Convert i960 COFF to use COFF backend linker.

[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / ld / NEWS

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Changes since version 2.4:

* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries.  It still can
not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
generate shared libaries.

* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris).  It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
used to generate shared libraries.  Shared library generation is not well
tested; please report any problems encountered.  The linker is now enabled for
Solaris again.

* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
Linux a.out shared libraries.  The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.

* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  To use the new
ELF linker, each particular targets requires a relocation function.  So far,
this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) and MIPS
(Irix 5) targets.

* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).

* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
file.  A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
default linker script.

* The -warn-once option was added.  It causes the linker to only warn once per
undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.

Changes since version 2.3:

* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor.  For a.out and ecoff
  formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
  and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
  before for formats not converted yet.

* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex.  This means
  oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
  separators.

* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law.  (No SOM support yet.)

* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.

* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
  libraries are not yet supported).

* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.

* The linker is disabled for Solaris.  (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
  forgot to note it.)  Some of their C library routines don't work when
  statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.

Changes since version 2.2:

* Weak symbols are now supported.

* ELF support has been added.  The linker has been bootstrapped on
  UnixWare and Solaris.

* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).

Changes since version 2.1:

* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
  table size.  The effect of this is that files linked from many input
  files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
  static symbols) should be much smaller.

Changes since version 2.0:

* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.

* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
  other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.

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