Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
7feec526 | 2 | |
55a09eb6 TG |
3 | Changes in 2.29: |
4 | ||
48580982 L |
5 | * Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate |
6 | GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties. | |
7 | ||
8 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program | |
9 | properties in the x86 ELF linker. | |
10 | ||
ee2fdd6f | 11 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program |
48580982 | 12 | properties in the x86 ELF linker. |
ee2fdd6f L |
13 | |
14 | * Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled | |
15 | PLT. | |
16 | ||
17 | * Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled | |
18 | PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program | |
19 | properties. | |
20 | ||
a91e1603 L |
21 | * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX. |
22 | ||
46bed679 L |
23 | * Add support for ELF GNU program properties. |
24 | ||
0220170b DD |
25 | * Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor. |
26 | ||
d7488716 AB |
27 | * When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will |
28 | change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time. | |
29 | ||
77f5e65e AB |
30 | * Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a |
31 | mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used. | |
32 | ||
14ea2c1b AB |
33 | * Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now |
34 | take an load memory address starting from LMA. | |
35 | ||
7bdf4127 AB |
36 | * Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members |
37 | placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker | |
38 | option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the | |
39 | linker script. | |
40 | ||
9703a4ef TG |
41 | Changes in 2.28: |
42 | ||
8f1732fc AB |
43 | * The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the |
44 | section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in | |
45 | the list. | |
46 | ||
e23eba97 | 47 | * Add support for the RISC-V architecture. |
76359541 | 48 | |
29063f8b NC |
49 | * The command line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based |
50 | linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections. | |
51 | ||
0955507f TP |
52 | * Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of |
53 | Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified | |
54 | by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such, | |
55 | --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib. | |
56 | ||
76359541 TP |
57 | * Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE |
58 | targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import | |
59 | library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application | |
60 | to link against the executable. | |
61 | ||
96a84ea3 TG |
62 | Changes in 2.27: |
63 | ||
647e4d46 L |
64 | * Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should |
65 | be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux | |
66 | targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. | |
67 | ||
4c10bbaa L |
68 | * Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable |
69 | relocation overflow check. | |
70 | ||
b8871f35 L |
71 | * Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to |
72 | convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link. | |
73 | ||
aec6b87e L |
74 | * Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which |
75 | avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable. | |
76 | ||
cdf96953 MF |
77 | * The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language. |
78 | ||
1f56df9d JW |
79 | * Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time |
80 | values for dynamic relocations. | |
81 | ||
7feec526 TG |
82 | Changes in 2.26: |
83 | ||
a504d23a LA |
84 | * Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time |
85 | workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of | |
86 | the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx) | |
81c23f82 | 87 | |
6c3bc0f8 NC |
88 | * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to |
89 | decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default. | |
90 | ||
886a2506 NC |
91 | * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures. |
92 | ||
0f088b2a KT |
93 | * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections) |
94 | has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets. | |
95 | ||
ea556d25 L |
96 | * New command line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug |
97 | sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi]. | |
98 | ||
c005eb9e AB |
99 | * New command line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to |
100 | adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives | |
101 | the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error | |
102 | respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all | |
103 | orphan sections. | |
3ea60775 | 104 | |
b0619670 L |
105 | * Add support for LLVM plugin. |
106 | ||
3604cb1f TG |
107 | * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage. |
108 | ||
0a618243 AB |
109 | * Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol |
110 | must be defined by the end of the link. | |
111 | ||
c50415e2 TG |
112 | Changes in 2.25: |
113 | ||
eeb14e5a LZ |
114 | * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable |
115 | the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp | |
116 | command line option. | |
117 | ||
73589c9d CS |
118 | * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k. |
119 | ||
61e2488c JT |
120 | * Add support for the --build-id command line option to COFF based targets. |
121 | ||
122 | * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option. | |
123 | ||
35c08157 KLC |
124 | * Add support for the Andes NDS32. |
125 | ||
58ca03a2 TG |
126 | Changes in 2.24: |
127 | ||
2e53f7d6 NC |
128 | * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language |
129 | ||
13761a11 NC |
130 | * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor. |
131 | ||
36591ba1 SL |
132 | * Add support for Altera Nios II. |
133 | ||
78c8d46c NC |
134 | * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture. |
135 | ||
a3c62988 NC |
136 | * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor. |
137 | ||
b1b00fcc MF |
138 | * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags. |
139 | ||
e8044f35 RS |
140 | * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets. |
141 | ||
1eec346e NC |
142 | * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of |
143 | an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections. | |
144 | ||
af18cb59 TG |
145 | Changes in 2.23: |
146 | ||
8d55a8a0 KT |
147 | * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff. |
148 | ||
da2bb560 NC |
149 | * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64. |
150 | ||
eda680f8 L |
151 | * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting. |
152 | ||
62655c7b RM |
153 | * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start' |
154 | to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the | |
155 | program's memory image. | |
156 | ||
6927f982 NC |
157 | * Add support for S12X processor. |
158 | ||
b9c361e0 JL |
159 | * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture. |
160 | ||
f6c1a2d5 NC |
161 | * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture. |
162 | ||
a72173de TG |
163 | * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file). |
164 | ||
99c513f6 DD |
165 | * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture. |
166 | ||
cfb8c092 NC |
167 | * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture. |
168 | ||
a7142d94 TG |
169 | Changes in 2.22: |
170 | ||
d064f206 NC |
171 | * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead |
172 | --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default. | |
173 | ||
ae17ab41 | 174 | * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language |
cfb8c092 | 175 | to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags. |
ae17ab41 | 176 | |
69f56ae1 | 177 | * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures. |
90b3661c | 178 | |
02ecc8e9 | 179 | * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit |
cfb8c092 NC |
180 | sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute |
181 | encoded in the section name. | |
02ecc8e9 | 182 | |
44f45767 TG |
183 | Changes in 2.21: |
184 | ||
5fec8599 L |
185 | * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may |
186 | break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation. | |
187 | ||
17f73277 KT |
188 | * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the |
189 | option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of | |
190 | bfd. | |
191 | ||
40b36596 JM |
192 | * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family. |
193 | ||
ddbb8a31 NC |
194 | * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion |
195 | with --as-needed option. | |
196 | ||
7fcab871 KT |
197 | * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows |
198 | to alias the import/export table name written in PE image. | |
199 | ||
a72173de | 200 | * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all |
2927aaca NC |
201 | symbols from automatically being exported. |
202 | ||
c7927a3c NC |
203 | * Add support for the Renesas RX processor. |
204 | ||
75875724 TG |
205 | * Add support for alpha-vms target. |
206 | ||
81c23f82 TG |
207 | Changes in 2.20: |
208 | ||
3e7a7d11 NC |
209 | * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a |
210 | GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will | |
211 | be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire | |
212 | process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use. | |
ce11ba6c | 213 | |
c1711530 DK |
214 | * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common |
215 | common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in | |
216 | the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools. | |
217 | ||
09e2aba4 DK |
218 | * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols |
219 | are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives | |
220 | are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode. | |
221 | ||
267e2722 CD |
222 | * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and |
223 | --export-dynamic options. | |
224 | ||
a0c402a5 L |
225 | * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate |
226 | ELF machine code. | |
227 | ||
4a93e180 NC |
228 | * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions. |
229 | ||
88183869 DK |
230 | * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to |
231 | the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old | |
232 | (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the | |
3efd345c DK |
233 | new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled |
234 | automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB | |
235 | needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names. | |
88183869 | 236 | |
d8045f23 NC |
237 | * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations |
238 | made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into | |
239 | the resulting binary for processing by the loader. | |
240 | ||
28024d9d L |
241 | * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined |
242 | symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the | |
243 | latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED | |
244 | entry of one of the libraries already linked. | |
245 | ||
258795f5 L |
246 | * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets |
247 | to set the address of the first byte of the text segment. | |
248 | ||
c3b7224a NC |
249 | * Add support for Sunplus score architecture. |
250 | ||
ce11ba6c KT |
251 | * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to |
252 | allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix. | |
253 | ||
e1c37eb5 DK |
254 | * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option, |
255 | allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL | |
256 | and its associated import library as they are generated during linking. | |
257 | ||
84e94c90 NC |
258 | * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture. |
259 | ||
62655c7b | 260 | * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries |
7251ccbf SR |
261 | for Embedded-PIC code) option. |
262 | ||
6cb442d3 KT |
263 | * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of |
264 | pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches | |
265 | --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2. | |
266 | For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit | |
267 | runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two. | |
268 | ||
6e33da12 TG |
269 | Changes in 2.19: |
270 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
271 | * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to |
272 | augment the default script. | |
273 | ||
967928e9 | 274 | * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an |
66c103b7 | 275 | archive by writing "archive:file". |
967928e9 | 276 | |
de7dd2bd NC |
277 | * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the |
278 | direction of sorting. | |
279 | ||
7fb9f789 NC |
280 | * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via |
281 | the --got=<type> command line option. | |
282 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
283 | * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols |
284 | that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new | |
285 | linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N. | |
726150b7 | 286 | |
7c3d153f NC |
287 | Changes in 2.18: |
288 | ||
f96b4a7b NC |
289 | * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public |
290 | License. | |
291 | ||
c0065db7 RM |
292 | * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier |
293 | embedded in a note section. | |
294 | ||
3d3d428f | 295 | * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target. |
a19bcec6 | 296 | |
bcb674cf RS |
297 | * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo, |
298 | without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so. | |
299 | ||
14be8564 L |
300 | * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE' |
301 | which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker | |
302 | script. | |
303 | ||
40b36307 L |
304 | * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++ |
305 | operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data, | |
306 | builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the | |
307 | dynamic list. | |
308 | ||
99ad8390 NC |
309 | * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target. |
310 | ||
1c0d3aa6 NC |
311 | * Add support for Score target. |
312 | ||
55255dae L |
313 | * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols |
314 | whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the | |
315 | shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the | |
316 | symbol table in the executable. | |
317 | ||
dc0b6aa0 AM |
318 | * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from |
319 | being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as | |
320 | the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful | |
321 | default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA | |
322 | differing from the VMA for some sections. | |
323 | ||
c17d87de NC |
324 | * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge |
325 | collection. | |
326 | ||
c6dd86c6 | 327 | * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current |
f96b4a7b | 328 | VFP11 coprocessors. |
c6dd86c6 | 329 | |
c17d87de | 330 | Changes in 2.17: |
cf88bb9f | 331 | |
d70c5fc7 NC |
332 | * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems. |
333 | ||
dfcffada AM |
334 | * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order. |
335 | Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before | |
336 | searching the default directories, rather than vice versa. | |
337 | Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf. | |
c1446dba | 338 | |
4b5bd4e7 DS |
339 | * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files |
340 | passed directly to ld. | |
341 | ||
3c9b82ba NC |
342 | * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added. |
343 | ||
3e8a519c MM |
344 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra |
345 | switches can be read from <file>. | |
346 | ||
957d91c1 NC |
347 | Changes in 2.16: |
348 | ||
319850b4 JB |
349 | * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF |
350 | specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option. | |
351 | ||
b717d30e JJ |
352 | * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag |
353 | for input files listed inside of it. | |
354 | ||
e2243057 RS |
355 | * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the |
356 | default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were | |
357 | configured using --with-sysroot. | |
358 | ||
3ec57632 NC |
359 | * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information |
360 | about a specified memory region. | |
361 | ||
7499d566 NC |
362 | * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech. |
363 | ||
ba916c8a MM |
364 | * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to |
365 | override the base address for a segment from the command-line. | |
366 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
367 | * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared |
368 | object. | |
369 | ||
bcaa7b3e L |
370 | * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script |
371 | language to permit sorting sections by section name or section | |
372 | maximum alignment. | |
373 | ||
374 | * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment, | |
375 | to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment. | |
376 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
377 | * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag |
378 | should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags. | |
14b3c463 | 379 | |
1fe1f39c NC |
380 | * Support for the crx-elf target added. |
381 | ||
1a320fbb | 382 | * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added. |
1fe1f39c | 383 | |
2d643429 NC |
384 | * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table |
385 | size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch | |
386 | is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is | |
387 | used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set | |
388 | to 1021. | |
389 | ||
35835446 JR |
390 | * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols |
391 | that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for | |
392 | symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new | |
393 | --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option | |
394 | might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs. | |
395 | ||
2d643429 | 396 | Changes in 2.15: |
14b3c463 | 397 | |
8fdd7217 NC |
398 | * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should |
399 | be added only when a shared library is referenced. | |
c0065db7 | 400 | |
8fdd7217 | 401 | * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual |
26d2d8a2 BF |
402 | addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. |
403 | ||
1b169501 BF |
404 | * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added. |
405 | ||
c894ddfb HPN |
406 | * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that |
407 | is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used. | |
408 | ||
7a7f4e42 CD |
409 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
410 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
411 | ||
0949843d NC |
412 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
413 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
414 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
415 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
416 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
417 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
418 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
419 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
420 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
421 | Changes in 2.14: |
422 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
423 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
424 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
425 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
426 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
427 | ||
312b768e NC |
428 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
429 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
430 | file format. | |
431 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
432 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
433 | ||
004d9caf NC |
434 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
435 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
c0065db7 | 436 | |
8e523c23 NC |
437 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
438 | LIB_PATH. | |
439 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
440 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
441 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
442 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
443 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
444 | Changes in 2.13: |
445 | ||
446 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
447 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 448 | |
37020578 JT |
449 | Changes in version 2.13: |
450 | ||
451 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
452 | ||
9a66911f NC |
453 | Changes in version 2.12: |
454 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
455 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
456 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
457 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
458 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
459 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
460 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
461 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 462 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
463 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
464 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
465 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
466 | ||
467 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
468 | ||
9a66911f NC |
469 | Changes in version 2.11: |
470 | ||
b8355149 JH |
471 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
472 | ||
18e03609 NC |
473 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
474 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
475 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
476 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
477 | section. | |
252b5132 | 478 | |
ec4eb78a L |
479 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
480 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
481 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
482 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
483 | ||
176355da | 484 | * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
c0065db7 | 485 | specified section. |
176355da | 486 | |
a712da20 NC |
487 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
488 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
489 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
490 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
491 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
492 | ||
22b36938 JE |
493 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
494 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
495 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
496 | ||
500800ca NC |
497 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
498 | ||
919e4093 AM |
499 | Changes in version 2.10: |
500 | ||
c0065db7 | 501 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
5948916f TW |
502 | sections into regions. |
503 | ||
c0065db7 | 504 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
252b5132 | 505 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are |
4667035e AM |
506 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
507 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 508 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
509 | |
510 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
