binutils/NEWS

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