Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
81c23f82 | 2 | |
0f088b2a KT |
3 | * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections) |
4 | has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets. | |
5 | ||
ea556d25 L |
6 | * New command line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug |
7 | sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi]. | |
8 | ||
3ea60775 NC |
9 | * Add --warn-orphan option to report orphan sections. |
10 | ||
b0619670 L |
11 | * Add support for LLVM plugin. |
12 | ||
3604cb1f TG |
13 | * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage. |
14 | ||
c50415e2 TG |
15 | Changes in 2.25: |
16 | ||
eeb14e5a LZ |
17 | * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable |
18 | the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp | |
19 | command line option. | |
20 | ||
73589c9d CS |
21 | * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k. |
22 | ||
61e2488c JT |
23 | * Add support for the --build-id command line option to COFF based targets. |
24 | ||
25 | * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option. | |
26 | ||
35c08157 KLC |
27 | * Add support for the Andes NDS32. |
28 | ||
58ca03a2 TG |
29 | Changes in 2.24: |
30 | ||
2e53f7d6 NC |
31 | * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language |
32 | ||
13761a11 NC |
33 | * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor. |
34 | ||
36591ba1 SL |
35 | * Add support for Altera Nios II. |
36 | ||
78c8d46c NC |
37 | * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture. |
38 | ||
a3c62988 NC |
39 | * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor. |
40 | ||
b1b00fcc MF |
41 | * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags. |
42 | ||
e8044f35 RS |
43 | * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets. |
44 | ||
1eec346e NC |
45 | * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of |
46 | an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections. | |
47 | ||
af18cb59 TG |
48 | Changes in 2.23: |
49 | ||
8d55a8a0 KT |
50 | * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff. |
51 | ||
da2bb560 NC |
52 | * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64. |
53 | ||
eda680f8 L |
54 | * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting. |
55 | ||
62655c7b RM |
56 | * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start' |
57 | to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the | |
58 | program's memory image. | |
59 | ||
6927f982 NC |
60 | * Add support for S12X processor. |
61 | ||
b9c361e0 JL |
62 | * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture. |
63 | ||
f6c1a2d5 NC |
64 | * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture. |
65 | ||
a72173de TG |
66 | * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file). |
67 | ||
99c513f6 DD |
68 | * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture. |
69 | ||
cfb8c092 NC |
70 | * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture. |
71 | ||
a7142d94 TG |
72 | Changes in 2.22: |
73 | ||
d064f206 NC |
74 | * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead |
75 | --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default. | |
76 | ||
ae17ab41 | 77 | * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language |
cfb8c092 | 78 | to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags. |
ae17ab41 | 79 | |
69f56ae1 | 80 | * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures. |
90b3661c | 81 | |
02ecc8e9 | 82 | * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit |
cfb8c092 NC |
83 | sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute |
84 | encoded in the section name. | |
02ecc8e9 | 85 | |
44f45767 TG |
86 | Changes in 2.21: |
87 | ||
5fec8599 L |
88 | * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may |
89 | break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation. | |
90 | ||
17f73277 KT |
91 | * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the |
92 | option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of | |
93 | bfd. | |
94 | ||
40b36596 JM |
95 | * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family. |
96 | ||
ddbb8a31 NC |
97 | * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion |
98 | with --as-needed option. | |
99 | ||
7fcab871 KT |
100 | * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows |
101 | to alias the import/export table name written in PE image. | |
102 | ||
a72173de | 103 | * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all |
2927aaca NC |
104 | symbols from automatically being exported. |
105 | ||
c7927a3c NC |
106 | * Add support for the Renesas RX processor. |
107 | ||
75875724 TG |
108 | * Add support for alpha-vms target. |
109 | ||
81c23f82 TG |
110 | Changes in 2.20: |
111 | ||
3e7a7d11 NC |
112 | * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a |
113 | GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will | |
114 | be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire | |
115 | process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use. | |
ce11ba6c | 116 | |
c1711530 DK |
117 | * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common |
118 | common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in | |
119 | the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools. | |
120 | ||
09e2aba4 DK |
121 | * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols |
122 | are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives | |
123 | are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode. | |
124 | ||
267e2722 CD |
125 | * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and |
126 | --export-dynamic options. | |
127 | ||
a0c402a5 L |
128 | * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate |
129 | ELF machine code. | |
130 | ||
4a93e180 NC |
131 | * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions. |
132 | ||
88183869 DK |
133 | * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to |
134 | the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old | |
135 | (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the | |
3efd345c DK |
136 | new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled |
137 | automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB | |
138 | needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names. | |
88183869 | 139 | |
d8045f23 NC |
140 | * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations |
141 | made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into | |
142 | the resulting binary for processing by the loader. | |
143 | ||
28024d9d L |
144 | * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined |
145 | symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the | |
146 | latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED | |
147 | entry of one of the libraries already linked. | |
148 | ||
258795f5 L |
149 | * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets |
150 | to set the address of the first byte of the text segment. | |
151 | ||
c3b7224a NC |
152 | * Add support for Sunplus score architecture. |
153 | ||
ce11ba6c KT |
154 | * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to |
155 | allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix. | |
156 | ||
e1c37eb5 DK |
157 | * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option, |
158 | allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL | |
159 | and its associated import library as they are generated during linking. | |
160 | ||
84e94c90 NC |
161 | * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture. |
162 | ||
62655c7b | 163 | * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries |
7251ccbf SR |
164 | for Embedded-PIC code) option. |
165 | ||
6cb442d3 KT |
166 | * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of |
167 | pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches | |
168 | --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2. | |
169 | For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit | |
170 | runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two. | |
171 | ||
6e33da12 TG |
172 | Changes in 2.19: |
173 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
174 | * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to |
175 | augment the default script. | |
176 | ||
967928e9 | 177 | * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an |
66c103b7 | 178 | archive by writing "archive:file". |
967928e9 | 179 | |
de7dd2bd NC |
180 | * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the |
181 | direction of sorting. | |
182 | ||
7fb9f789 NC |
183 | * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via |
184 | the --got=<type> command line option. | |
185 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
186 | * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols |
187 | that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new | |
188 | linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N. | |
726150b7 | 189 | |
7c3d153f NC |
190 | Changes in 2.18: |
191 | ||
f96b4a7b NC |
192 | * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public |
193 | License. | |
194 | ||
c0065db7 RM |
195 | * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier |
196 | embedded in a note section. | |
197 | ||
3d3d428f | 198 | * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target. |
