binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
   4   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
   5   symbol up to the next symbol.
   6
   7 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
   8   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
   9   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
  10   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
  11
  12 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
  13   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
  14   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
  15   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
  16
  17 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
  18   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
  19   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
  20   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
  21   compatibility.
  22
  23 Changes in 2.31:
  24
  25 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
  26
  27 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
  28   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
  29   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
  30   to objdump.
  31
  32 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
  33   a named register could be invalid.
  34
  35 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
  36
  37 Changes in 2.30:
  38
  39 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
  40   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
  41   sections.
  42
  43   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  44   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  45   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  46
  47 Changes in 2.29:
  48
  49 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  50   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  51
  52 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  53   disassembly.
  54
  55 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
  56   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
  57   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
  58
  59 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
  60   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
  61
  62 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
  63
  64 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  65
  66 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
  67
  68 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
  69   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
  70
  71 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
  72   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
  73
  74 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
  75   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
  76   the original file.
  77
  78 Changes in 2.28:
  79
  80 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
  81   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
  82   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
  83   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
  84   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
  85   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
  86   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
  87   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
  88   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
  89   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
  90   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
  91   with the instructions being relocated.
  92
  93 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
  94   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
  95   symbol's name.
  96
  97 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
  98   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
  99
 100 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 101   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 102   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 103   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 104
 105 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 106   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 107   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 108   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 109
 110 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 111   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 112   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 113   the relocation section itself.
 114
 115 Changes in 2.27:
 116
 117 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 118   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 119
 120 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 121   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 122
 123 Changes in 2.26:
 124
 125 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 126   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 127
 128 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 129
 130 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 131   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 132   targets.
 133
 134 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 135
 136 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 137
 138 Changes in 2.25:
 139
 140 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 141   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 142   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 143   default behaviour.
 144
 145 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 146
 147 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 148
 149 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 150
 151 Changes in 2.24:
 152
 153 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 154   section names.
 155
 156 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 157
 158 Changes in 2.23:
 159
 160 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 161
 162 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 163
 164 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 165
 166 Changes in 2.22:
 167
 168 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 169
 170 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 171   passed to preprocessor.
 172
 173 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 174   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 175
 176 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 177
 178 changes in 2.21:
 179
 180 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 181   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 182
 183 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 184
 185 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 186   the -u / --unwind option.
 187
 188 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 189
 190 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 191   binaries.
 192
 193 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 194   '== <ID>' option.
 195
 196 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 197   address before function name or source filename.
 198
 199 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 200   a more human readable output.
 201
 202 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 203
 204 Changes in 2.20:
 205
 206 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 207   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 208   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 209   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 210   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 211
 212 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 213   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 214   instructions.
 215
 216 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 217   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 218
 219 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 220   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 221   file.
 222
 223 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 224   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 225
 226 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 227   for objcopy.
 228
 229 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 230   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 231   set PE optional header.
 232
 233 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 234
 235 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 236   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 237   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 238   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 239
 240 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 241   add absolute paths for -S.
 242
 243 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 244   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 245
 246 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 247   report an error when the import library is associated with
 248   multiple DLLs.
 249
 250 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 251   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 252
 253 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 254   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 255   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 256
 257 Changes in 2.19:
 258
 259 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 260
 261 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 262   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 263   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 264   added to the archive.
 265
 266 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 267
 268 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 269
 270 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 271
 272 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 273
 274 Changes in 2.18:
 275
 276 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 277   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 278   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 279
 280 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 281   Public License.
 282
 283 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 284   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 285
 286 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 287   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 288   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 289   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 290   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 291   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 292
 293 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 294   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 295   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 296   to some OSes.
 297
 298 Changes in 2.17:
 299
 300 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 301
 302 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 303   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 304   of types.
 305
 306 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 307   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 308
 309 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 310   debug sections.
 311
 312 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 313   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 314
 315 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 316   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 317   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 318   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 319
 320 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 321   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 322
 323 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 324
 325 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 326   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 327
 328 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 329   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 330
 331 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 332   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 333
 334 Changes in 2.16:
 335
 336 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 337
 338 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 339   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 340   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 341   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 342
 343 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 344   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 345   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 346   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 347
 348 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 349   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 350   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 351   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 352   between ARM and THUMB code.
 353
 354 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 355   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 356
 357 Changes in 2.15:
 358
 359 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 360   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 361   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 362   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 363
 364 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 365   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 366
 367 * readelf can now parse archives.
 368
 369 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 370   format compatible with ctags tool.
 371
 372 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 373   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 374   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 375   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 376   debugging info.
 377
 378 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 379   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 380   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 381
 382 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 383   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 384   with the -a switch.
 385
 386 Changes in 2.14:
 387
 388 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 389
 390 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 391
 392 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 393
 394 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 395   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 396
 397 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 398   Parallel C compiler.
 399
 400 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 401   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 402   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 403
 404 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 405
 406 Changes in 2.13:
 407
 408 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 409   and FR500 included.
 410
 411 Changes in version 2.12:
 412
 413 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 414
 415 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 416
 417 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 418   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 419
 420 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 421
 422 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 423
 424 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 425   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 426
 427 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 428   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 429   by Honda Hiroki.
 430
 431 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 432
 433 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 434   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 435   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 436
 437 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 438   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 439   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 440   By Stefan Geuken.
 441
 442 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 443
 444 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 445
 446 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 447   extenstions.
 448
 449 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 450   By Luciano Gemme.
 451
 452 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 453
 454 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 455
 456 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 457
 458 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 459
 460 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 461
 462 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 463   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 464   file.
 465
 466 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 467   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 468   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 469   raw verions.
 470
 471 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 472   with intel syntax.
 473
 474 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 475   regardless of target machine.
 476
 477 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 478   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 479   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 480   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 481
 482 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 483
 484 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 485   sections.
 486
 487 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 488
 489 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 490   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 491
 492 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 493
 494 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 495   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 496
 497 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 498   the VMA of the sections.
 499
 500 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 501
 502 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 503
 504 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 505   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 506   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 507   output.
 508
 509 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 510   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 511   so they must be in canonical form.
 512
 513 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 514   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 515
 516 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 517
 518 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 519
 520 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 521
 522 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 523
 524 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 525
 526 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 527
 528 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 529
 530 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 531
 532 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 533
 534 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 535
 536 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 537
 538 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 539
 540 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 541
 542 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 543
 544 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 545
 546 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 547
 548 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 549
 550 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 551   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 552   generating plain binary files.
 553
 554 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 555
 556 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 557
 558 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 559
 560 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 561   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 562
 563 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 564   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 565
 566 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 567
 568 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 569   executables.
 570
 571 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 572
 573 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 574   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 575
 576 * Support for Irix 5.
 577
 578 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 579   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 580
 581 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 582
 583 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 584   ELF and COFF files.
 585
 586 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 587   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 588
 589 * The strings program has been added.
 590
 591 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 592
 593 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 594   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 595   'cp'.
 596
 597 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 598   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 599   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 600
 601 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 602   the output from BSD nm.
 603
 604 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 605
 606 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 607
 608 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 609
 610 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 611
 612 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 613
 614 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 615
 616 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 617   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 618
 619 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 620   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 621   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 622   for Posix.2 conformance.
 623
 624 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 625   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 626   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 627
 628 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 629   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 630
 631 \f
 632 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 633
 634 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 635 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 636 notice and this notice are preserved.
 637
 638 Local variables:
 639 fill-column: 79
 640 End: