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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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18* Support for efi-app-aarch64, efi-rtdrv-aarch64 and efi-bsdrv-aarch64 has been
19 added to objcopy in order to enable UEFI development using binutils.
20
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21Changes in 2.37:
22
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23* The readelf tool has a new command line option which can be used to specify
24 how the numeric values of symbols are reported. --sym-base=0|8|10|16 tells
25 readelf to display the values in base 8, base 10 or base 16. A sym base of 0
26 represents the default action of displaying values under 10000 in base 10 and
27 values above that in base 16.
28
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29* Binutils now requires a C99 compiler and library to build.
30
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31* A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
32 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
33 display symbol names and nothing else.
34
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35* A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
36 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
37 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
38 other tools.
39
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40* objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
41 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
42
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43* Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
44 sections.
45
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46* Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
47 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
48 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
49 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
50 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
51 option.
52
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53 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
54 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
55 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
56 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
57 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
58
59 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
60 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
61 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
62 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
63
64 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
65 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
66 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
67 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
68 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
69 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
70 separate debuginfo files.
71
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72* Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
73 diagnostic.
74
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75Changes in 2.36:
76
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77* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
78
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79* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
80 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
81 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
82 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
83
84 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
85 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
86 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
87
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88* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
89 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
90 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
91 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
92
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93* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
94 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
95
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96* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
97 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
98 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
99
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100* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
101 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
102 linker.
103
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104Changes in 2.35:
105
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106* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
107 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
108 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
109 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
110 -T or --silent-truncation options.
111
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112* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
113
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114* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
115 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
116 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
117 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
118 was expecting them to actually contain something.
119
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120Changes in 2.34:
121
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122* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
123 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
124 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
125 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
126 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
127 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
128 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
129 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
130
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131* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
132 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
133
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134* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
135 specified section from being removed.
136
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137 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
138 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
139 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
140 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
141
142 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
143 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
144 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
145 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
146 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
147 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
148 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
149 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
150 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
151 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
152
153 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
154 output.
155
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156Changes in 2.33:
157
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158* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
159 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 160
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161* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
162 the changing of section alignments.
163
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164* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
165 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
166
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167* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
168 instructions.
169
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170* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
171 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
172 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
173 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
174 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
175
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176 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
177 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
178 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
179 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
180 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
181 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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182
183 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
184 to objdump and readelf.
185
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186Changes in 2.32:
187
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188* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
189 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
190 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
191 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 192 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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193
194 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
195 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
196 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
197 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
198
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199* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
200 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 201 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 202
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203* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
204 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
205 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
206 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
207
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208* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
209 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
210 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
211 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
212
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213* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
214 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
215 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
216 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
217 compatibility.
218
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219* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
220 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
221 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
222 Additionally the total is only included once.
223
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224Changes in 2.31:
225
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226* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
227
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228* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
229 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
230 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
231 to objdump.
232
233* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
234 a named register could be invalid.
235
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236* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
237
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238Changes in 2.30:
239
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240* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
241 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
242 sections.
243
244 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
245 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
246 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
247
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248Changes in 2.29:
249
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250* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
251 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
252
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253* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
254 disassembly.
255
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256* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
257 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
258 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
259
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260* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
261 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
262
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263* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
264
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265* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
266
efdf7a02 267* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 268
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269* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
270 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
271
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272* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
273 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
274
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275* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
276 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
277 the original file.
278
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279Changes in 2.28:
280
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281* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
282 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
283 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
284 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
285 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
286 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
287 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
288 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
289 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 290 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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291 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
292 with the instructions being relocated.
293
a05a5b64 294* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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295 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
296 symbol's name.
297
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298* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
299 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
300
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301* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
302 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
303 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
304 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
305
306* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
307 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
308 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
309 an earlier --only-section pattern.
310
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311* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
312 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
313 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
314 the relocation section itself.
315
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316Changes in 2.27:
317
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318* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
319 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
320
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321* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
322 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
323
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324Changes in 2.26:
325
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326* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
327 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
328
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329* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
330
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331* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
332 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
333 targets.
334
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335* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
336
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337* Add --output-separator option to strings.
338
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339Changes in 2.25:
340
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341* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
342 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
343 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
344 default behaviour.
345
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346* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
347
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348* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
349
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350* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
351
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352Changes in 2.24:
353
a05a5b64 354* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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355 section names.
356
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357* Add support for Altera Nios II.
358
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359Changes in 2.23:
360
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361* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
362
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363* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
364
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365* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
366
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367Changes in 2.22:
368
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369* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
370
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371* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
372 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 373
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374* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
375 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
376
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377* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
378
379changes in 2.21:
44f45767 380
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381* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
382 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
383
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384* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
385
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386* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
387 the -u / --unwind option.
388
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389* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
390
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391* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
392 binaries.
81c23f82 393
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394* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
395 '== <ID>' option.
396
a05a5b64 397* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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398 address before function name or source filename.
399
a05a5b64 400* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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401 a more human readable output.
402
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403* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
404
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405Changes in 2.20:
406
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407* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
408 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
409 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
410 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
411 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
412
a05a5b64 413* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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414 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
415 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 416
cf13d699 417* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 418 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 419
a05a5b64 420* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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421 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
422 file.
6e33da12 423
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424* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
425 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
426
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427* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
428 for objcopy.
c067354b 429
92dd4511 430* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 431 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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432 set PE optional header.
433
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434* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
435
436* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
437 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
438 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
439 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
440
0dafdf3f 441* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 442 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 443
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444* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
445 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
446
3aade688 447* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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448 report an error when the import library is associated with
449 multiple DLLs.
450
451* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
452 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
453
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454* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
455 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
456 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
457
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458Changes in 2.19:
459
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460* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
461
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462* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
463 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
464 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
465 added to the archive.
3aade688 466
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467* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
468
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469* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
470
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471* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
472
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473* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
474
876c34bf 475Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 476
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477* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
478 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
479 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 480
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481* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
482 Public License.
483
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484* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
485 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
486
487* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
488 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
489 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
490 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
491 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
492 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 493
a05a5b64 494* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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495 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
496 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
497 to some OSes.
498
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499Changes in 2.17:
500
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501* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
502
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503* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
504 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
505 of types.
506
507* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
508 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
509
4de2ad99 510* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 511 debug sections.
4de2ad99 512
5477e8a0 513* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 514 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 515
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516* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
517 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
518 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
519 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
520
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521* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
522 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
523
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524* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
525
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526* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
527 when disassembling VAX binaries.
528
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529* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
530 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 531
9fbad737 532* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 533 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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534
535Changes in 2.16:
536
b12fe839 537* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 538
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539* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
540 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
541 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
542 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
543
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544* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
545 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 546 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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547 the contents of the .debug_range section.
548
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549* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
550 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
551 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
552 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
553 between ARM and THUMB code.
554
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555* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
556 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
557
558Changes in 2.15:
559
e39893d7 560* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 561 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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562 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
563 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
564
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565* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
566 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
567
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568* readelf can now parse archives.
569
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570* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
571 format compatible with ctags tool.
572
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573* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
574 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
575 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
576 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
577 debugging info.
578
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579* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
580 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 581 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 582
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583* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
584 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
585 with the -a switch.
586
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587Changes in 2.14:
588
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589* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
590
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591* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
592
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593* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
594
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595* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
596 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
597
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598* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
599 Parallel C compiler.
600
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601* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
602 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
603 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
604
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605* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
606
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607Changes in 2.13:
608
609* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
610 and FR500 included.
252b5132 611
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612Changes in version 2.12:
613
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614* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
615
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616* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
617
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618* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
619 lines to fit into 80 columns.
620
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621* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
622
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623* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
624
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625* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
626 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
627
a05a5b64 628* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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629 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
630 by Honda Hiroki.
631
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632* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
633
a05a5b64 634* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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635 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
636 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
637
a05a5b64 638* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 639 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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640 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
641 By Stefan Geuken.
642
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643* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
644
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645Changes in binutils 2.11:
646
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647* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
648 extenstions.
649
a05a5b64 650* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 651 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 652
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653* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
654
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655* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
656
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657* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
658
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659Changes in binutils 2.10:
660
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661* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
662
a05a5b64 663* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 664 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 665 file.
f1563258 666
a05a5b64 667* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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668 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
669 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
670 raw verions.
7d036af2 671
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672* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
673 with intel syntax.
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674
675* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
676 regardless of target machine.
677
678* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
679 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
680 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
681 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
682
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683* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
684
685* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
686 sections.
687
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688* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
689
690* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
691 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
692
693Changes in binutils 2.9:
694
695* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
696 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
697
698* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
699 the VMA of the sections.
700
701* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
702
703Changes in binutils 2.8:
704
705* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
706 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
707 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
708 output.
709
710* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
711 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
712 so they must be in canonical form.
713
714* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
715 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
716
717* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
718
719* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
720
721* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
722
723* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
724
725* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
726
727* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
728
729Changes in binutils 2.7:
730
731* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
732
733* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
734
735* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
736
737* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
738
739* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
740
741* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
742
743* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
744
745* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
746
747Changes in binutils 2.6:
748
749* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
750
751* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
752 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
753 generating plain binary files.
754
755* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
756
757* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
758
759Changes in binutils 2.5:
760
761* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 762 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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763
764* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
765 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
766
767* Added --size-sort option to nm.
768
769* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
770 executables.
771
772Changes in binutils 2.4:
773
774* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
775 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
776
777* Support for Irix 5.
778
779* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
780 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
781
782Changes in binutils 2.3:
783
784* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
785 ELF and COFF files.
786
787* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
788 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
789
790* The strings program has been added.
791
792Changes in binutils 2.2:
793
794* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
795 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
796 'cp'.
797
798* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
799 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
800 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
801
802* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
803 the output from BSD nm.
804
805* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
806
807* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
808
809* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
810
811* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
812
813* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
814
815Changes in binutils 2.1:
816
817* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
818 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
819
820* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
821 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
822 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
823 for Posix.2 conformance.
824
825* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
826 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
827 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
828
829* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
830 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
831
832\f
250d07de 833Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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834
835Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
836are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
837notice and this notice are preserved.
838
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839Local variables:
840fill-column: 79
841End: