binutils/NEWS

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