binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
   4
   5 Changes in 2.22:
   6
   7 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
   8
   9 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  10   passed to preprocessor.
  11
  12 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  13   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  14
  15 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  16
  17 changes in 2.21:
  18
  19 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  20   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  21
  22 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  23
  24 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  25   the -u / --unwind option.
  26
  27 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  28
  29 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  30   binaries.
  31
  32 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  33   '== <ID>' option.
  34
  35 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  36   address before function name or source filename.
  37
  38 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  39   a more human readable output.
  40
  41 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  42
  43 Changes in 2.20:
  44
  45 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  46   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  47   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  48   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  49   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  50
  51 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  52   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  53   instructions.
  54
  55 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  56   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  57
  58 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  59   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  60   file.
  61
  62 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  63   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  64
  65 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
  66   for objcopy.
  67
  68 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
  69   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
  70   set PE optional header.
  71
  72 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
  73
  74 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
  75   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
  76   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
  77   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
  78
  79 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
  80   add absolute paths for -S.
  81
  82 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
  83   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
  84
  85 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
  86   report an error when the import library is associated with
  87   multiple DLLs.
  88
  89 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
  90   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
  91
  92 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
  93   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
  94   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
  95
  96 Changes in 2.19:
  97
  98 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
  99
 100 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 101   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 102   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 103   added to the archive.
 104
 105 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 106
 107 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 108
 109 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 110
 111 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 112
 113 Changes in 2.18:
 114
 115 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 116   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 117   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 118
 119 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 120   Public License.
 121
 122 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 123   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 124
 125 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 126   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 127   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 128   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 129   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 130   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 131
 132 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 133   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 134   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 135   to some OSes.
 136
 137 Changes in 2.17:
 138
 139 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 140
 141 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 142   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 143   of types.
 144
 145 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 146   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 147
 148 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 149   debug sections.
 150
 151 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 152   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 153
 154 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 155   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 156   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 157   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 158
 159 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 160   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 161
 162 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 163
 164 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 165   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 166
 167 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 168   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 169
 170 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 171   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 172
 173 Changes in 2.16:
 174
 175 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 176
 177 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 178   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 179   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 180   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 181
 182 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 183   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 184   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 185   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 186
 187 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 188   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 189   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 190   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 191   between ARM and THUMB code.
 192
 193 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 194   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 195
 196 Changes in 2.15:
 197
 198 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 199   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 200   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 201   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 202
 203 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 204   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 205
 206 * readelf can now parse archives.
 207
 208 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 209   format compatible with ctags tool.
 210
 211 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 212   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 213   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 214   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 215   debugging info.
 216
 217 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 218   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 219   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 220
 221 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 222   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 223   with the -a switch.
 224
 225 Changes in 2.14:
 226
 227 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 228
 229 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 230
 231 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 232
 233 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 234   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 235
 236 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 237   Parallel C compiler.
 238
 239 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 240   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 241   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 242
 243 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 244
 245 Changes in 2.13:
 246
 247 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 248   and FR500 included.
 249
 250 Changes in version 2.12:
 251
 252 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 253
 254 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 255
 256 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 257   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 258
 259 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 260
 261 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 262
 263 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 264   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 265
 266 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 267   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 268   by Honda Hiroki.
 269
 270 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 271
 272 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 273   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 274   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 275
 276 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 277   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 278   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 279   By Stefan Geuken.
 280
 281 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 282
 283 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 284
 285 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 286   extenstions.
 287
 288 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 289   By Luciano Gemme.
 290
 291 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 292
 293 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 294
 295 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 296
 297 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 298
 299 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 300
 301 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 302   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 303   file.
 304
 305 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 306   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 307   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 308   raw verions.
 309
 310 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 311   with intel syntax.
 312
 313 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 314   regardless of target machine.
 315
 316 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 317   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 318   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 319   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 320
 321 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 322
 323 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 324   sections.
 325
 326 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 327
 328 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 329   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 330
 331 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 332
 333 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 334   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 335
 336 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 337   the VMA of the sections.
 338
 339 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 340
 341 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 342
 343 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 344   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 345   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 346   output.
 347
 348 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 349   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 350   so they must be in canonical form.
 351
 352 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 353   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 354
 355 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 356
 357 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 358
 359 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 360
 361 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 362
 363 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 364
 365 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 366
 367 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 368
 369 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 370
 371 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 372
 373 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 374
 375 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 376
 377 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 378
 379 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 380
 381 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 382
 383 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 384
 385 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 386
 387 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 388
 389 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 390   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 391   generating plain binary files.
 392
 393 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 394
 395 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 396
 397 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 398
 399 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 400   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 401
 402 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 403   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 404
 405 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 406
 407 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 408   executables.
 409
 410 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 411
 412 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 413   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 414
 415 * Support for Irix 5.
 416
 417 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 418   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 419
 420 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 421
 422 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 423   ELF and COFF files.
 424
 425 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 426   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 427
 428 * The strings program has been added.
 429
 430 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 431
 432 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 433   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 434   'cp'.
 435
 436 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 437   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 438   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 439
 440 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 441   the output from BSD nm.
 442
 443 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 444
 445 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 446
 447 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 448
 449 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 450
 451 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 452
 453 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 454
 455 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 456   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 457
 458 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 459   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 460   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 461   for Posix.2 conformance.
 462
 463 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 464   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 465   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 466
 467 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 468   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 469
 470 \f
 471 Local variables:
 472 fill-column: 79
 473 End: