binutils/NEWS

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