gas/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
   4
   5 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
   6
   7 * Added a pseudo-op (.secrel32) to generate 32 bit section relative relocations
   8   on pe[i]-i386; required for this target's DWARF 2 support.
   9
  10 * Support for Motorola MCF521x/5249/547x/548x added.
  11
  12 * Support for ColdFire EMAC instructions added and Motorola syntax for MAC/EMAC
  13   instrucitons.
  14
  15 Changes in 2.15:
  16
  17 * The MIPS -membedded-pic option (Embedded-PIC code generation) is
  18   deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
  19
  20 * Added PIC m32r Linux (ELF) and support to M32R assembler.
  21
  22 * Added support for ARM V6.
  23
  24 * Added support for sh4a and variants.
  25
  26 * Support for Renesas M32R2 added.
  27
  28 * Limited support for Mapping Symbols as specified in the ARM ELF
  29   specification has been added to the arm assembler.
  30
  31 * On ARM architectures, added a new gas directive ".unreq" that undoes
  32   definitions created by ".req".
  33
  34 * Support for Motorola ColdFire MCF528x added.
  35
  36 * Added --gstabs+ switch to enable the generation of STABS debug format
  37   information with GNU extensions.
  38
  39 * Added support for MIPS64 Release 2.
  40
  41 * Added support for v850e1.
  42
  43 * Added -n switch for x86 assembler.  By default, x86 GAS replaces
  44   multiple nop instructions used for alignment within code sections
  45   with multi-byte nop instructions such as leal 0(%esi,1),%esi.  This
  46   switch disables the optimization.
  47
  48 * Removed -n option from MIPS assembler.  It was not useful, and confused the
  49   existing -non_shared option.
  50
  51 Changes in 2.14:
  52
  53 * Added support for MIPS32 Release 2.
  54
  55 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
  56
  57 * Support for Intel's iWMMXt processor (an ARM variant) added.
  58
  59 * An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
  60   uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
  61
  62 * Support for SH2E added.
  63
  64 * GASP has now been removed.
  65
  66 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
  67   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
  68
  69 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
  70
  71 Changes in 2.13:
  72
  73 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  74   and FR500 included.
  75
  76 * Support for DLX processor added.
  77
  78 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  Use
  79   the macro facilities in GAS instead.
  80
  81 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
  82   explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
  83   the currently specified base.
  84
  85 Changes in 2.12:
  86
  87 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  88
  89 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
  90
  91 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
  92   specifying the target instruction set.  The old method of specifying the
  93   target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
  94   compatibility.
  95
  96 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
  97   the ARM assembler.
  98
  99 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
 100   in the assembly.  Contributed by Anders Norlander.
 101
 102 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
 103   but still works for compatability.
 104
 105 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
 106   generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
 107   -n will turn on the warning.
 108
 109 Changes in 2.11:
 110
 111 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
 112
 113 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
 114
 115 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
 116
 117 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
 118
 119 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
 120
 121 * Support for IA-64.
 122
 123 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 124
 125 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 126
 127 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
 128
 129 * x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
 130   due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
 131   translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
 132
 133 Changes in 2.10:
 134
 135 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
 136   operand when altering the flags field.
 137
 138 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
 139
 140 * Support for IBM 370 ELF.  Somewhat experimental.
 141
 142 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
 143
 144 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
 145
 146 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
 147
 148 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
 149
 150 * New --fatal-warnings option.
 151
 152 * picoJava architecture support added.
 153
 154 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
 155
 156 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
 157   assembly programs with intel syntax.
 158
 159 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
 160
 161 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
 162
 163 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
 164
 165 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386.  This change will
 166   produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
 167   of gas accepted.  If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
 168   older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
 169
 170 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
 171
 172 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
 173
 174 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
 175
 176 * i960 ELF support added.
 177
 178 * ARM ELF support added.
 179
 180 Changes in 2.9:
 181
 182 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
 183
 184 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
 185   and gcc 2.8.  The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
 186
 187 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
 188
 189 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
 190   listing.
 191
 192 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
 193
 194 Changes in 2.8:
 195
 196 * BeOS support added.
 197
 198 * MIPS16 support added.
 199
 200 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
 201
 202 * Alpha/VMS support added.
 203
 204 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
 205   --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
 206
 207 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
 208   maximum number of bytes to skip.  If doing the alignment would require
 209   skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
 210   all.
 211
 212 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
 213
 214 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
 215   conditionals in listings.
 216
 217 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
 218   the symbol is already defined.
 219
 220 Changes in 2.7:
 221
 222 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
 223   etc.) if -mregnames is used.  Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
 224   can be used any time.  PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
 225   added.
 226
 227 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
 228
 229 * PowerPC ELF support added.
 230
 231 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
 232
 233 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
 234
 235 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
 236
 237 * SCO ELF support added.  For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
 238   default is to build COFF-only support.  To get a set of tools that generate
 239   ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
 240   target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
 241
 242 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
 243
 244 Changes in 2.6:
 245
 246 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
 247
 248 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode.  Use -M or --mri to select
 249   MRI mode.  The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
 250   ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
 251
 252 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
 253
 254 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
 255
 256 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
 257
 258 Changes in 2.4:
 259
 260 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
 261
 262 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
 263
 264 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
 265   debugging support.
 266
 267 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
 268
 269 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
 270   provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
 271   features not available in the native assembler.  If the native assembler is
 272   used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
 273
 274 * Usage message is available with "--help".
 275
 276 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included.  (Actually, it was in 2.3
 277   also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
 278
 279 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
 280
 281 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
 282   Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
 283
 284 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
 285   Paul Kranenburg.
 286
 287 * Improved Alpha support.  Immediate constants can have a much larger range
 288   now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
 289
 290 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
 291
 292 Changes in 2.3:
 293
 294 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
 295
 296 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
 297
 298 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
 299   based on mail received from various people.  The `-h#' option should work
 300   again too.
 301
 302 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law.  Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
 303   with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6.  As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
 304   version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3.  You can retrieve
 305   this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
 306   in the "dist" directory.
 307
 308 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
 309   simple tests okay.  I haven't put it through extensive testing.  (GNU make is
 310   currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
 311
 312 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format).  The gas support is
 313   based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format.  I'm afraid
 314   the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
 315   making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
 316
 317 * Irix 5 support.
 318
 319 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
 320   couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
 321
 322 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
 323   flexibility in evaluating them in some cases.  Some details of relocation
 324   handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
 325   added, to make the Alpha port easier.
 326
 327 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times.  This is
 328   intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
 329   various phases of compilation.  (You should be able to get all of them
 330   printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
 331
 332 Changes in 2.2:
 333
 334 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
 335
 336 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
 337   have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
 338   gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
 339   impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
 340   reliable.
 341
 342 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
 343   displayed.  This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
 344   messages about "internal errors".
 345
 346 * ELF support is falling into place.  Support for the 386 should be working.
 347   Support for SPARC Solaris is in.  HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
 348
 349 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
 350   boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant.  This permits slightly
 351   more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
 352   known.
 353
 354 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
 355   If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
 356   sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section.  The format of the .stab
 357   section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
 358   its string table.  For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
 359   to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
 360   that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
 361
 362 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported.  SPARC LynxOS
 363   support is in progress.
 364
 365 Changes in 2.1:
 366
 367 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
 368   incorporated, but not well tested yet.
 369
 370 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
 371   with gcc now.
 372
 373 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
 374   suggested by Ronald Cole.
 375
 376 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah.  This
 377   includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
 378   2.x.  Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
 379
 380 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
 381
 382 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
 383
 384 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
 385
 386 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
 387
 388 Changes in 2.0:
 389
 390 * Mostly bug fixes.
 391
 392 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
 393
 394 Changes in 1.94:
 395
 396 * BFD merge is partly done.  Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
 397   "--with-bfd-assembler" option.  Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
 398   format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it.  It's the default only for OS "elf"
 399   or "solaris".  (ELF isn't really supported yet.  It needs work.  I've got
 400   some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
 401   fully merged yet.)
 402
 403 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half.  It should now compile under gcc
 404   without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
 405
 406 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size.  This should result in
 407   saving a little bit of space at runtime.
 408
 409 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in.  The OSF
 410   code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet.  (I can
 411   make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.)  Ralph's code, for BSD
 412   4.4, supports a.out format.  We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
 413   coming.
 414
 415 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
 416
 417 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
 418   Youngdale.
 419
 420 Changes in 1.93.01:
 421
 422 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
 423
 424 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
 425
 426 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names.  For COFF format, which
 427   doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
 428   can be distinguished from the register.
 429
 430 * Last public release was 1.38.  Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
 431   of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
 432
 433 \f
 434 Local variables:
 435 fill-column: 79
 436 End: