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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
60391a25 2
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3* A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
4 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
5 display symbol names and nothing else.
6
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7* A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
8 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
9 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
10 other tools.
11
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12* objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
13 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
14
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15* Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
16 sections.
17
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18* Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
19 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
20 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
21 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
22 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
23 option.
24
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25 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
26 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
27 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
28 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
29 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
30
31 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
32 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
33 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
34 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
35
36 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
37 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
38 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
39 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
40 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
41 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
42 separate debuginfo files.
43
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44* Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
45 diagnostic.
46
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47Changes in 2.36:
48
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49* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
50
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51* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
52 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
53 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
54 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
55
56 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
57 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
58 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
59
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60* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
61 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
62 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
63 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
64
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65* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
66 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
67
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68* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
69 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
70 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
71
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72* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
73 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
74 linker.
75
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76Changes in 2.35:
77
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78* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
79 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
80 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
81 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
82 -T or --silent-truncation options.
83
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84* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
85
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86* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
87 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
88 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
89 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
90 was expecting them to actually contain something.
91
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92Changes in 2.34:
93
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94* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
95 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
96 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
97 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
98 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
99 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
100 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
101 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
102
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103* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
104 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
105
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106* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
107 specified section from being removed.
108
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109 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
110 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
111 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
112 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
113
114 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
115 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
116 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
117 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
118 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
119 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
120 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
121 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
122 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
123 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
124
125 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
126 output.
127
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128Changes in 2.33:
129
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130* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
131 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 132
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133* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
134 the changing of section alignments.
135
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136* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
137 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
138
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139* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
140 instructions.
141
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142* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
143 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
144 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
145 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
146 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
147
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148 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
149 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
150 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
151 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
152 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
153 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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154
155 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
156 to objdump and readelf.
157
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158Changes in 2.32:
159
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160* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
161 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
162 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
163 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 164 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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165
166 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
167 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
168 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
169 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
170
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171* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
172 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 173 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 174
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175* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
176 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
177 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
178 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
179
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180* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
181 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
182 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
183 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
184
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185* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
186 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
187 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
188 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
189 compatibility.
190
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191* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
192 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
193 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
194 Additionally the total is only included once.
195
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196Changes in 2.31:
197
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198* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
199
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200* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
201 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
202 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
203 to objdump.
204
205* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
206 a named register could be invalid.
207
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208* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
209
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210Changes in 2.30:
211
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212* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
213 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
214 sections.
215
216 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
217 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
218 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
219
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220Changes in 2.29:
221
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222* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
223 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
224
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225* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
226 disassembly.
227
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228* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
229 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
230 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
231
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232* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
233 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
234
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235* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
236
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237* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
238
efdf7a02 239* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 240
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241* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
242 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
243
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244* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
245 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
246
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247* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
248 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
249 the original file.
250
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251Changes in 2.28:
252
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253* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
254 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
255 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
256 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
257 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
258 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
259 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
260 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
261 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 262 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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263 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
264 with the instructions being relocated.
265
a05a5b64 266* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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267 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
268 symbol's name.
269
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270* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
271 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
272
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273* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
274 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
275 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
276 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
277
278* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
279 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
280 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
281 an earlier --only-section pattern.
282
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283* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
284 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
285 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
286 the relocation section itself.
287
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288Changes in 2.27:
289
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290* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
291 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
292
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293* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
294 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
295
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296Changes in 2.26:
297
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298* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
299 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
300
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301* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
302
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303* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
304 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
305 targets.
306
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307* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
308
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309* Add --output-separator option to strings.
310
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311Changes in 2.25:
312
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313* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
314 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
315 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
316 default behaviour.
317
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318* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
319
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320* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
321
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322* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
323
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324Changes in 2.24:
325
a05a5b64 326* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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327 section names.
328
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329* Add support for Altera Nios II.
330
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331Changes in 2.23:
332
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333* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
334
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335* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
336
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337* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
338
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339Changes in 2.22:
340
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341* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
342
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343* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
344 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 345
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346* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
347 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
348
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349* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
350
351changes in 2.21:
44f45767 352
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353* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
354 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
355
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356* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
357
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358* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
359 the -u / --unwind option.
360
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361* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
362
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363* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
364 binaries.
81c23f82 365
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366* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
367 '== <ID>' option.
368
a05a5b64 369* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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370 address before function name or source filename.
371
a05a5b64 372* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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373 a more human readable output.
374
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375* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
376
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377Changes in 2.20:
378
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379* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
380 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
381 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
382 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
383 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
384
a05a5b64 385* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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386 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
387 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 388
cf13d699 389* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 390 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 391
a05a5b64 392* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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393 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
394 file.
6e33da12 395
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396* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
397 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
398
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399* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
400 for objcopy.
c067354b 401
92dd4511 402* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 403 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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404 set PE optional header.
405
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406* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
407
408* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
409 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
410 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
411 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
412
0dafdf3f 413* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 414 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 415
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416* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
417 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
418
3aade688 419* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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420 report an error when the import library is associated with
421 multiple DLLs.
422
423* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
424 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
425
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426* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
427 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
428 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
429
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430Changes in 2.19:
431
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432* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
433
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434* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
435 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
436 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
437 added to the archive.
3aade688 438
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439* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
440
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441* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
442
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443* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
444
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445* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
446
876c34bf 447Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 448
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449* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
450 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
451 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 452
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453* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
454 Public License.
455
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456* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
457 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
458
459* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
460 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
461 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
462 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
463 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
464 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 465
a05a5b64 466* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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467 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
468 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
469 to some OSes.
470
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471Changes in 2.17:
472
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473* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
474
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475* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
476 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
477 of types.
478
479* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
480 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
481
4de2ad99 482* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 483 debug sections.
4de2ad99 484
5477e8a0 485* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 486 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 487
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488* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
489 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
490 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
491 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
492
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493* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
494 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
495
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496* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
497
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498* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
499 when disassembling VAX binaries.
500
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501* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
502 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 503
9fbad737 504* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 505 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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506
507Changes in 2.16:
508
b12fe839 509* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 510
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511* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
512 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
513 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
514 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
515
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516* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
517 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 518 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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519 the contents of the .debug_range section.
520
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521* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
522 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
523 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
524 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
525 between ARM and THUMB code.
526
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527* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
528 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
529
530Changes in 2.15:
531
e39893d7 532* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 533 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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534 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
535 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
536
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537* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
538 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
539
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540* readelf can now parse archives.
541
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542* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
543 format compatible with ctags tool.
544
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545* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
546 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
547 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
548 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
549 debugging info.
550
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551* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
552 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 553 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 554
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555* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
556 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
557 with the -a switch.
558
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559Changes in 2.14:
560
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561* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
562
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563* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
564
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565* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
566
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567* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
568 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
569
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570* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
571 Parallel C compiler.
572
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573* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
574 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
575 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
576
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577* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
578
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579Changes in 2.13:
580
581* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
582 and FR500 included.
252b5132 583
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584Changes in version 2.12:
585
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586* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
587
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588* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
589
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590* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
591 lines to fit into 80 columns.
592
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593* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
594
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595* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
596
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597* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
598 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
599
a05a5b64 600* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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601 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
602 by Honda Hiroki.
603
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604* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
605
a05a5b64 606* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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607 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
608 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
609
a05a5b64 610* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 611 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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612 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
613 By Stefan Geuken.
614
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615* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
616
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617Changes in binutils 2.11:
618
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619* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
620 extenstions.
621
a05a5b64 622* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 623 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 624
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625* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
626
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627* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
628
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629* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
630
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631Changes in binutils 2.10:
632
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633* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
634
a05a5b64 635* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 636 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 637 file.
f1563258 638
a05a5b64 639* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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640 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
641 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
642 raw verions.
7d036af2 643
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644* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
645 with intel syntax.
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646
647* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
648 regardless of target machine.
649
650* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
651 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
652 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
653 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
654
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655* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
656
657* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
658 sections.
659
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660* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
661
662* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
663 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
664
665Changes in binutils 2.9:
666
667* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
668 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
669
670* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
671 the VMA of the sections.
672
673* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
674
675Changes in binutils 2.8:
676
677* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
678 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
679 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
680 output.
681
682* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
683 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
684 so they must be in canonical form.
685
686* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
687 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
688
689* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
690
691* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
692
693* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
694
695* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
696
697* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
698
699* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
700
701Changes in binutils 2.7:
702
703* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
704
705* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
706
707* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
708
709* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
710
711* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
712
713* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
714
715* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
716
717* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
718
719Changes in binutils 2.6:
720
721* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
722
723* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
724 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
725 generating plain binary files.
726
727* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
728
729* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
730
731Changes in binutils 2.5:
732
733* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 734 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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735
736* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
737 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
738
739* Added --size-sort option to nm.
740
741* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
742 executables.
743
744Changes in binutils 2.4:
745
746* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
747 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
748
749* Support for Irix 5.
750
751* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
752 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
753
754Changes in binutils 2.3:
755
756* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
757 ELF and COFF files.
758
759* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
760 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
761
762* The strings program has been added.
763
764Changes in binutils 2.2:
765
766* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
767 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
768 'cp'.
769
770* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
771 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
772 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
773
774* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
775 the output from BSD nm.
776
777* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
778
779* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
780
781* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
782
783* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
784
785* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
786
787Changes in binutils 2.1:
788
789* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
790 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
791
792* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
793 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
794 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
795 for Posix.2 conformance.
796
797* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
798 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
799 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
800
801* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
802 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
803
804\f
250d07de 805Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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806
807Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
808are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
809notice and this notice are preserved.
810
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811Local variables:
812fill-column: 79
813End:
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