binutils/NEWS

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