Commit | Line | Data |
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252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
7c3d153f NC |
2 | Changes in 2.18: |
3 | ||
f96b4a7b NC |
4 | * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public |
5 | License. | |
6 | ||
c0065db7 RM |
7 | * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier |
8 | embedded in a note section. | |
9 | ||
3d3d428f | 10 | * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target. |
a19bcec6 | 11 | |
bcb674cf RS |
12 | * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo, |
13 | without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so. | |
14 | ||
14be8564 L |
15 | * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE' |
16 | which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker | |
17 | script. | |
18 | ||
40b36307 L |
19 | * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++ |
20 | operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data, | |
21 | builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the | |
22 | dynamic list. | |
23 | ||
99ad8390 NC |
24 | * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target. |
25 | ||
1c0d3aa6 NC |
26 | * Add support for Score target. |
27 | ||
55255dae L |
28 | * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols |
29 | whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the | |
30 | shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the | |
31 | symbol table in the executable. | |
32 | ||
dc0b6aa0 AM |
33 | * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from |
34 | being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as | |
35 | the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful | |
36 | default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA | |
37 | differing from the VMA for some sections. | |
38 | ||
c17d87de NC |
39 | * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge |
40 | collection. | |
41 | ||
c6dd86c6 | 42 | * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current |
f96b4a7b | 43 | VFP11 coprocessors. |
c6dd86c6 | 44 | |
c17d87de | 45 | Changes in 2.17: |
cf88bb9f | 46 | |
d70c5fc7 NC |
47 | * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems. |
48 | ||
dfcffada AM |
49 | * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order. |
50 | Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before | |
51 | searching the default directories, rather than vice versa. | |
52 | Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf. | |
c1446dba | 53 | |
4b5bd4e7 DS |
54 | * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files |
55 | passed directly to ld. | |
56 | ||
3c9b82ba NC |
57 | * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added. |
58 | ||
3e8a519c MM |
59 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra |
60 | switches can be read from <file>. | |
61 | ||
957d91c1 NC |
62 | Changes in 2.16: |
63 | ||
319850b4 JB |
64 | * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF |
65 | specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option. | |
66 | ||
b717d30e JJ |
67 | * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag |
68 | for input files listed inside of it. | |
69 | ||
e2243057 RS |
70 | * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the |
71 | default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were | |
72 | configured using --with-sysroot. | |
73 | ||
3ec57632 NC |
74 | * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information |
75 | about a specified memory region. | |
76 | ||
7499d566 NC |
77 | * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech. |
78 | ||
ba916c8a MM |
79 | * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to |
80 | override the base address for a segment from the command-line. | |
81 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
82 | * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared |
83 | object. | |
84 | ||
bcaa7b3e L |
85 | * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script |
86 | language to permit sorting sections by section name or section | |
87 | maximum alignment. | |
88 | ||
89 | * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment, | |
90 | to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment. | |
91 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
92 | * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag |
93 | should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags. | |
14b3c463 | 94 | |
1fe1f39c NC |
95 | * Support for the crx-elf target added. |
96 | ||
1a320fbb | 97 | * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added. |
1fe1f39c | 98 | |
2d643429 NC |
99 | * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table |
100 | size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch | |
101 | is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is | |
102 | used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set | |
103 | to 1021. | |
104 | ||
35835446 JR |
105 | * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols |
106 | that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for | |
107 | symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new | |
108 | --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option | |
109 | might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs. | |
110 | ||
2d643429 | 111 | Changes in 2.15: |
14b3c463 | 112 | |
8fdd7217 NC |
113 | * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should |
114 | be added only when a shared library is referenced. | |
c0065db7 | 115 | |
8fdd7217 | 116 | * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual |
26d2d8a2 BF |
117 | addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. |
118 | ||
1b169501 BF |
119 | * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added. |
120 | ||
c894ddfb HPN |
121 | * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that |
122 | is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used. | |
123 | ||
7a7f4e42 CD |
124 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
125 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
126 | ||
0949843d NC |
127 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
128 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
129 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
130 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
131 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
132 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
133 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
134 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
135 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
136 | Changes in 2.14: |
137 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
138 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
139 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
140 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
141 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
142 | ||
312b768e NC |
143 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
144 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
145 | file format. | |
146 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
147 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
148 | ||
004d9caf NC |
149 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
150 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
c0065db7 | 151 | |
8e523c23 NC |
152 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
153 | LIB_PATH. | |
154 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
155 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
156 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
157 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
158 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
159 | Changes in 2.13: |
160 | ||
161 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
162 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 163 | |
37020578 JT |
164 | Changes in version 2.13: |
165 | ||
166 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
167 | ||
9a66911f NC |
168 | Changes in version 2.12: |
169 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
170 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
171 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
172 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
173 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
174 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
175 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
176 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 177 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
178 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
179 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
180 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
181 | ||
182 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
183 | ||
9a66911f NC |
184 | Changes in version 2.11: |
185 | ||
b8355149 JH |
186 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
187 | ||
18e03609 NC |
188 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
189 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
190 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
191 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
192 | section. | |
252b5132 | 193 | |
ec4eb78a L |
194 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
195 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
196 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
197 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
198 | ||
176355da | 199 | * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
c0065db7 | 200 | specified section. |
176355da | 201 | |
a712da20 NC |
202 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
203 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
204 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
205 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
206 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
207 | ||
22b36938 JE |
208 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
209 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
210 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
211 | ||
500800ca NC |
212 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
213 | ||
919e4093 AM |
214 | Changes in version 2.10: |
215 | ||
c0065db7 | 216 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
5948916f TW |
217 | sections into regions. |
218 | ||
c0065db7 | 219 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
252b5132 | 220 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are |
4667035e AM |
221 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
222 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 223 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
224 | |
225 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
226 | name or section name. | |
227 | ||
228 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
229 | command-line option. | |
230 | ||
231 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
232 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
233 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
234 | wildcard file names. | |
235 | ||
252b5132 | 236 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 237 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
238 | |
239 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
240 | ||
2575273d ILT |
241 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
242 | shared library. | |
243 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
244 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
245 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
246 | behaviour. | |
247 | ||
252b5132 RH |
248 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
249 | ||
250 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
251 | ||
252 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
253 | ||
254 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
255 | ||
256 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
257 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
258 | ||
259 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
260 | ||
261 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
262 | names. | |
263 | ||
264 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
265 | ||
266 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
267 | ||
268 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
269 | ||
270 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
271 | ||
272 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
273 | ||
274 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
275 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
276 | ||
277 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
278 | ||
279 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
280 | ||
281 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
282 | ||
283 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
284 | ||
285 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
286 | ||
287 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
288 | are not included in the output file. | |
289 | ||
290 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
291 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
292 | information generated. | |
293 | ||
294 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
295 | ||
296 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
297 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols | |
298 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
299 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
300 | ||
301 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
302 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
303 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
304 | ||
305 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
306 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
307 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 308 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
252b5132 RH |
309 | glibc. |
310 | ||
311 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
312 | ||
313 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
314 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
315 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
316 | nor the -r option was used. | |
317 | ||
318 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
319 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
320 | -L options. | |
321 | ||
322 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
323 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
324 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
325 | prevent this optimization. | |
326 | ||
327 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
328 | ||
329 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
330 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 331 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
332 | |
333 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
334 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
335 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
336 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
337 | Solaris again. | |
338 | ||
339 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
340 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
341 | ||
342 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
343 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
344 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
345 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
346 | ||
347 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
348 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
349 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
350 | ||
351 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
352 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
353 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
354 | default linker script. | |
355 | ||
356 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
357 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
358 | ||
359 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
360 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
361 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
362 | ||
363 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
364 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
365 | ||
366 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
367 | ||
368 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
369 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
370 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
371 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
372 | ||
373 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
374 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
375 | separators. | |
376 | ||
377 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
378 | ||
379 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
380 | ||
381 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
382 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
383 | ||
384 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
385 | ||
386 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
387 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
388 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
389 | ||
390 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
391 | ||
392 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
393 | ||
394 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
395 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
396 | ||
397 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
398 | ||
399 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
400 | ||
401 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
402 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
403 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
404 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
405 | ||
406 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
407 | ||
408 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
409 | ||
410 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
411 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
412 | ||
413 | \f | |
414 | Local variables: | |
415 | fill-column: 79 | |
416 | End: |