binutils/NEWS

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