a19bcec6 | 199 | |
bcb674cf RS |
200 | * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo, |
201 | without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so. | |
202 | ||
14be8564 L |
203 | * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE' |
204 | which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker | |
205 | script. | |
206 | ||
40b36307 L |
207 | * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++ |
208 | operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data, | |
209 | builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the | |
210 | dynamic list. | |
211 | ||
99ad8390 NC |
212 | * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target. |
213 | ||
1c0d3aa6 NC |
214 | * Add support for Score target. |
215 | ||
55255dae L |
216 | * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols |
217 | whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the | |
218 | shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the | |
219 | symbol table in the executable. | |
220 | ||
dc0b6aa0 AM |
221 | * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from |
222 | being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as | |
223 | the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful | |
224 | default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA | |
225 | differing from the VMA for some sections. | |
226 | ||
c17d87de NC |
227 | * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge |
228 | collection. | |
229 | ||
c6dd86c6 | 230 | * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current |
f96b4a7b | 231 | VFP11 coprocessors. |
c6dd86c6 | 232 | |
c17d87de | 233 | Changes in 2.17: |
cf88bb9f | 234 | |
d70c5fc7 NC |
235 | * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems. |
236 | ||
dfcffada AM |
237 | * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order. |
238 | Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before | |
239 | searching the default directories, rather than vice versa. | |
240 | Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf. | |
c1446dba | 241 | |
4b5bd4e7 DS |
242 | * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files |
243 | passed directly to ld. | |
244 | ||
3c9b82ba NC |
245 | * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added. |
246 | ||
3e8a519c MM |
247 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra |
248 | switches can be read from <file>. | |
249 | ||
957d91c1 NC |
250 | Changes in 2.16: |
251 | ||
319850b4 JB |
252 | * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF |
253 | specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option. | |
254 | ||
b717d30e JJ |
255 | * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag |
256 | for input files listed inside of it. | |
257 | ||
e2243057 RS |
258 | * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the |
259 | default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were | |
260 | configured using --with-sysroot. | |
261 | ||
3ec57632 NC |
262 | * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information |
263 | about a specified memory region. | |
264 | ||
7499d566 NC |
265 | * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech. |
266 | ||
ba916c8a MM |
267 | * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to |
268 | override the base address for a segment from the command-line. | |
269 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
270 | * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared |
271 | object. | |
272 | ||
bcaa7b3e L |
273 | * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script |
274 | language to permit sorting sections by section name or section | |
275 | maximum alignment. | |
276 | ||
277 | * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment, | |
278 | to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment. | |
279 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
280 | * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag |
281 | should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags. | |
14b3c463 | 282 | |
1fe1f39c NC |
283 | * Support for the crx-elf target added. |
284 | ||
1a320fbb | 285 | * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added. |
1fe1f39c | 286 | |
2d643429 NC |
287 | * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table |
288 | size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch | |
289 | is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is | |
290 | used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set | |
291 | to 1021. | |
292 | ||
35835446 JR |
293 | * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols |
294 | that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for | |
295 | symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new | |
296 | --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option | |
297 | might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs. | |
298 | ||
2d643429 | 299 | Changes in 2.15: |
14b3c463 | 300 | |
8fdd7217 NC |
301 | * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should |
302 | be added only when a shared library is referenced. | |
c0065db7 | 303 | |
8fdd7217 | 304 | * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual |
26d2d8a2 BF |
305 | addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. |
306 | ||
1b169501 BF |
307 | * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added. |
308 | ||
c894ddfb HPN |
309 | * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that |
310 | is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used. | |
311 | ||
7a7f4e42 CD |
312 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
313 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
314 | ||
0949843d NC |
315 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
316 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
317 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
318 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
319 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
320 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
321 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
322 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
323 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
324 | Changes in 2.14: |
325 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
326 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
327 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
328 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
329 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
330 | ||
312b768e NC |
331 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
332 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
333 | file format. | |
334 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
335 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
336 | ||
004d9caf NC |
337 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
338 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
c0065db7 | 339 | |
8e523c23 NC |
340 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
341 | LIB_PATH. | |
342 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
343 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
344 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
345 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
346 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
347 | Changes in 2.13: |
348 | ||
349 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
350 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 351 | |
37020578 JT |
352 | Changes in version 2.13: |
353 | ||
354 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
355 | ||
9a66911f NC |
356 | Changes in version 2.12: |
357 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
358 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
359 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
360 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
361 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
362 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
363 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
364 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 365 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
366 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
367 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
368 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
369 | ||
370 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
371 | ||
9a66911f NC |
372 | Changes in version 2.11: |
373 | ||
b8355149 JH |
374 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
375 | ||
18e03609 NC |
376 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
377 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
378 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
379 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
380 | section. | |
252b5132 | 381 | |
ec4eb78a L |
382 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
383 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
384 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
385 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
386 | ||
176355da | 387 | * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
c0065db7 | 388 | specified section. |
176355da | 389 | |
a712da20 NC |
390 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
391 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
392 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
393 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
394 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
395 | ||
22b36938 JE |
396 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
397 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
398 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
399 | ||
500800ca NC |
400 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
401 | ||
919e4093 AM |
402 | Changes in version 2.10: |
403 | ||
c0065db7 | 404 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
5948916f TW |
405 | sections into regions. |
406 | ||
c0065db7 | 407 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
252b5132 | 408 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are |
4667035e AM |
409 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
410 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 411 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
412 | |
413 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
414 | name or section name. | |
415 | ||
416 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
417 | command-line option. | |
418 | ||
419 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
420 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
421 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
422 | wildcard file names. | |
423 | ||
252b5132 | 424 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 425 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
426 | |
427 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
428 | ||
2575273d ILT |
429 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
430 | shared library. | |
431 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
432 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
433 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
434 | behaviour. | |
435 | ||
252b5132 RH |
436 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
437 | ||
438 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
439 | ||
440 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
441 | ||
442 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
443 | ||
444 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
445 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
446 | ||
447 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
448 | ||
449 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
450 | names. | |
451 | ||
452 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
453 | ||
454 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
455 | ||
456 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
457 | ||
458 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
459 | ||
460 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
461 | ||
462 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
463 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
464 | ||
465 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
466 | ||
467 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
468 | ||
469 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
470 | ||
471 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
472 | ||
473 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
474 | ||
475 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
476 | are not included in the output file. | |
477 | ||
478 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
479 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
480 | information generated. | |
481 | ||
482 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
483 | ||
484 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
45f111cc NC |
485 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols |
486 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
487 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
488 | ||
489 | Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards | |
490 | and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The | |
491 | symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed | |
492 | sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined. | |
252b5132 RH |
493 | |
494 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
495 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
496 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
497 | ||
498 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
499 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
500 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 501 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
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502 | glibc. |
503 | ||
504 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
505 | ||
506 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
507 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
508 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
509 | nor the -r option was used. | |
510 | ||
511 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
512 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
513 | -L options. | |
514 | ||
515 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
516 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
517 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
518 | prevent this optimization. | |
519 | ||
520 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
521 | ||
522 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
523 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 524 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
525 | |
526 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
527 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
528 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
529 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
530 | Solaris again. | |
531 | ||
532 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
533 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
534 | ||
535 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
536 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
537 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
538 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
539 | ||
540 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
541 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
542 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
543 | ||
544 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
545 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
546 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
547 | default linker script. | |
548 | ||
549 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
550 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
551 | ||
552 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
553 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
554 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
555 | ||
556 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
557 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
558 | ||
559 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
560 | ||
561 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
562 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
563 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
564 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
565 | ||
566 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
567 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
568 | separators. | |
569 | ||
570 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
571 | ||
572 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
573 | ||
574 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
575 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
576 | ||
577 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
578 | ||
579 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
580 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
581 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
582 | ||
583 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
584 | ||
585 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
586 | ||
587 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
588 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
589 | ||
590 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
591 | ||
592 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
593 | ||
594 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
595 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
596 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
597 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
598 | ||
599 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
600 | ||
601 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
602 | ||
603 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
604 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
605 | ||
606 | \f | |
b90efa5b | 607 | Copyright (C) 2012-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
5bf135a7 NC |
608 | |
609 | Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, | |
610 | are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright | |
611 | notice and this notice are preserved. | |
612 | ||
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613 | Local variables: |
614 | fill-column: 79 | |
615 | End: |