specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
 313
 314 * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
 315   for input files listed inside of it.
 316
 317 * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
 318   default sysroot location.  It only applies to toolchains that were
 319   configured using --with-sysroot.
 320
 321 * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
 322   about a specified memory region.
 323
 324 * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
 325
 326 * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
 327   override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
 328
 329 * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
 330   object.
 331
 332 * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
 333   language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
 334   maximum alignment.
 335
 336 * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
 337   to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
 338
 339 * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
 340   should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
 341
 342 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
 343
 344 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
 345
 346 * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table
 347   size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument.  This switch
 348   is --hash-size=<NUMBER>.  Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
 349   used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
 350   to 1021.
 351
 352 * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
 353   that are defined in each section.  This uses about 40% more memory for
 354   symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm.  You can use the new
 355   --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
 356   might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
 357
 358 Changes in 2.15:
 359
 360 * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
 361   be added only when a shared library is referenced.
 362
 363 * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
 364   addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
 365
 366 * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
 367
 368 * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
 369   is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
 370
 371 * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
 372   Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
 373
 374 * cr16c support added by NSC.
 375
 376 * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
 377
 378 * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols.  The switch
 379   --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
 380   should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
 381   make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
 382
 383 Changes in 2.14:
 384
 385 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
 386
 387 * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
 388   linking against a target filesystem image.
 389
 390 * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
 391   2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
 392   file format.
 393
 394 * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
 395
 396 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
 397   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
 398
 399 * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
 400   LIB_PATH.
 401
 402 * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
 403
 404 * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
 405
 406 Changes in 2.13:
 407
 408 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 409   and FR500 included.
 410
 411 Changes in version 2.13:
 412
 413 * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
 414
 415 Changes in version 2.12:
 416
 417 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 418
 419 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
 420
 421 * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
 422   production of copy relocs.  Warning: using this option may result in
 423   non-sharable applications.
 424
 425 * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
 426   relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
 427   can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
 428
 429 * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
 430
 431 Changes in version 2.11:
 432
 433 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
 434
 435 * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
 436   having the compiler generate the information in sections called
 437   .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents.  The
 438   linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
 439   section.
 440
 441 * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
 442   DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
 443
 444 * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
 445
 446 * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
 447   specified section.
 448
 449 * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
 450   enabled by --emit-relocs.  Some post-linkage optimization tools need
 451   this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
 452   symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
 453   (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
 454
 455 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
 456
 457 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 458
 459 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
 460
 461 Changes in version 2.10:
 462
 463 * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
 464   sections into regions.
 465
 466 * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
 467   It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
 468   arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
 469   mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
 470   Others will ignore the option.
 471
 472 * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
 473   name or section name.
 474
 475 * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
 476   command-line option.
 477
 478 * Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
 479
 480 * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
 481   wildcard file names.
 482
 483 * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
 484   affects ELF shared library generation).
 485
 486 * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
 487
 488 * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
 489   shared library.
 490
 491 * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
 492   using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
 493   behaviour.
 494
 495 * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
 496
 497 Changes in version 2.9:
 498
 499 * Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
 500
 501 * New option --no-warn-mismatch.
 502
 503 * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
 504   are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
 505
 506 Changes in version 2.8:
 507
 508 * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
 509   names.
 510
 511 * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
 512
 513 * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
 514
 515 * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
 516
 517 * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
 518
 519 * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
 520
 521 * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
 522   changes due to alignment of an input section.
 523
 524 * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
 525
 526 Changes in version 2.7:
 527
 528 * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
 529
 530 * New option --wrap SYMBOL.
 531
 532 * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
 533
 534 * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
 535   are not included in the output file.
 536
 537 * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
 538   the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types.  This reduces the amount of debugging
 539   information generated.
 540
 541 Changes in version 2.6:
 542
 543 * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
 544 of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
 545 __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
 546 beginning and the end of the section.  This is used by glibc.
 547
 548   Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
 549 and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature:  The
 550 symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
 551 sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
 552
 553 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
 554 contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
 555 not copied into the output file.  This is used by glibc.
 556
 557 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
 558 file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
 559 the section are displayed as an error message.  The section is not copied into
 560 the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link.  This is used by
 561 glibc.
 562
 563 * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
 564
 565 * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS.  It can
 566 also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
 567 will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
 568 nor the -r option was used.
 569
 570 * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
 571 searched at run time.  This overrides the default of building the list from the
 572 -L options.
 573
 574 * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
 575 enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
 576 only be defined once in the output file.  The --traditional-format switch will
 577 prevent this optimization.
 578
 579 Changes in version 2.5:
 580
 581 * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries.  It still can
 582 not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
 583 generate shared libraries.
 584
 585 * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
 586 (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris).  It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
 587 used to generate shared libraries.  Shared library generation is not well
 588 tested; please report any problems encountered.  The linker is now enabled for
 589 Solaris again.
 590
 591 * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
 592 Linux a.out shared libraries.  The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
 593
 594 * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  To use the new
 595 ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So far,
 596 this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
 597 5), and HPPA ELF targets.
 598
 599 * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
 600 support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
 601 This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
 602
 603 * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
 604 it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
 605 file.  A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
 606 default linker script.
 607
 608 * The -warn-once option was added.  It causes the linker to only warn once per
 609 undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
 610
 611 * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  As with ELF, to
 612 use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So
 613 far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
 614
 615 * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility.  The old -V
 616 behaviour is available via --verbose.
 617
 618 Changes in version 2.4:
 619
 620 * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor.  For a.out and ecoff
 621   formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
 622   and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
 623   before for formats not converted yet.
 624
 625 * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex.  This means
 626   oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
 627   separators.
 628
 629 * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law.  (No SOM support yet.)
 630
 631 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
 632
 633 * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
 634   libraries are not yet supported).
 635
 636 * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
 637
 638 * The linker is disabled for Solaris.  (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
 639   forgot to note it.)  Some of their C library routines don't work when
 640   statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
 641
 642 Changes in version 2.3:
 643
 644 * Weak symbols are now supported.
 645
 646 * ELF support has been added.  The linker has been bootstrapped on
 647   UnixWare and Solaris.
 648
 649 * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
 650
 651 Changes in version 2.2:
 652
 653 * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
 654   table size.  The effect of this is that files linked from many input
 655   files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
 656   static symbols) should be much smaller.
 657
 658 Changes in version 2.1:
 659
 660 * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
 661
 662 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
 663   other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
 664
 665 \f
 666 Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 667
 668 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 669 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 670 notice and this notice are preserved.
 671
 672 Local variables:
 673 fill-column: 79
 674 End: