binutils/NEWS

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