Remove LIBS from two sim Makefiles
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / binutils / NEWS
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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
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3* The readelf tool has a new command line option which can be used to specify
4 how the numeric values of symbols are reported. --sym-base=0|8|10|16 tells
5 readelf to display the values in base 8, base 10 or base 16. A sym base of 0
6 represents the default action of displaying values under 10000 in base 10 and
7 values above that in base 16.
8
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9* Binutils now requires a C99 compiler and library to build.
10
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11* A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
12 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
13 display symbol names and nothing else.
14
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15* A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
16 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
17 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
18 other tools.
19
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20* objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
21 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
22
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23* Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
24 sections.
25
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26* Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
27 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
28 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
29 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
30 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
31 option.
32
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33 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
34 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
35 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
36 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
37 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
38
39 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
40 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
41 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
42 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
43
44 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
45 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
46 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
47 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
48 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
49 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
50 separate debuginfo files.
51
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52* Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
53 diagnostic.
54
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55Changes in 2.36:
56
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57* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
58
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59* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
60 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
61 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
62 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
63
64 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
65 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
66 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
67
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68* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
69 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
70 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
71 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
72
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73* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
74 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
75
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76* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
77 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
78 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
79
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80* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
81 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
82 linker.
83
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84Changes in 2.35:
85
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86* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
87 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
88 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
89 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
90 -T or --silent-truncation options.
91
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92* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
93
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94* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
95 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
96 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
97 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
98 was expecting them to actually contain something.
99
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100Changes in 2.34:
101
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102* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
103 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
104 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
105 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
106 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
107 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
108 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
109 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
110
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111* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
112 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
113
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114* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
115 specified section from being removed.
116
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117 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
118 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
119 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
120 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
121
122 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
123 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
124 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
125 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
126 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
127 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
128 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
129 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
130 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
131 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
132
133 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
134 output.
135
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136Changes in 2.33:
137
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138* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
139 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 140
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141* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
142 the changing of section alignments.
143
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144* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
145 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
146
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147* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
148 instructions.
149
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150* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
151 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
152 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
153 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
154 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
155
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156 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
157 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
158 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
159 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
160 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
161 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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162
163 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
164 to objdump and readelf.
165
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166Changes in 2.32:
167
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168* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
169 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
170 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
171 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 172 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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173
174 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
175 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
176 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
177 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
178
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179* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
180 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 181 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 182
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183* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
184 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
185 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
186 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
187
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188* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
189 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
190 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
191 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
192
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193* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
194 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
195 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
196 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
197 compatibility.
198
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199* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
200 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
201 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
202 Additionally the total is only included once.
203
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204Changes in 2.31:
205
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206* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
207
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208* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
209 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
210 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
211 to objdump.
212
213* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
214 a named register could be invalid.
215
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216* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
217
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218Changes in 2.30:
219
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220* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
221 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
222 sections.
223
224 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
225 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
226 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
227
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228Changes in 2.29:
229
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230* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
231 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
232
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233* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
234 disassembly.
235
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236* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
237 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
238 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
239
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240* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
241 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
242
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243* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
244
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245* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
246
efdf7a02 247* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 248
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249* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
250 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
251
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252* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
253 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
254
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255* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
256 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
257 the original file.
258
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259Changes in 2.28:
260
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261* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
262 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
263 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
264 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
265 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
266 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
267 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
268 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
269 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 270 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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271 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
272 with the instructions being relocated.
273
a05a5b64 274* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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275 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
276 symbol's name.
277
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278* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
279 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
280
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281* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
282 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
283 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
284 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
285
286* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
287 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
288 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
289 an earlier --only-section pattern.
290
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291* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
292 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
293 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
294 the relocation section itself.
295
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296Changes in 2.27:
297
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298* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
299 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
300
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301* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
302 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
303
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304Changes in 2.26:
305
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306* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
307 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
308
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309* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
310
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311* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
312 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
313 targets.
314
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315* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
316
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317* Add --output-separator option to strings.
318
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319Changes in 2.25:
320
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321* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
322 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
323 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
324 default behaviour.
325
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326* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
327
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328* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
329
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330* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
331
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332Changes in 2.24:
333
a05a5b64 334* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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335 section names.
336
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337* Add support for Altera Nios II.
338
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339Changes in 2.23:
340
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341* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
342
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343* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
344
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345* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
346
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347Changes in 2.22:
348
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349* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
350
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351* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
352 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 353
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354* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
355 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
356
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357* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
358
359changes in 2.21:
44f45767 360
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361* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
362 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
363
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364* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
365
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366* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
367 the -u / --unwind option.
368
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369* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
370
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371* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
372 binaries.
81c23f82 373
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374* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
375 '== <ID>' option.
376
a05a5b64 377* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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378 address before function name or source filename.
379
a05a5b64 380* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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381 a more human readable output.
382
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383* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
384
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385Changes in 2.20:
386
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387* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
388 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
389 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
390 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
391 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
392
a05a5b64 393* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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394 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
395 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 396
cf13d699 397* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 398 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 399
a05a5b64 400* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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401 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
402 file.
6e33da12 403
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404* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
405 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
406
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407* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
408 for objcopy.
c067354b 409
92dd4511 410* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 411 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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412 set PE optional header.
413
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414* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
415
416* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
417 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
418 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
419 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
420
0dafdf3f 421* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 422 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 423
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424* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
425 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
426
3aade688 427* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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428 report an error when the import library is associated with
429 multiple DLLs.
430
431* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
432 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
433
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434* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
435 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
436 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
437
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438Changes in 2.19:
439
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440* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
441
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442* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
443 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
444 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
445 added to the archive.
3aade688 446
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447* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
448
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449* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
450
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451* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
452
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453* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
454
876c34bf 455Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 456
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457* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
458 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
459 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 460
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461* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
462 Public License.
463
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464* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
465 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
466
467* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
468 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
469 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
470 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
471 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
472 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 473
a05a5b64 474* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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475 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
476 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
477 to some OSes.
478
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479Changes in 2.17:
480
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481* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
482
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483* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
484 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
485 of types.
486
487* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
488 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
489
4de2ad99 490* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 491 debug sections.
4de2ad99 492
5477e8a0 493* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 494 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 495
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496* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
497 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
498 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
499 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
500
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501* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
502 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
503
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504* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
505
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506* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
507 when disassembling VAX binaries.
508
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509* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
510 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 511
9fbad737 512* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 513 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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514
515Changes in 2.16:
516
b12fe839 517* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 518
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519* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
520 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
521 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
522 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
523
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524* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
525 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 526 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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527 the contents of the .debug_range section.
528
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529* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
530 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
531 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
532 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
533 between ARM and THUMB code.
534
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535* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
536 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
537
538Changes in 2.15:
539
e39893d7 540* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 541 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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542 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
543 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
544
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545* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
546 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
547
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548* readelf can now parse archives.
549
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550* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
551 format compatible with ctags tool.
552
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553* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
554 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
555 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
556 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
557 debugging info.
558
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559* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
560 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 561 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 562
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563* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
564 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
565 with the -a switch.
566
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567Changes in 2.14:
568
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569* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
570
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571* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
572
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573* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
574
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575* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
576 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
577
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578* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
579 Parallel C compiler.
580
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581* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
582 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
583 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
584
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585* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
586
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587Changes in 2.13:
588
589* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
590 and FR500 included.
252b5132 591
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592Changes in version 2.12:
593
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594* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
595
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596* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
597
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598* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
599 lines to fit into 80 columns.
600
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601* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
602
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603* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
604
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605* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
606 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
607
a05a5b64 608* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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609 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
610 by Honda Hiroki.
611
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612* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
613
a05a5b64 614* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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615 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
616 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
617
a05a5b64 618* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 619 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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620 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
621 By Stefan Geuken.
622
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623* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
624
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625Changes in binutils 2.11:
626
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627* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
628 extenstions.
629
a05a5b64 630* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 631 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 632
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633* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
634
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635* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
636
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637* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
638
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639Changes in binutils 2.10:
640
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641* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
642
a05a5b64 643* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 644 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 645 file.
f1563258 646
a05a5b64 647* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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648 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
649 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
650 raw verions.
7d036af2 651
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652* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
653 with intel syntax.
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654
655* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
656 regardless of target machine.
657
658* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
659 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
660 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
661 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
662
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663* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
664
665* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
666 sections.
667
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668* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
669
670* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
671 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
672
673Changes in binutils 2.9:
674
675* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
676 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
677
678* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
679 the VMA of the sections.
680
681* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
682
683Changes in binutils 2.8:
684
685* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
686 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
687 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
688 output.
689
690* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
691 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
692 so they must be in canonical form.
693
694* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
695 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
696
697* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
698
699* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
700
701* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
702
703* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
704
705* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
706
707* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
708
709Changes in binutils 2.7:
710
711* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
712
713* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
714
715* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
716
717* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
718
719* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
720
721* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
722
723* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
724
725* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
726
727Changes in binutils 2.6:
728
729* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
730
731* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
732 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
733 generating plain binary files.
734
735* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
736
737* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
738
739Changes in binutils 2.5:
740
741* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 742 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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743
744* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
745 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
746
747* Added --size-sort option to nm.
748
749* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
750 executables.
751
752Changes in binutils 2.4:
753
754* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
755 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
756
757* Support for Irix 5.
758
759* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
760 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
761
762Changes in binutils 2.3:
763
764* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
765 ELF and COFF files.
766
767* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
768 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
769
770* The strings program has been added.
771
772Changes in binutils 2.2:
773
774* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
775 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
776 'cp'.
777
778* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
779 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
780 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
781
782* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
783 the output from BSD nm.
784
785* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
786
787* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
788
789* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
790
791* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
792
793* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
794
795Changes in binutils 2.1:
796
797* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
798 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
799
800* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
801 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
802 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
803 for Posix.2 conformance.
804
805* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
806 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
807 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
808
809* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
810 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
811
812\f
250d07de 813Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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814
815Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
816are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
817notice and this notice are preserved.
818
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819Local variables:
820fill-column: 79
821End:
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