binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.30:
   4
   5 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
   6   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
   7   sections.
   8
   9   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  10   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  11   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  12
  13 Changes in 2.29:
  14
  15 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  16   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  17
  18 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  19   disassembly.
  20
  21 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
  22   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
  23   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
  24
  25 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
  26   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
  27
  28 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
  29
  30 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  31
  32 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
  33
  34 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
  35   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
  36
  37 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
  38   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
  39
  40 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
  41   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
  42   the original file.
  43
  44 Changes in 2.28:
  45
  46 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
  47   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
  48   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
  49   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
  50   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
  51   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
  52   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
  53   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
  54   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
  55   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command line
  56   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
  57   with the instructions being relocated.
  58
  59 * The nm program has a new command line option (--with-version-strings)
  60   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
  61   symbol's name.
  62
  63 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
  64   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
  65
  66 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
  67   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
  68   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
  69   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
  70
  71 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
  72   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  73   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  74   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  75
  76 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
  77   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
  78   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
  79   the relocation section itself.
  80
  81 Changes in 2.27:
  82
  83 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  84   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  85
  86 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
  87   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
  88
  89 Changes in 2.26:
  90
  91 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
  92   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
  93
  94 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  95
  96 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
  97   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
  98   targets.
  99
 100 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 101
 102 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 103
 104 Changes in 2.25:
 105
 106 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 107   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 108   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 109   default behaviour.
 110
 111 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 112
 113 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 114
 115 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 116
 117 Changes in 2.24:
 118
 119 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
 120   section names.
 121
 122 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 123
 124 Changes in 2.23:
 125
 126 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 127
 128 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 129
 130 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 131
 132 Changes in 2.22:
 133
 134 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 135
 136 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 137   passed to preprocessor.
 138
 139 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 140   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 141
 142 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 143
 144 changes in 2.21:
 145
 146 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 147   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 148
 149 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 150
 151 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 152   the -u / --unwind option.
 153
 154 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 155
 156 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 157   binaries.
 158
 159 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 160   '== <ID>' option.
 161
 162 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 163   address before function name or source filename.
 164
 165 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 166   a more human readable output.
 167
 168 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 169
 170 Changes in 2.20:
 171
 172 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 173   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 174   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 175   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 176   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 177
 178 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 179   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 180   instructions.
 181
 182 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 183   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 184
 185 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 186   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 187   file.
 188
 189 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 190   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 191
 192 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 193   for objcopy.
 194
 195 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 196   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 197   set PE optional header.
 198
 199 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 200
 201 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 202   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 203   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 204   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 205
 206 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 207   add absolute paths for -S.
 208
 209 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 210   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 211
 212 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 213   report an error when the import library is associated with
 214   multiple DLLs.
 215
 216 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 217   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 218
 219 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 220   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 221   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 222
 223 Changes in 2.19:
 224
 225 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 226
 227 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 228   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 229   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 230   added to the archive.
 231
 232 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 233
 234 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 235
 236 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 237
 238 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 239
 240 Changes in 2.18:
 241
 242 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 243   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 244   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 245
 246 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 247   Public License.
 248
 249 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 250   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 251
 252 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 253   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 254   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 255   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 256   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 257   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 258
 259 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 260   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 261   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 262   to some OSes.
 263
 264 Changes in 2.17:
 265
 266 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 267
 268 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 269   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 270   of types.
 271
 272 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 273   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 274
 275 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 276   debug sections.
 277
 278 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 279   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 280
 281 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 282   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 283   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 284   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 285
 286 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 287   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 288
 289 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 290
 291 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 292   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 293
 294 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 295   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 296
 297 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 298   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 299
 300 Changes in 2.16:
 301
 302 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 303
 304 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 305   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 306   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 307   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 308
 309 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 310   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 311   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 312   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 313
 314 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 315   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 316   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 317   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 318   between ARM and THUMB code.
 319
 320 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 321   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 322
 323 Changes in 2.15:
 324
 325 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 326   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 327   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 328   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 329
 330 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 331   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 332
 333 * readelf can now parse archives.
 334
 335 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 336   format compatible with ctags tool.
 337
 338 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 339   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 340   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 341   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 342   debugging info.
 343
 344 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 345   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 346   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 347
 348 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 349   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 350   with the -a switch.
 351
 352 Changes in 2.14:
 353
 354 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 355
 356 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 357
 358 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 359
 360 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 361   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 362
 363 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 364   Parallel C compiler.
 365
 366 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 367   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 368   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 369
 370 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 371
 372 Changes in 2.13:
 373
 374 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 375   and FR500 included.
 376
 377 Changes in version 2.12:
 378
 379 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 380
 381 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 382
 383 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 384   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 385
 386 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 387
 388 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 389
 390 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 391   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 392
 393 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 394   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 395   by Honda Hiroki.
 396
 397 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 398
 399 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 400   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 401   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 402
 403 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 404   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 405   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 406   By Stefan Geuken.
 407
 408 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 409
 410 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 411
 412 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 413   extenstions.
 414
 415 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 416   By Luciano Gemme.
 417
 418 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 419
 420 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 421
 422 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 423
 424 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 425
 426 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 427
 428 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 429   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 430   file.
 431
 432 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 433   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 434   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 435   raw verions.
 436
 437 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 438   with intel syntax.
 439
 440 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 441   regardless of target machine.
 442
 443 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 444   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 445   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 446   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 447
 448 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 449
 450 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 451   sections.
 452
 453 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 454
 455 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 456   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 457
 458 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 459
 460 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 461   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 462
 463 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 464   the VMA of the sections.
 465
 466 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 467
 468 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 469
 470 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 471   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 472   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 473   output.
 474
 475 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 476   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 477   so they must be in canonical form.
 478
 479 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 480   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 481
 482 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 483
 484 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 485
 486 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 487
 488 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 489
 490 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 491
 492 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 493
 494 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 495
 496 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 497
 498 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 499
 500 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 501
 502 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 503
 504 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 505
 506 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 507
 508 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 509
 510 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 511
 512 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 513
 514 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 515
 516 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 517   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 518   generating plain binary files.
 519
 520 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 521
 522 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 523
 524 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 525
 526 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 527   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 528
 529 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 530   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 531
 532 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 533
 534 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 535   executables.
 536
 537 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 538
 539 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 540   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 541
 542 * Support for Irix 5.
 543
 544 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 545   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 546
 547 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 548
 549 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 550   ELF and COFF files.
 551
 552 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 553   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 554
 555 * The strings program has been added.
 556
 557 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 558
 559 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 560   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 561   'cp'.
 562
 563 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 564   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 565   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 566
 567 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 568   the output from BSD nm.
 569
 570 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 571
 572 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 573
 574 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 575
 576 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 577
 578 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 579
 580 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 581
 582 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 583   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 584
 585 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 586   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 587   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 588   for Posix.2 conformance.
 589
 590 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 591   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 592   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 593
 594 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 595   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 596
 597 \f
 598 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 599
 600 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 601 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 602 notice and this notice are preserved.
 603
 604 Local variables:
 605 fill-column: 79
 606 End: