Implement a workaround for GNU mak jobserver
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / binutils / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
60391a25 2
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3Changes in 2.36:
4
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5* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
6
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7* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
8 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
9 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
10 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
11
12 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
13 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
14 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
15
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16* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
17 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
18 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
19 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
20
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21* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
22 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
23
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24* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
25 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
26 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
27
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28* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
29 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
30 linker.
31
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32Changes in 2.35:
33
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34* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
35 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
36 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
37 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
38 -T or --silent-truncation options.
39
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40* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
41
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42* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
43 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
44 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
45 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
46 was expecting them to actually contain something.
47
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48Changes in 2.34:
49
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50* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
51 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
52 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
53 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
54 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
55 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
56 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
57 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
58
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59* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
60 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
61
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62* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
63 specified section from being removed.
64
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65 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
66 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
67 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
68 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
69
70 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
71 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
72 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
73 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
74 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
75 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
76 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
77 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
78 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
79 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
80
81 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
82 output.
83
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84Changes in 2.33:
85
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86* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
87 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 88
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89* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
90 the changing of section alignments.
91
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92* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
93 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
94
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95* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
96 instructions.
97
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98* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
99 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
100 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
101 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
102 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
103
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104 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
105 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
106 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
107 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
108 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
109 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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110
111 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
112 to objdump and readelf.
113
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114Changes in 2.32:
115
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116* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
117 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
118 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
119 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 120 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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121
122 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
123 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
124 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
125 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
126
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127* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
128 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 129 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 130
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131* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
132 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
133 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
134 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
135
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136* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
137 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
138 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
139 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
140
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141* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
142 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
143 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
144 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
145 compatibility.
146
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147* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
148 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
149 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
150 Additionally the total is only included once.
151
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152Changes in 2.31:
153
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154* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
155
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156* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
157 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
158 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
159 to objdump.
160
161* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
162 a named register could be invalid.
163
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164* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
165
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166Changes in 2.30:
167
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168* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
169 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
170 sections.
171
172 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
173 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
174 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
175
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176Changes in 2.29:
177
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178* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
179 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
180
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181* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
182 disassembly.
183
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184* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
185 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
186 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
187
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188* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
189 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
190
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191* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
192
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193* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
194
efdf7a02 195* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 196
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197* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
198 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
199
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200* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
201 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
202
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203* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
204 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
205 the original file.
206
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207Changes in 2.28:
208
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209* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
210 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
211 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
212 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
213 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
214 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
215 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
216 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
217 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 218 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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219 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
220 with the instructions being relocated.
221
a05a5b64 222* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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223 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
224 symbol's name.
225
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226* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
227 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
228
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229* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
230 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
231 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
232 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
233
234* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
235 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
236 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
237 an earlier --only-section pattern.
238
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239* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
240 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
241 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
242 the relocation section itself.
243
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244Changes in 2.27:
245
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246* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
247 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
248
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249* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
250 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
251
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252Changes in 2.26:
253
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254* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
255 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
256
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257* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
258
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259* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
260 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
261 targets.
262
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263* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
264
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265* Add --output-separator option to strings.
266
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267Changes in 2.25:
268
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269* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
270 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
271 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
272 default behaviour.
273
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274* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
275
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276* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
277
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278* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
279
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280Changes in 2.24:
281
a05a5b64 282* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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283 section names.
284
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285* Add support for Altera Nios II.
286
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287Changes in 2.23:
288
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289* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
290
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291* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
292
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293* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
294
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295Changes in 2.22:
296
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297* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
298
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299* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
300 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 301
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302* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
303 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
304
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305* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
306
307changes in 2.21:
44f45767 308
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309* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
310 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
311
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312* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
313
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314* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
315 the -u / --unwind option.
316
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317* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
318
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319* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
320 binaries.
81c23f82 321
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322* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
323 '== <ID>' option.
324
a05a5b64 325* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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326 address before function name or source filename.
327
a05a5b64 328* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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329 a more human readable output.
330
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331* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
332
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333Changes in 2.20:
334
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335* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
336 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
337 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
338 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
339 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
340
a05a5b64 341* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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342 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
343 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 344
cf13d699 345* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 346 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 347
a05a5b64 348* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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349 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
350 file.
6e33da12 351
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352* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
353 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
354
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355* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
356 for objcopy.
c067354b 357
92dd4511 358* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 359 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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360 set PE optional header.
361
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362* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
363
364* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
365 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
366 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
367 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
368
0dafdf3f 369* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 370 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 371
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372* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
373 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
374
3aade688 375* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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376 report an error when the import library is associated with
377 multiple DLLs.
378
379* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
380 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
381
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382* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
383 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
384 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
385
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386Changes in 2.19:
387
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388* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
389
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390* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
391 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
392 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
393 added to the archive.
3aade688 394
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395* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
396
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397* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
398
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399* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
400
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401* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
402
876c34bf 403Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 404
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405* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
406 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
407 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 408
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409* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
410 Public License.
411
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412* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
413 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
414
415* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
416 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
417 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
418 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
419 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
420 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 421
a05a5b64 422* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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423 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
424 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
425 to some OSes.
426
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427Changes in 2.17:
428
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429* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
430
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431* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
432 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
433 of types.
434
435* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
436 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
437
4de2ad99 438* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 439 debug sections.
4de2ad99 440
5477e8a0 441* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 442 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 443
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444* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
445 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
446 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
447 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
448
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449* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
450 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
451
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452* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
453
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454* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
455 when disassembling VAX binaries.
456
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457* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
458 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 459
9fbad737 460* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 461 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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462
463Changes in 2.16:
464
b12fe839 465* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 466
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467* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
468 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
469 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
470 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
471
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472* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
473 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 474 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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475 the contents of the .debug_range section.
476
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477* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
478 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
479 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
480 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
481 between ARM and THUMB code.
482
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483* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
484 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
485
486Changes in 2.15:
487
e39893d7 488* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 489 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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490 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
491 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
492
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493* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
494 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
495
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496* readelf can now parse archives.
497
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498* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
499 format compatible with ctags tool.
500
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501* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
502 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
503 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
504 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
505 debugging info.
506
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507* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
508 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 509 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 510
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511* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
512 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
513 with the -a switch.
514
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515Changes in 2.14:
516
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517* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
518
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519* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
520
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521* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
522
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523* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
524 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
525
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526* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
527 Parallel C compiler.
528
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529* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
530 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
531 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
532
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533* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
534
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535Changes in 2.13:
536
537* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
538 and FR500 included.
252b5132 539
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540Changes in version 2.12:
541
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542* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
543
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544* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
545
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546* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
547 lines to fit into 80 columns.
548
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549* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
550
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551* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
552
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553* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
554 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
555
a05a5b64 556* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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557 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
558 by Honda Hiroki.
559
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560* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
561
a05a5b64 562* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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563 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
564 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
565
a05a5b64 566* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 567 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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568 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
569 By Stefan Geuken.
570
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571* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
572
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573Changes in binutils 2.11:
574
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575* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
576 extenstions.
577
a05a5b64 578* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 579 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 580
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581* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
582
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583* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
584
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585* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
586
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587Changes in binutils 2.10:
588
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589* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
590
a05a5b64 591* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 592 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 593 file.
f1563258 594
a05a5b64 595* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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596 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
597 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
598 raw verions.
7d036af2 599
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600* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
601 with intel syntax.
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602
603* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
604 regardless of target machine.
605
606* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
607 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
608 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
609 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
610
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611* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
612
613* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
614 sections.
615
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616* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
617
618* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
619 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
620
621Changes in binutils 2.9:
622
623* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
624 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
625
626* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
627 the VMA of the sections.
628
629* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
630
631Changes in binutils 2.8:
632
633* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
634 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
635 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
636 output.
637
638* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
639 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
640 so they must be in canonical form.
641
642* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
643 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
644
645* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
646
647* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
648
649* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
650
651* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
652
653* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
654
655* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
656
657Changes in binutils 2.7:
658
659* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
660
661* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
662
663* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
664
665* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
666
667* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
668
669* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
670
671* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
672
673* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
674
675Changes in binutils 2.6:
676
677* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
678
679* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
680 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
681 generating plain binary files.
682
683* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
684
685* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
686
687Changes in binutils 2.5:
688
689* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 690 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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691
692* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
693 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
694
695* Added --size-sort option to nm.
696
697* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
698 executables.
699
700Changes in binutils 2.4:
701
702* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
703 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
704
705* Support for Irix 5.
706
707* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
708 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
709
710Changes in binutils 2.3:
711
712* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
713 ELF and COFF files.
714
715* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
716 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
717
718* The strings program has been added.
719
720Changes in binutils 2.2:
721
722* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
723 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
724 'cp'.
725
726* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
727 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
728 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
729
730* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
731 the output from BSD nm.
732
733* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
734
735* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
736
737* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
738
739* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
740
741* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
742
743Changes in binutils 2.1:
744
745* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
746 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
747
748* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
749 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
750 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
751 for Posix.2 conformance.
752
753* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
754 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
755 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
756
757* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
758 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
759
760\f
250d07de 761Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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762
763Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
764are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
765notice and this notice are preserved.
766
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767Local variables:
768fill-column: 79
769End:
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