511 | name or section name. | |
512 | ||
513 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
514 | command-line option. | |
515 | ||
516 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
517 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
518 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
519 | wildcard file names. | |
520 | ||
252b5132 | 521 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 522 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
523 | |
524 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
525 | ||
2575273d ILT |
526 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
527 | shared library. | |
528 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
529 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
530 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
531 | behaviour. | |
532 | ||
252b5132 RH |
533 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
534 | ||
535 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
536 | ||
537 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
538 | ||
539 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
540 | ||
541 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
542 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
543 | ||
544 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
545 | ||
546 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
547 | names. | |
548 | ||
549 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
550 | ||
551 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
552 | ||
553 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
554 | ||
555 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
556 | ||
557 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
558 | ||
559 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
560 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
561 | ||
562 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
563 | ||
564 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
565 | ||
566 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
567 | ||
568 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
569 | ||
570 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
571 | ||
572 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
573 | are not included in the output file. | |
574 | ||
575 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
576 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
577 | information generated. | |
578 | ||
579 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
580 | ||
581 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
45f111cc NC |
582 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols |
583 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
584 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
585 | ||
586 | Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards | |
587 | and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The | |
588 | symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed | |
589 | sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined. | |
252b5132 RH |
590 | |
591 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
592 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
593 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
594 | ||
595 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
596 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
597 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 598 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
252b5132 RH |
599 | glibc. |
600 | ||
601 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
602 | ||
603 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
604 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
605 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
606 | nor the -r option was used. | |
607 | ||
608 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
609 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
610 | -L options. | |
611 | ||
612 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
613 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
614 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
615 | prevent this optimization. | |
616 | ||
617 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
618 | ||
619 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
620 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 621 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
622 | |
623 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
624 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
625 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
626 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
627 | Solaris again. | |
628 | ||
629 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
630 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
631 | ||
632 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
633 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
634 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
635 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
636 | ||
637 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
638 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
639 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
640 | ||
641 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
642 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
643 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
644 | default linker script. | |
645 | ||
646 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
647 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
648 | ||
649 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
650 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
651 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
652 | ||
653 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
654 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
655 | ||
656 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
657 | ||
658 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
659 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
660 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
661 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
662 | ||
663 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
664 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
665 | separators. | |
666 | ||
667 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
668 | ||
669 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
670 | ||
671 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
672 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
673 | ||
674 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
675 | ||
676 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
677 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
678 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
679 | ||
680 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
681 | ||
682 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
683 | ||
684 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
685 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
686 | ||
687 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
688 | ||
689 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
690 | ||
691 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
692 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
693 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
694 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
695 | ||
696 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
697 | ||
698 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
699 | ||
700 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
701 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
702 | ||
703 | \f | |
2571583a | 704 | Copyright (C) 2012-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
5bf135a7 NC |
705 | |
706 | Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, | |
707 | are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright | |
708 | notice and this notice are preserved. | |
709 | ||
252b5132 RH |
710 | Local variables: |
711 | fill-column: 79 | |
712 | End: |