binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
   4   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
   5   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
   6   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
   7
   8 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
   9   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  10   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  11   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  12
  13 Changes in 2.27:
  14
  15 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  16   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  17
  18 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
  19   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
  20
  21 Changes in 2.26:
  22
  23 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
  24   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
  25
  26 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  27
  28 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
  29   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
  30   targets.
  31
  32 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
  33
  34 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
  35
  36 Changes in 2.25:
  37
  38 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
  39   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
  40   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
  41   default behaviour.
  42
  43 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
  44
  45 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
  46
  47 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  48
  49 Changes in 2.24:
  50
  51 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  52   section names.
  53
  54 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  55
  56 Changes in 2.23:
  57
  58 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  59
  60 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  61
  62 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  63
  64 Changes in 2.22:
  65
  66 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  67
  68 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  69   passed to preprocessor.
  70
  71 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  72   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  73
  74 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  75
  76 changes in 2.21:
  77
  78 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  79   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  80
  81 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  82
  83 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  84   the -u / --unwind option.
  85
  86 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  87
  88 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  89   binaries.
  90
  91 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  92   '== <ID>' option.
  93
  94 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  95   address before function name or source filename.
  96
  97 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  98   a more human readable output.
  99
 100 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 101
 102 Changes in 2.20:
 103
 104 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 105   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 106   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 107   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 108   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 109
 110 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 111   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 112   instructions.
 113
 114 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 115   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 116
 117 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 118   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 119   file.
 120
 121 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 122   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 123
 124 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 125   for objcopy.
 126
 127 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 128   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 129   set PE optional header.
 130
 131 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 132
 133 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 134   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 135   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 136   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 137
 138 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 139   add absolute paths for -S.
 140
 141 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 142   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 143
 144 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 145   report an error when the import library is associated with
 146   multiple DLLs.
 147
 148 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 149   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 150
 151 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 152   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 153   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 154
 155 Changes in 2.19:
 156
 157 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 158
 159 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 160   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 161   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 162   added to the archive.
 163
 164 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 165
 166 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 167
 168 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 169
 170 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 171
 172 Changes in 2.18:
 173
 174 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 175   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 176   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 177
 178 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 179   Public License.
 180
 181 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 182   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 183
 184 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 185   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 186   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 187   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 188   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 189   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 190
 191 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 192   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 193   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 194   to some OSes.
 195
 196 Changes in 2.17:
 197
 198 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 199
 200 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 201   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 202   of types.
 203
 204 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 205   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 206
 207 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 208   debug sections.
 209
 210 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 211   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 212
 213 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 214   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 215   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 216   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 217
 218 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 219   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 220
 221 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 222
 223 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 224   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 225
 226 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 227   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 228
 229 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 230   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 231
 232 Changes in 2.16:
 233
 234 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 235
 236 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 237   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 238   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 239   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 240
 241 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 242   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 243   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 244   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 245
 246 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 247   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 248   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 249   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 250   between ARM and THUMB code.
 251
 252 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 253   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 254
 255 Changes in 2.15:
 256
 257 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 258   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 259   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 260   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 261
 262 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 263   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 264
 265 * readelf can now parse archives.
 266
 267 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 268   format compatible with ctags tool.
 269
 270 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 271   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 272   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 273   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 274   debugging info.
 275
 276 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 277   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 278   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 279
 280 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 281   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 282   with the -a switch.
 283
 284 Changes in 2.14:
 285
 286 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 287
 288 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 289
 290 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 291
 292 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 293   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 294
 295 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 296   Parallel C compiler.
 297
 298 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 299   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 300   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 301
 302 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 303
 304 Changes in 2.13:
 305
 306 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 307   and FR500 included.
 308
 309 Changes in version 2.12:
 310
 311 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 312
 313 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 314
 315 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 316   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 317
 318 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 319
 320 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 321
 322 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 323   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 324
 325 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 326   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 327   by Honda Hiroki.
 328
 329 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 330
 331 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 332   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 333   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 334
 335 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 336   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 337   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 338   By Stefan Geuken.
 339
 340 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 341
 342 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 343
 344 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 345   extenstions.
 346
 347 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 348   By Luciano Gemme.
 349
 350 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 351
 352 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 353
 354 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 355
 356 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 357
 358 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 359
 360 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 361   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 362   file.
 363
 364 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 365   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 366   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 367   raw verions.
 368
 369 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 370   with intel syntax.
 371
 372 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 373   regardless of target machine.
 374
 375 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 376   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 377   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 378   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 379
 380 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 381
 382 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 383   sections.
 384
 385 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 386
 387 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 388   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 389
 390 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 391
 392 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 393   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 394
 395 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 396   the VMA of the sections.
 397
 398 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 399
 400 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 401
 402 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 403   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 404   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 405   output.
 406
 407 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 408   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 409   so they must be in canonical form.
 410
 411 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 412   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 413
 414 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 415
 416 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 417
 418 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 419
 420 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 421
 422 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 423
 424 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 425
 426 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 427
 428 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 429
 430 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 431
 432 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 433
 434 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 435
 436 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 437
 438 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 439
 440 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 441
 442 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 443
 444 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 445
 446 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 447
 448 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 449   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 450   generating plain binary files.
 451
 452 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 453
 454 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 455
 456 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 457
 458 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 459   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 460
 461 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 462   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 463
 464 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 465
 466 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 467   executables.
 468
 469 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 470
 471 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 472   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 473
 474 * Support for Irix 5.
 475
 476 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 477   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 478
 479 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 480
 481 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 482   ELF and COFF files.
 483
 484 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 485   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 486
 487 * The strings program has been added.
 488
 489 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 490
 491 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 492   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 493   'cp'.
 494
 495 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 496   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 497   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 498
 499 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 500   the output from BSD nm.
 501
 502 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 503
 504 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 505
 506 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 507
 508 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 509
 510 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 511
 512 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 513
 514 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 515   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 516
 517 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 518   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 519   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 520   for Posix.2 conformance.
 521
 522 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 523   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 524   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 525
 526 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 527   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 528
 529 \f
 530 Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 531
 532 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 533 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 534 notice and this notice are preserved.
 535
 536 Local variables:
 537 fill-column: 79
 538 End: