binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
   4   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
   5   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
   6   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
   7   between ARM and THUMB code.
   8
   9 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  10   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  11
  12 Changes in 2.15:
  13
  14 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  15   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  16
  17 * readelf can now parse archives.
  18
  19 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  20   format compatible with ctags tool.
  21
  22 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  23   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  24   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  25   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  26   debugging info.
  27
  28 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  29   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  30   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  31
  32 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  33   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  34   with the -a switch.
  35
  36 Changes in 2.14:
  37
  38 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  39
  40 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  41
  42 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  43
  44 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  45   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  46
  47 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  48   Parallel C compiler.
  49
  50 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  51   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  52   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  53
  54 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  55
  56 Changes in 2.13:
  57
  58 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  59   and FR500 included.
  60
  61 Changes in version 2.12:
  62
  63 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  64
  65 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  66
  67 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  68   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  69
  70 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
  71
  72 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
  73
  74 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
  75   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
  76
  77 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
  78   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
  79   by Honda Hiroki.
  80
  81 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
  82
  83 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
  84   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
  85   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
  86
  87 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
  88   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
  89   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
  90   By Stefan Geuken.
  91
  92 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
  93
  94 Changes in binutils 2.11:
  95
  96 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
  97   extenstions.
  98
  99 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 100   By Luciano Gemme.
 101
 102 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 103
 104 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 105
 106 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 107
 108 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 109
 110 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 111
 112 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 113   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 114   file.
 115
 116 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 117   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 118   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 119   raw verions.
 120
 121 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 122   with intel syntax.
 123
 124 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 125   regardless of target machine.
 126
 127 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 128   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 129   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 130   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 131
 132 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 133
 134 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 135   sections.
 136
 137 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 138
 139 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 140   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 141
 142 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 143
 144 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 145   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 146
 147 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 148   the VMA of the sections.
 149
 150 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 151
 152 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 153
 154 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 155   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 156   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 157   output.
 158
 159 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 160   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 161   so they must be in canonical form.
 162
 163 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 164   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 165
 166 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 167
 168 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 169
 170 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 171
 172 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 173
 174 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 175
 176 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 177
 178 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 179
 180 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 181
 182 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 183
 184 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 185
 186 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 187
 188 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 189
 190 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 191
 192 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 193
 194 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 195
 196 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 197
 198 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 199
 200 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 201   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 202   generating plain binary files.
 203
 204 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 205
 206 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 207
 208 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 209
 210 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 211   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 212
 213 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 214   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 215
 216 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 217
 218 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 219   executables.
 220
 221 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 222
 223 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 224   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 225
 226 * Support for Irix 5.
 227
 228 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 229   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 230
 231 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 232
 233 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 234   ELF and COFF files.
 235
 236 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 237   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 238
 239 * The strings program has been added.
 240
 241 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 242
 243 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 244   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 245   'cp'.
 246
 247 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 248   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 249   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 250
 251 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 252   the output from BSD nm.
 253
 254 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 255
 256 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 257
 258 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 259
 260 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 261
 262 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 263
 264 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 265
 266 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 267   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 268
 269 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 270   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 271   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 272   for Posix.2 conformance.
 273
 274 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 275   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 276   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 277
 278 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 279   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 280
 281 \f
 282 Local variables:
 283 fill-column: 79
 284 End: