binutils/NEWS

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