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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
60391a25 2
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3* elfedit: Add --output-abiversion option to update ABIVERSION.
4
e9a0721f 5* Add support for the LoongArch instruction set.
6
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7* Tools which display symbols or strings (readelf, strings, nm, objdump)
8 have a new command line option which controls how unicode characters are
9 handled. By default they are treated as normal for the tool. Using
10 --unicode=locale will display them according to the current locale.
11 Using --unicode=hex will display them as hex byte values, whilst
12 --unicode=escape will display them as escape sequences. In addition
13 using --unicode=highlight will display them as unicode escape sequences
14 highlighted in red (if supported by the output device).
15
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16* readelf -r dumps RELR relative relocations now.
17
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18Changes in 2.37:
19
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20* The readelf tool has a new command line option which can be used to specify
21 how the numeric values of symbols are reported. --sym-base=0|8|10|16 tells
22 readelf to display the values in base 8, base 10 or base 16. A sym base of 0
23 represents the default action of displaying values under 10000 in base 10 and
24 values above that in base 16.
25
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26* Binutils now requires a C99 compiler and library to build.
27
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28* A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
29 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
30 display symbol names and nothing else.
31
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32* A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
33 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
34 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
35 other tools.
36
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37* objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
38 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
39
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40* Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
41 sections.
42
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43* Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
44 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
45 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
46 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
47 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
48 option.
49
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50 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
51 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
52 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
53 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
54 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
55
56 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
57 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
58 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
59 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
60
61 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
62 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
63 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
64 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
65 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
66 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
67 separate debuginfo files.
68
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69* Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
70 diagnostic.
71
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72Changes in 2.36:
73
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74* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
75
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76* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
77 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
78 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
79 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
80
81 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
82 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
83 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
84
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85* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
86 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
87 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
88 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
89
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90* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
91 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
92
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93* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
94 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
95 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
96
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97* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
98 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
99 linker.
100
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101Changes in 2.35:
102
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103* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
104 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
105 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
106 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
107 -T or --silent-truncation options.
108
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109* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
110
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111* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
112 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
113 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
114 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
115 was expecting them to actually contain something.
116
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117Changes in 2.34:
118
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119* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
120 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
121 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
122 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
123 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
124 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
125 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
126 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
127
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128* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
129 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
130
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131* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
132 specified section from being removed.
133
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134 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
135 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
136 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
137 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
138
139 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
140 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
141 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
142 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
143 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
144 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
145 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
146 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
147 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
148 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
149
150 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
151 output.
152
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153Changes in 2.33:
154
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155* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
156 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 157
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158* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
159 the changing of section alignments.
160
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161* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
162 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
163
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164* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
165 instructions.
166
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167* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
168 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
169 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
170 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
171 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
172
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173 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
174 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
175 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
176 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
177 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
178 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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179
180 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
181 to objdump and readelf.
182
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183Changes in 2.32:
184
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185* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
186 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
187 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
188 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 189 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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190
191 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
192 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
193 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
194 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
195
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196* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
197 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 198 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 199
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200* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
201 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
202 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
203 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
204
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205* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
206 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
207 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
208 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
209
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210* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
211 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
212 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
213 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
214 compatibility.
215
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216* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
217 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
218 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
219 Additionally the total is only included once.
220
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221Changes in 2.31:
222
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223* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
224
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225* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
226 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
227 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
228 to objdump.
229
230* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
231 a named register could be invalid.
232
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233* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
234
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235Changes in 2.30:
236
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237* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
238 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
239 sections.
240
241 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
242 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
243 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
244
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245Changes in 2.29:
246
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247* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
248 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
249
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250* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
251 disassembly.
252
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253* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
254 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
255 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
256
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257* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
258 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
259
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260* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
261
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262* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
263
efdf7a02 264* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 265
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266* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
267 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
268
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269* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
270 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
271
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272* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
273 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
274 the original file.
275
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276Changes in 2.28:
277
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278* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
279 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
280 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
281 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
282 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
283 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
284 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
285 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
286 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 287 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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288 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
289 with the instructions being relocated.
290
a05a5b64 291* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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292 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
293 symbol's name.
294
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295* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
296 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
297
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298* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
299 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
300 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
301 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
302
303* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
304 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
305 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
306 an earlier --only-section pattern.
307
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308* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
309 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
310 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
311 the relocation section itself.
312
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313Changes in 2.27:
314
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315* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
316 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
317
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318* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
319 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
320
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321Changes in 2.26:
322
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323* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
324 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
325
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326* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
327
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328* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
329 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
330 targets.
331
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332* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
333
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334* Add --output-separator option to strings.
335
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336Changes in 2.25:
337
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338* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
339 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
340 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
341 default behaviour.
342
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343* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
344
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345* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
346
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347* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
348
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349Changes in 2.24:
350
a05a5b64 351* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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352 section names.
353
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354* Add support for Altera Nios II.
355
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356Changes in 2.23:
357
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358* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
359
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360* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
361
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362* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
363
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364Changes in 2.22:
365
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366* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
367
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368* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
369 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 370
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371* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
372 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
373
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374* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
375
376changes in 2.21:
44f45767 377
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378* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
379 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
380
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381* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
382
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383* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
384 the -u / --unwind option.
385
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386* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
387
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388* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
389 binaries.
81c23f82 390
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391* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
392 '== <ID>' option.
393
a05a5b64 394* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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395 address before function name or source filename.
396
a05a5b64 397* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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398 a more human readable output.
399
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400* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
401
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402Changes in 2.20:
403
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404* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
405 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
406 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
407 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
408 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
409
a05a5b64 410* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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411 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
412 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 413
cf13d699 414* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 415 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 416
a05a5b64 417* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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418 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
419 file.
6e33da12 420
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421* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
422 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
423
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424* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
425 for objcopy.
c067354b 426
92dd4511 427* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 428 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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429 set PE optional header.
430
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431* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
432
433* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
434 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
435 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
436 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
437
0dafdf3f 438* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 439 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 440
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441* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
442 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
443
3aade688 444* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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445 report an error when the import library is associated with
446 multiple DLLs.
447
448* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
449 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
450
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451* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
452 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
453 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
454
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455Changes in 2.19:
456
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457* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
458
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459* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
460 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
461 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
462 added to the archive.
3aade688 463
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464* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
465
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466* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
467
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468* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
469
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470* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
471
876c34bf 472Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 473
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474* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
475 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
476 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 477
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478* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
479 Public License.
480
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481* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
482 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
483
484* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
485 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
486 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
487 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
488 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
489 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 490
a05a5b64 491* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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492 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
493 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
494 to some OSes.
495
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496Changes in 2.17:
497
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498* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
499
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500* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
501 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
502 of types.
503
504* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
505 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
506
4de2ad99 507* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 508 debug sections.
4de2ad99 509
5477e8a0 510* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 511 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 512
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513* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
514 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
515 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
516 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
517
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518* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
519 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
520
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521* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
522
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523* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
524 when disassembling VAX binaries.
525
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526* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
527 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 528
9fbad737 529* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 530 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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531
532Changes in 2.16:
533
b12fe839 534* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 535
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536* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
537 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
538 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
539 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
540
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541* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
542 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 543 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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544 the contents of the .debug_range section.
545
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546* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
547 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
548 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
549 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
550 between ARM and THUMB code.
551
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552* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
553 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
554
555Changes in 2.15:
556
e39893d7 557* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 558 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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559 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
560 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
561
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562* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
563 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
564
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565* readelf can now parse archives.
566
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567* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
568 format compatible with ctags tool.
569
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570* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
571 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
572 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
573 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
574 debugging info.
575
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576* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
577 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 578 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 579
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580* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
581 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
582 with the -a switch.
583
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584Changes in 2.14:
585
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586* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
587
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588* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
589
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590* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
591
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592* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
593 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
594
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595* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
596 Parallel C compiler.
597
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598* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
599 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
600 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
601
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602* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
603
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604Changes in 2.13:
605
606* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
607 and FR500 included.
252b5132 608
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609Changes in version 2.12:
610
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611* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
612
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613* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
614
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615* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
616 lines to fit into 80 columns.
617
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618* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
619
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620* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
621
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622* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
623 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
624
a05a5b64 625* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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626 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
627 by Honda Hiroki.
628
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629* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
630
a05a5b64 631* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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632 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
633 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
634
a05a5b64 635* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 636 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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637 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
638 By Stefan Geuken.
639
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640* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
641
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642Changes in binutils 2.11:
643
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644* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
645 extenstions.
646
a05a5b64 647* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 648 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 649
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650* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
651
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652* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
653
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654* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
655
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656Changes in binutils 2.10:
657
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658* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
659
a05a5b64 660* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 661 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 662 file.
f1563258 663
a05a5b64 664* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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665 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
666 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
667 raw verions.
7d036af2 668
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669* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
670 with intel syntax.
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671
672* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
673 regardless of target machine.
674
675* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
676 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
677 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
678 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
679
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680* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
681
682* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
683 sections.
684
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685* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
686
687* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
688 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
689
690Changes in binutils 2.9:
691
692* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
693 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
694
695* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
696 the VMA of the sections.
697
698* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
699
700Changes in binutils 2.8:
701
702* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
703 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
704 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
705 output.
706
707* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
708 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
709 so they must be in canonical form.
710
711* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
712 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
713
714* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
715
716* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
717
718* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
719
720* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
721
722* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
723
724* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
725
726Changes in binutils 2.7:
727
728* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
729
730* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
731
732* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
733
734* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
735
736* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
737
738* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
739
740* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
741
742* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
743
744Changes in binutils 2.6:
745
746* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
747
748* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
749 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
750 generating plain binary files.
751
752* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
753
754* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
755
756Changes in binutils 2.5:
757
758* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 759 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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760
761* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
762 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
763
764* Added --size-sort option to nm.
765
766* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
767 executables.
768
769Changes in binutils 2.4:
770
771* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
772 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
773
774* Support for Irix 5.
775
776* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
777 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
778
779Changes in binutils 2.3:
780
781* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
782 ELF and COFF files.
783
784* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
785 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
786
787* The strings program has been added.
788
789Changes in binutils 2.2:
790
791* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
792 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
793 'cp'.
794
795* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
796 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
797 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
798
799* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
800 the output from BSD nm.
801
802* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
803
804* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
805
806* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
807
808* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
809
810* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
811
812Changes in binutils 2.1:
813
814* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
815 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
816
817* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
818 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
819 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
820 for Posix.2 conformance.
821
822* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
823 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
824 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
825
826* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
827 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
828
829\f
250d07de 830Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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831
832Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
833are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
834notice and this notice are preserved.
835
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836Local variables:
837fill-column: 79
838End: