binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.24:
   4
   5 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
   6   section names.
   7
   8 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
   9
  10 Changes in 2.23:
  11
  12 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  13
  14 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  15
  16 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  17
  18 Changes in 2.22:
  19
  20 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  21
  22 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  23   passed to preprocessor.
  24
  25 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  26   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  27
  28 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  29
  30 changes in 2.21:
  31
  32 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  33   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  34
  35 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  36
  37 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  38   the -u / --unwind option.
  39
  40 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  41
  42 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  43   binaries.
  44
  45 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  46   '== <ID>' option.
  47
  48 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  49   address before function name or source filename.
  50
  51 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  52   a more human readable output.
  53
  54 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  55
  56 Changes in 2.20:
  57
  58 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  59   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  60   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  61   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  62   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  63
  64 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  65   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  66   instructions.
  67
  68 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  69   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  70
  71 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  72   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  73   file.
  74
  75 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  76   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  77
  78 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
  79   for objcopy.
  80
  81 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
  82   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
  83   set PE optional header.
  84
  85 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
  86
  87 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
  88   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
  89   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
  90   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
  91
  92 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
  93   add absolute paths for -S.
  94
  95 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
  96   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
  97
  98 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
  99   report an error when the import library is associated with
 100   multiple DLLs.
 101
 102 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 103   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 104
 105 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 106   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 107   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 108
 109 Changes in 2.19:
 110
 111 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 112
 113 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 114   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 115   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 116   added to the archive.
 117
 118 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 119
 120 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 121
 122 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 123
 124 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 125
 126 Changes in 2.18:
 127
 128 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 129   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 130   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 131
 132 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 133   Public License.
 134
 135 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 136   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 137
 138 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 139   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 140   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 141   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 142   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 143   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 144
 145 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 146   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 147   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 148   to some OSes.
 149
 150 Changes in 2.17:
 151
 152 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 153
 154 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 155   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 156   of types.
 157
 158 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 159   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 160
 161 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 162   debug sections.
 163
 164 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 165   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 166
 167 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 168   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 169   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 170   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 171
 172 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 173   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 174
 175 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 176
 177 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 178   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 179
 180 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 181   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 182
 183 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 184   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 185
 186 Changes in 2.16:
 187
 188 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 189
 190 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 191   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 192   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 193   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 194
 195 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 196   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 197   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 198   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 199
 200 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 201   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 202   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 203   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 204   between ARM and THUMB code.
 205
 206 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 207   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 208
 209 Changes in 2.15:
 210
 211 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 212   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 213   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 214   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 215
 216 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 217   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 218
 219 * readelf can now parse archives.
 220
 221 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 222   format compatible with ctags tool.
 223
 224 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 225   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 226   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 227   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 228   debugging info.
 229
 230 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 231   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 232   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 233
 234 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 235   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 236   with the -a switch.
 237
 238 Changes in 2.14:
 239
 240 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 241
 242 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 243
 244 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 245
 246 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 247   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 248
 249 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 250   Parallel C compiler.
 251
 252 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 253   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 254   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 255
 256 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 257
 258 Changes in 2.13:
 259
 260 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 261   and FR500 included.
 262
 263 Changes in version 2.12:
 264
 265 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 266
 267 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 268
 269 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 270   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 271
 272 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 273
 274 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 275
 276 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 277   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 278
 279 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 280   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 281   by Honda Hiroki.
 282
 283 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 284
 285 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 286   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 287   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 288
 289 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 290   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 291   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 292   By Stefan Geuken.
 293
 294 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 295
 296 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 297
 298 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 299   extenstions.
 300
 301 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 302   By Luciano Gemme.
 303
 304 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 305
 306 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 307
 308 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 309
 310 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 311
 312 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 313
 314 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 315   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 316   file.
 317
 318 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 319   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 320   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 321   raw verions.
 322
 323 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 324   with intel syntax.
 325
 326 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 327   regardless of target machine.
 328
 329 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 330   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 331   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 332   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 333
 334 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 335
 336 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 337   sections.
 338
 339 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 340
 341 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 342   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 343
 344 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 345
 346 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 347   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 348
 349 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 350   the VMA of the sections.
 351
 352 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 353
 354 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 355
 356 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 357   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 358   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 359   output.
 360
 361 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 362   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 363   so they must be in canonical form.
 364
 365 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 366   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 367
 368 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 369
 370 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 371
 372 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 373
 374 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 375
 376 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 377
 378 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 379
 380 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 381
 382 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 383
 384 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 385
 386 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 387
 388 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 389
 390 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 391
 392 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 393
 394 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 395
 396 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 397
 398 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 399
 400 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 401
 402 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 403   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 404   generating plain binary files.
 405
 406 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 407
 408 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 409
 410 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 411
 412 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 413   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 414
 415 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 416   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 417
 418 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 419
 420 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 421   executables.
 422
 423 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 424
 425 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 426   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 427
 428 * Support for Irix 5.
 429
 430 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 431   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 432
 433 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 434
 435 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 436   ELF and COFF files.
 437
 438 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 439   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 440
 441 * The strings program has been added.
 442
 443 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 444
 445 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 446   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 447   'cp'.
 448
 449 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 450   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 451   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 452
 453 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 454   the output from BSD nm.
 455
 456 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 457
 458 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 459
 460 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 461
 462 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 463
 464 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 465
 466 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 467
 468 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 469   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 470
 471 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 472   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 473   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 474   for Posix.2 conformance.
 475
 476 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 477   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 478   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 479
 480 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 481   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 482
 483 \f
 484 Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 485
 486 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 487 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 488 notice and this notice are preserved.
 489
 490 Local variables:
 491 fill-column: 79
 492 End: