-*- text -*-
+* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
+ --export-dynamic options.
+
+* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
+ ELF machine code.
+
+* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
+
+* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
+ the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
+ (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
+ new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
+ automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
+ needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
+
+* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
+ made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
+ the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
+
+* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
+ symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
+ latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
+ entry of one of the libraries already linked.
+
+* Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
+ to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
+
+* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
+
+* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
+ allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
+
+* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
+ allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
+ and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
+
+* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
+
+* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
+ for Embedded-PIC code) option.
+
+* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
+ pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
+ --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
+ For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
+ runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
+
+Changes in 2.19:
+
+* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
+ augment the default script.
+
+* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
+ archive by writing "archive:file".
+
+* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
+ direction of sorting.
+
+* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
+ the --got=<type> command line option.
+
+* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
+ that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
+ linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N.
+
+Changes in 2.18:
+
+* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
+ License.
+
+* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
+ embedded in a note section.
+
+* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
+
+* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
+ without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
+
+* Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
+ which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
+ script.
+
+* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
+ operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
+ builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
+ dynamic list.
+
+* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
+
+* Add support for Score target.
+
+* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
+ whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
+ shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
+ symbol table in the executable.
+
+* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
+ being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
+ the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
+ default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
+ differing from the VMA for some sections.
+
+* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
+ collection.
+
+* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
+ VFP11 coprocessors.
+
+Changes in 2.17:
+
+* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
+
+* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
+ Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
+ searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
+ Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
+
+* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
+ passed directly to ld.
+
+* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
+
+* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
+ switches can be read from <file>.
+
+Changes in 2.16:
+
+* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
+ specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
+
+* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
+ for input files listed inside of it.
+
+* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
+ default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
+ configured using --with-sysroot.
+
+* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
+ about a specified memory region.
+
+* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
+
+* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
+ override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
+
+* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
+ object.
+
+* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
+ language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
+ maximum alignment.
+
+* Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
+ to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
+
+* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
+ should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
+
+* Support for the crx-elf target added.
+
+* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
+
+* A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table
+ size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
+ is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
+ used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
+ to 1021.
+
+* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
+ that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
+ symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
+ --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
+ might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
+
+Changes in 2.15:
+
+* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
+ be added only when a shared library is referenced.
+
+* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
+ addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
+
* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
-
+
* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
LIB_PATH.
* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
* Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
- specified section.
+ specified section.
* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
Changes in version 2.10:
-* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
+* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
sections into regions.
-* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
+* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
+ Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
+and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
+symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
+sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
+
* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff