ld/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
   4   GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
   5
   6 * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
   7   properties in the x86 ELF linker.
   8
   9 * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
  10   properties in the x86 ELF linker.
  11
  12 * Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
  13   PLT.
  14
  15 * Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
  16   PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
  17   properties.
  18
  19 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  20
  21 * Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
  22
  23 * Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
  24
  25 * When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
  26   change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
  27
  28 * Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
  29   mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
  30
  31 * Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
  32   take an load memory address starting from LMA.
  33
  34 * Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
  35   placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
  36   option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
  37   linker script.
  38
  39 Changes in 2.28:
  40
  41 * The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
  42   section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
  43   the list.
  44
  45 * Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
  46
  47 * The command line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
  48   linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
  49
  50 * Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
  51   Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
  52   by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have.  As such,
  53   --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
  54
  55 * Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
  56   targets, to any ELF based target.  This allows the generation of an import
  57   library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
  58   to link against the executable.
  59
  60 Changes in 2.27:
  61
  62 * Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
  63   be enabled in ELF linker by default.  Default to yes for all Linux
  64   targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS.
  65
  66 * Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
  67   relocation overflow check.
  68
  69 * Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
  70   convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
  71
  72 * Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
  73   avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
  74
  75 * The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
  76
  77 * Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
  78   values for dynamic relocations.
  79
  80 Changes in 2.26:
  81
  82 * Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
  83   workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
  84   the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
  85
  86 * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
  87   decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
  88
  89 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  90
  91 * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
  92   has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
  93
  94 * New command line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
  95   sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
  96
  97 * New command line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
  98   adjust how orphan sections are handled.  The default is 'place' which gives
  99   the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
 100   respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
 101   orphan sections.
 102
 103 * Add support for LLVM plugin.
 104
 105 * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
 106
 107 * Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
 108   must be defined by the end of the link.
 109
 110 Changes in 2.25:
 111
 112 * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default.  To disable
 113   the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
 114   command line option.
 115
 116 * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
 117
 118 * Add support for the --build-id command line option to COFF based targets.
 119
 120 * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
 121
 122 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 123
 124 Changes in 2.24:
 125
 126 * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
 127
 128 * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
 129
 130 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 131
 132 * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
 133
 134 * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
 135
 136 * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
 137
 138 * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
 139
 140 * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
 141   an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
 142
 143 Changes in 2.23:
 144
 145 * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
 146
 147 * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
 148
 149 * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
 150
 151 * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
 152   to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
 153   program's memory image.
 154
 155 * Add support for S12X processor.
 156
 157 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 158
 159 * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
 160
 161 * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
 162
 163 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 164
 165 * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
 166
 167 Changes in 2.22:
 168
 169 * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default.  Instead
 170   --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
 171
 172 * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
 173   to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
 174
 175 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 176
 177 * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
 178   sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
 179   encoded in the section name.
 180
 181 Changes in 2.21:
 182
 183 * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane.  This may
 184   break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
 185
 186 * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets.  For old behavior the
 187   option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
 188   bfd.
 189
 190 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 191
 192 * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
 193   with --as-needed option.
 194
 195 * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
 196   to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
 197
 198 * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers.  This prevents all
 199   symbols from automatically being exported.
 200
 201 * Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
 202
 203 * Add support for alpha-vms target.
 204
 205 Changes in 2.20:
 206
 207 * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding.  This is a
 208   GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings.  The binding will
 209   be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
 210   process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
 211
 212 * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
 213   common symbols to be specified.  This support uses custom options in
 214   the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
 215
 216 * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
 217   are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
 218   are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
 219
 220 * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
 221   --export-dynamic options.
 222
 223 * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
 224   ELF machine code.
 225
 226 * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
 227
 228 * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
 229   the COFF format when generating executable images, by default.  The old
 230   (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
 231   new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option.  It is also enabled
 232   automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
 233   needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
 234
 235 * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
 236   made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
 237   the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
 238
 239 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 240   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 241   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 242   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 243
 244 * Add a new command line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
 245   to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
 246
 247 * Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
 248
 249 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
 250   allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 251
 252 * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
 253   allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
 254   and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
 255
 256 * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
 257
 258 * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
 259   for Embedded-PIC code) option.
 260
 261 * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
 262   pseudo-relocations.  They can be selected by the switches
 263   --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
 264   For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
 265   runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
 266
 267 Changes in 2.19:
 268
 269 * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
 270   augment the default script.
 271
 272 * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
 273   archive by writing "archive:file".
 274
 275 * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
 276   direction of sorting.
 277
 278 * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
 279   the --got=<type> command line option.
 280
 281 * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
 282   that are too far away.  The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
 283   linker command line option: --stub-group-size=N.
 284
 285 Changes in 2.18:
 286
 287 * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
 288   License.
 289
 290 * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
 291   embedded in a note section.
 292
 293 * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
 294
 295 * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
 296   without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
 297
 298 * Add a new command line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
 299   which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
 300   script.
 301
 302 * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
 303   operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
 304   builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
 305   dynamic list.
 306
 307 * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
 308
 309 * Add support for Score target.
 310
 311 * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
 312   whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
 313   shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
 314   symbol table in the executable.
 315
 316 * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
 317   being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
 318   the previous output section in the same region.  This is a more useful
 319   default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
 320   differing from the VMA for some sections.
 321
 322 * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
 323   collection.
 324
 325 * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
 326   VFP11 coprocessors.
 327
 328 Changes in 2.17:
 329
 330 * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
 331
 332 * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
 333   Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
 334   searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
 335   Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
 336
 337 * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
 338   passed directly to ld.
 339
 340 * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
 341
 342 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
 343   switches can be read from <file>.
 344
 345 Changes in 2.16:
 346
 347 * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
 348   specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
 349
 350 * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
 351   for input files listed inside of it.
 352
 353 * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
 354   default sysroot location.  It only applies to toolchains that were
 355   configured using --with-sysroot.
 356
 357 * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
 358   about a specified memory region.
 359
 360 * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
 361
 362 * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
 363   override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
 364
 365 * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
 366   object.
 367
 368 * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
 369   language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
 370   maximum alignment.
 371
 372 * Added a new linker command line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
 373   to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
 374
 375 * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
 376   should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
 377
 378 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
 379
 380 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
 381
 382 * A new linker command line switch has been added which allows the hash table
 383   size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument.  This switch
 384   is --hash-size=<NUMBER>.  Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
 385   used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
 386   to 1021.
 387
 388 * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
 389   that are defined in each section.  This uses about 40% more memory for
 390   symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm.  You can use the new
 391   --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
 392   might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
 393
 394 Changes in 2.15:
 395
 396 * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
 397   be added only when a shared library is referenced.
 398
 399 * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
 400   addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
 401
 402 * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
 403
 404 * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
 405   is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
 406
 407 * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
 408   Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
 409
 410 * cr16c support added by NSC.
 411
 412 * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
 413
 414 * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols.  The switch
 415   --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
 416   should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
 417   make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
 418
 419 Changes in 2.14:
 420
 421 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
 422
 423 * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
 424   linking against a target filesystem image.
 425
 426 * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
 427   2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
 428   file format.
 429
 430 * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
 431
 432 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
 433   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
 434
 435 * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
 436   LIB_PATH.
 437
 438 * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
 439
 440 * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
 441
 442 Changes in 2.13:
 443
 444 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 445   and FR500 included.
 446
 447 Changes in version 2.13:
 448
 449 * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
 450
 451 Changes in version 2.12:
 452
 453 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 454
 455 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
 456
 457 * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
 458   production of copy relocs.  Warning: using this option may result in
 459   non-sharable applications.
 460
 461 * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
 462   relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
 463   can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
 464
 465 * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
 466
 467 Changes in version 2.11:
 468
 469 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
 470
 471 * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
 472   having the compiler generate the information in sections called
 473   .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents.  The
 474   linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
 475   section.
 476
 477 * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
 478   DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
 479
 480 * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
 481
 482 * Added command line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
 483   specified section.
 484
 485 * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
 486   enabled by --emit-relocs.  Some post-linkage optimization tools need
 487   this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
 488   symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
 489   (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
 490
 491 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
 492
 493 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 494
 495 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
 496
 497 Changes in version 2.10:
 498
 499 * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
 500   sections into regions.
 501
 502 * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
 503   It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
 504   arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
 505   mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
 506   Others will ignore the option.
 507
 508 * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
 509   name or section name.
 510
 511 * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
 512   command-line option.
 513
 514 * Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
 515
 516 * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
 517   wildcard file names.
 518
 519 * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
 520   affects ELF shared library generation).
 521
 522 * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
 523
 524 * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
 525   shared library.
 526
 527 * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
 528   using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
 529   behaviour.
 530
 531 * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
 532
 533 Changes in version 2.9:
 534
 535 * Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
 536
 537 * New option --no-warn-mismatch.
 538
 539 * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
 540   are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
 541
 542 Changes in version 2.8:
 543
 544 * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
 545   names.
 546
 547 * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
 548
 549 * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
 550
 551 * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
 552
 553 * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
 554
 555 * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
 556
 557 * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
 558   changes due to alignment of an input section.
 559
 560 * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
 561
 562 Changes in version 2.7:
 563
 564 * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
 565
 566 * New option --wrap SYMBOL.
 567
 568 * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
 569
 570 * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
 571   are not included in the output file.
 572
 573 * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
 574   the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types.  This reduces the amount of debugging
 575   information generated.
 576
 577 Changes in version 2.6:
 578
 579 * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
 580 of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
 581 __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
 582 beginning and the end of the section.  This is used by glibc.
 583
 584   Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
 585 and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature:  The
 586 symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
 587 sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
 588
 589 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
 590 contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
 591 not copied into the output file.  This is used by glibc.
 592
 593 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
 594 file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
 595 the section are displayed as an error message.  The section is not copied into
 596 the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link.  This is used by
 597 glibc.
 598
 599 * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
 600
 601 * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS.  It can
 602 also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
 603 will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
 604 nor the -r option was used.
 605
 606 * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
 607 searched at run time.  This overrides the default of building the list from the
 608 -L options.
 609
 610 * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
 611 enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
 612 only be defined once in the output file.  The --traditional-format switch will
 613 prevent this optimization.
 614
 615 Changes in version 2.5:
 616
 617 * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries.  It still can
 618 not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
 619 generate shared libraries.
 620
 621 * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
 622 (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris).  It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
 623 used to generate shared libraries.  Shared library generation is not well
 624 tested; please report any problems encountered.  The linker is now enabled for
 625 Solaris again.
 626
 627 * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
 628 Linux a.out shared libraries.  The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
 629
 630 * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  To use the new
 631 ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So far,
 632 this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
 633 5), and HPPA ELF targets.
 634
 635 * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
 636 support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
 637 This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
 638
 639 * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
 640 it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
 641 file.  A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
 642 default linker script.
 643
 644 * The -warn-once option was added.  It causes the linker to only warn once per
 645 undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
 646
 647 * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  As with ELF, to
 648 use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function.  So
 649 far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
 650
 651 * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility.  The old -V
 652 behaviour is available via --verbose.
 653
 654 Changes in version 2.4:
 655
 656 * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor.  For a.out and ecoff
 657   formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
 658   and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
 659   before for formats not converted yet.
 660
 661 * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex.  This means
 662   oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
 663   separators.
 664
 665 * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law.  (No SOM support yet.)
 666
 667 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
 668
 669 * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
 670   libraries are not yet supported).
 671
 672 * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
 673
 674 * The linker is disabled for Solaris.  (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
 675   forgot to note it.)  Some of their C library routines don't work when
 676   statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
 677
 678 Changes in version 2.3:
 679
 680 * Weak symbols are now supported.
 681
 682 * ELF support has been added.  The linker has been bootstrapped on
 683   UnixWare and Solaris.
 684
 685 * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
 686
 687 Changes in version 2.2:
 688
 689 * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
 690   table size.  The effect of this is that files linked from many input
 691   files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
 692   static symbols) should be much smaller.
 693
 694 Changes in version 2.1:
 695
 696 * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
 697
 698 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
 699   other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
 700
 701 \f
 702 Copyright (C) 2012-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 703
 704 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 705 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 706 notice and this notice are preserved.
 707
 708 Local variables:
 709 fill-column: 79
 710 End: