Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
ce11ba6c | 2 | |
28024d9d L |
3 | * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined |
4 | symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the | |
5 | latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED | |
6 | entry of one of the libraries already linked. | |
7 | ||
258795f5 L |
8 | * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets |
9 | to set the address of the first byte of the text segment. | |
10 | ||
ce11ba6c KT |
11 | * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to |
12 | allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix. | |
13 | ||
e1c37eb5 DK |
14 | * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option, |
15 | allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL | |
16 | and its associated import library as they are generated during linking. | |
17 | ||
84e94c90 NC |
18 | * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture. |
19 | ||
7251ccbf SR |
20 | * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries |
21 | for Embedded-PIC code) option. | |
22 | ||
6cb442d3 KT |
23 | * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of |
24 | pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches | |
25 | --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2. | |
26 | For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit | |
27 | runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two. | |
28 | ||
6e33da12 TG |
29 | Changes in 2.19: |
30 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
31 | * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to |
32 | augment the default script. | |
33 | ||
967928e9 | 34 | * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an |
66c103b7 | 35 | archive by writing "archive:file". |
967928e9 | 36 | |
de7dd2bd NC |
37 | * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the |
38 | direction of sorting. | |
39 | ||
7fb9f789 NC |
40 | * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via |
41 | the --got=<type> command line option. | |
42 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
43 | * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols |
44 | that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new | |
45 | linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N. | |
726150b7 | 46 | |
7c3d153f NC |
47 | Changes in 2.18: |
48 | ||
f96b4a7b NC |
49 | * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public |
50 | License. | |
51 | ||
c0065db7 RM |
52 | * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier |
53 | embedded in a note section. | |
54 | ||
3d3d428f | 55 | * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target. |
a19bcec6 | 56 | |
bcb674cf RS |
57 | * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo, |
58 | without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so. | |
59 | ||
14be8564 L |
60 | * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE' |
61 | which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker | |
62 | script. | |
63 | ||
40b36307 L |
64 | * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++ |
65 | operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data, | |
66 | builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the | |
67 | dynamic list. | |
68 | ||
99ad8390 NC |
69 | * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target. |
70 | ||
1c0d3aa6 NC |
71 | * Add support for Score target. |
72 | ||
55255dae L |
73 | * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols |
74 | whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the | |
75 | shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the | |
76 | symbol table in the executable. | |
77 | ||
dc0b6aa0 AM |
78 | * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from |
79 | being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as | |
80 | the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful | |
81 | default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA | |
82 | differing from the VMA for some sections. | |
83 | ||
c17d87de NC |
84 | * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge |
85 | collection. | |
86 | ||
c6dd86c6 | 87 | * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current |
f96b4a7b | 88 | VFP11 coprocessors. |
c6dd86c6 | 89 | |
c17d87de | 90 | Changes in 2.17: |
cf88bb9f | 91 | |
d70c5fc7 NC |
92 | * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems. |
93 | ||
dfcffada AM |
94 | * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order. |
95 | Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before | |
96 | searching the default directories, rather than vice versa. | |
97 | Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf. | |
c1446dba | 98 | |
4b5bd4e7 DS |
99 | * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files |
100 | passed directly to ld. | |
101 | ||
3c9b82ba NC |
102 | * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added. |
103 | ||
3e8a519c MM |
104 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra |
105 | switches can be read from <file>. | |
106 | ||
957d91c1 NC |
107 | Changes in 2.16: |
108 | ||
319850b4 JB |
109 | * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF |
110 | specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option. | |
111 | ||
b717d30e JJ |
112 | * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag |
113 | for input files listed inside of it. | |
114 | ||
e2243057 RS |
115 | * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the |
116 | default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were | |
117 | configured using --with-sysroot. | |
118 | ||
3ec57632 NC |
119 | * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information |
120 | about a specified memory region. | |
121 | ||
7499d566 NC |
122 | * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech. |
123 | ||
ba916c8a MM |
124 | * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to |
125 | override the base address for a segment from the command-line. | |
126 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
127 | * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared |
128 | object. | |
129 | ||
bcaa7b3e L |
130 | * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script |
131 | language to permit sorting sections by section name or section | |
132 | maximum alignment. | |
133 | ||
134 | * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment, | |
135 | to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment. | |
136 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
137 | * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag |
138 | should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags. | |
14b3c463 | 139 | |
1fe1f39c NC |
140 | * Support for the crx-elf target added. |
141 | ||
1a320fbb | 142 | * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added. |
1fe1f39c | 143 | |
2d643429 NC |
144 | * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table |
145 | size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch | |
146 | is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is | |
147 | used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set | |
148 | to 1021. | |
149 | ||
35835446 JR |
150 | * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols |
151 | that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for | |
152 | symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new | |
153 | --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option | |
154 | might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs. | |
155 | ||
2d643429 | 156 | Changes in 2.15: |
14b3c463 | 157 | |
8fdd7217 NC |
158 | * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should |
159 | be added only when a shared library is referenced. | |
c0065db7 | 160 | |
8fdd7217 | 161 | * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual |
26d2d8a2 BF |
162 | addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. |
163 | ||
1b169501 BF |
164 | * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added. |
165 | ||
c894ddfb HPN |
166 | * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that |
167 | is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used. | |
168 | ||
7a7f4e42 CD |
169 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
170 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
171 | ||
0949843d NC |
172 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
173 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
174 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
175 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
176 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
177 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
178 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
179 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
180 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
181 | Changes in 2.14: |
182 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
183 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
184 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
185 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
186 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
187 | ||
312b768e NC |
188 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
189 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
190 | file format. | |
191 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
192 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
193 | ||
004d9caf NC |
194 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
195 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
c0065db7 | 196 | |
8e523c23 NC |
197 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
198 | LIB_PATH. | |
199 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
200 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
201 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
202 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
203 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
204 | Changes in 2.13: |
205 | ||
206 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
207 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 208 | |
37020578 JT |
209 | Changes in version 2.13: |
210 | ||
211 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
212 | ||
9a66911f NC |
213 | Changes in version 2.12: |
214 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
215 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
216 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
217 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
218 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
219 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
220 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
221 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 222 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
223 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
224 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
225 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
226 | ||
227 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
228 | ||
9a66911f NC |
229 | Changes in version 2.11: |
230 | ||
b8355149 JH |
231 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
232 | ||
18e03609 NC |
233 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
234 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
235 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
236 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
237 | section. | |
252b5132 | 238 | |
ec4eb78a L |
239 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
240 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
241 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
242 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
243 | ||
176355da | 244 | * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
c0065db7 | 245 | specified section. |
176355da | 246 | |
a712da20 NC |
247 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
248 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
249 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
250 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
251 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
252 | ||
22b36938 JE |
253 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
254 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
255 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
256 | ||
500800ca NC |
257 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
258 | ||
919e4093 AM |
259 | Changes in version 2.10: |
260 | ||
c0065db7 | 261 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
5948916f TW |
262 | sections into regions. |
263 | ||
c0065db7 | 264 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
252b5132 | 265 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are |
4667035e AM |
266 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
267 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 268 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
269 | |
270 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
271 | name or section name. | |
272 | ||
273 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
274 | command-line option. | |
275 | ||
276 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
277 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
278 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
279 | wildcard file names. | |
280 | ||
252b5132 | 281 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 282 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
283 | |
284 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
285 | ||
2575273d ILT |
286 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
287 | shared library. | |
288 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
289 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
290 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
291 | behaviour. | |
292 | ||
252b5132 RH |
293 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
294 | ||
295 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
296 | ||
297 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
298 | ||
299 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
300 | ||
301 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
302 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
303 | ||
304 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
305 | ||
306 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
307 | names. | |
308 | ||
309 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
310 | ||
311 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
312 | ||
313 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
314 | ||
315 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
316 | ||
317 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
318 | ||
319 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
320 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
321 | ||
322 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
323 | ||
324 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
325 | ||
326 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
327 | ||
328 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
329 | ||
330 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
331 | ||
332 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
333 | are not included in the output file. | |
334 | ||
335 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
336 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
337 | information generated. | |
338 | ||
339 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
340 | ||
341 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
45f111cc NC |
342 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols |
343 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
344 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
345 | ||
346 | Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards | |
347 | and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The | |
348 | symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed | |
349 | sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined. | |
252b5132 RH |
350 | |
351 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
352 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
353 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
354 | ||
355 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
356 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
357 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 358 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
252b5132 RH |
359 | glibc. |
360 | ||
361 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
362 | ||
363 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
364 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
365 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
366 | nor the -r option was used. | |
367 | ||
368 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
369 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
370 | -L options. | |
371 | ||
372 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
373 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
374 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
375 | prevent this optimization. | |
376 | ||
377 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
378 | ||
379 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
380 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 381 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
382 | |
383 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
384 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
385 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
386 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
387 | Solaris again. | |
388 | ||
389 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
390 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
391 | ||
392 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
393 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
394 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
395 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
396 | ||
397 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
398 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
399 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
400 | ||
401 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
402 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
403 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
404 | default linker script. | |
405 | ||
406 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
407 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
408 | ||
409 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
410 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
411 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
412 | ||
413 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
414 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
415 | ||
416 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
417 | ||
418 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
419 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
420 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
421 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
422 | ||
423 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
424 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
425 | separators. | |
426 | ||
427 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
428 | ||
429 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
430 | ||
431 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
432 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
433 | ||
434 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
435 | ||
436 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
437 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
438 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
439 | ||
440 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
441 | ||
442 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
443 | ||
444 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
445 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
446 | ||
447 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
448 | ||
449 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
450 | ||
451 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
452 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
453 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
454 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
455 | ||
456 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
457 | ||
458 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
459 | ||
460 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
461 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
462 | ||
463 | \f | |
464 | Local variables: | |
465 | fill-column: 79 | |
466 | End: |