binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
   4   format compatible with ctags tool.
   5
   6 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
   7   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
   8   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
   9   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  10   debugging info.
  11
  12 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  13   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  14   information for the file to be held in a seperate file.
  15
  16 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  17   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  18   with the -a switch.
  19
  20 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  21
  22 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  23
  24 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  25
  26 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  27   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  28
  29 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  30   Parallel C compiler.
  31
  32 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  33   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  34   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  35
  36 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  37
  38 Changes in 2.13:
  39
  40 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  41   and FR500 included.
  42
  43 Changes in version 2.12:
  44
  45 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  46
  47 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  48
  49 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  50   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  51
  52 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
  53
  54 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
  55
  56 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
  57   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
  58
  59 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
  60   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
  61   by Honda Hiroki.
  62
  63 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
  64
  65 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
  66   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
  67   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
  68
  69 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
  70   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
  71   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
  72   By Stefan Geuken.
  73
  74 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
  75
  76 Changes in binutils 2.11:
  77
  78 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
  79   extenstions.
  80
  81 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
  82   By Luciano Gemme.
  83
  84 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
  85
  86 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  87
  88 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  89
  90 Changes in binutils 2.10:
  91
  92 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
  93
  94 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
  95   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
  96   file.
  97
  98 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
  99   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 100   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 101   raw verions.
 102
 103 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 104   with intel syntax.
 105
 106 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 107   regardless of target machine.
 108
 109 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 110   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 111   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 112   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 113
 114 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 115
 116 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 117   sections.
 118
 119 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 120
 121 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 122   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 123
 124 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 125
 126 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 127   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 128
 129 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 130   the VMA of the sections.
 131
 132 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 133
 134 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 135
 136 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 137   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 138   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 139   output.
 140
 141 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 142   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 143   so they must be in canonical form.
 144
 145 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 146   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 147
 148 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 149
 150 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 151
 152 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 153
 154 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 155
 156 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 157
 158 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 159
 160 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 161
 162 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 163
 164 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 165
 166 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 167
 168 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 169
 170 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 171
 172 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 173
 174 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 175
 176 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 177
 178 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 179
 180 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 181
 182 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 183   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 184   generating plain binary files.
 185
 186 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 187
 188 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 189
 190 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 191
 192 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 193   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 194
 195 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 196   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 197
 198 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 199
 200 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 201   executables.
 202
 203 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 204
 205 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 206   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 207
 208 * Support for Irix 5.
 209
 210 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 211   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 212
 213 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 214
 215 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 216   ELF and COFF files.
 217
 218 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 219   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 220
 221 * The strings program has been added.
 222
 223 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 224
 225 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 226   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 227   'cp'.
 228
 229 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 230   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 231   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 232
 233 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 234   the output from BSD nm.
 235
 236 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 237
 238 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 239
 240 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 241
 242 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 243
 244 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 245
 246 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 247
 248 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 249   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 250
 251 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 252   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 253   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 254   for Posix.2 conformance.
 255
 256 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 257   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 258   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 259
 260 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 261   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 262
 263 \f
 264 Local variables:
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 266 End: