binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
   4
   5 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
   6   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
   7   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
   8   to objdump.
   9
  10 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
  11   a named register could be invalid.
  12
  13 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
  14
  15 Changes in 2.30:
  16
  17 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
  18   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
  19   sections.
  20
  21   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  22   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  23   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  24
  25 Changes in 2.29:
  26
  27 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  28   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  29
  30 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  31   disassembly.
  32
  33 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
  34   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
  35   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
  36
  37 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
  38   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
  39
  40 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
  41
  42 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  43
  44 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
  45
  46 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
  47   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
  48
  49 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
  50   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
  51
  52 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
  53   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
  54   the original file.
  55
  56 Changes in 2.28:
  57
  58 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
  59   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
  60   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
  61   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
  62   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
  63   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
  64   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
  65   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
  66   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
  67   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command line
  68   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
  69   with the instructions being relocated.
  70
  71 * The nm program has a new command line option (--with-version-strings)
  72   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
  73   symbol's name.
  74
  75 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
  76   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
  77
  78 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
  79   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
  80   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
  81   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
  82
  83 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
  84   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  85   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  86   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  87
  88 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
  89   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
  90   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
  91   the relocation section itself.
  92
  93 Changes in 2.27:
  94
  95 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  96   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  97
  98 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
  99   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 100
 101 Changes in 2.26:
 102
 103 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 104   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 105
 106 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 107
 108 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 109   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 110   targets.
 111
 112 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 113
 114 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 115
 116 Changes in 2.25:
 117
 118 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 119   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 120   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 121   default behaviour.
 122
 123 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 124
 125 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 126
 127 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 128
 129 Changes in 2.24:
 130
 131 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
 132   section names.
 133
 134 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 135
 136 Changes in 2.23:
 137
 138 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 139
 140 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 141
 142 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 143
 144 Changes in 2.22:
 145
 146 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 147
 148 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 149   passed to preprocessor.
 150
 151 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 152   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 153
 154 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 155
 156 changes in 2.21:
 157
 158 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 159   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 160
 161 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 162
 163 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 164   the -u / --unwind option.
 165
 166 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 167
 168 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 169   binaries.
 170
 171 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 172   '== <ID>' option.
 173
 174 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 175   address before function name or source filename.
 176
 177 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 178   a more human readable output.
 179
 180 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 181
 182 Changes in 2.20:
 183
 184 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 185   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 186   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 187   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 188   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 189
 190 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 191   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 192   instructions.
 193
 194 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 195   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 196
 197 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 198   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 199   file.
 200
 201 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 202   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 203
 204 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 205   for objcopy.
 206
 207 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 208   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 209   set PE optional header.
 210
 211 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 212
 213 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 214   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 215   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 216   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 217
 218 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 219   add absolute paths for -S.
 220
 221 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 222   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 223
 224 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 225   report an error when the import library is associated with
 226   multiple DLLs.
 227
 228 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 229   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 230
 231 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 232   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 233   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 234
 235 Changes in 2.19:
 236
 237 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 238
 239 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 240   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 241   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 242   added to the archive.
 243
 244 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 245
 246 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 247
 248 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 249
 250 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 251
 252 Changes in 2.18:
 253
 254 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 255   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 256   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 257
 258 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 259   Public License.
 260
 261 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 262   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 263
 264 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 265   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 266   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 267   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 268   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 269   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 270
 271 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 272   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 273   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 274   to some OSes.
 275
 276 Changes in 2.17:
 277
 278 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 279
 280 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 281   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 282   of types.
 283
 284 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 285   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 286
 287 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 288   debug sections.
 289
 290 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 291   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 292
 293 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 294   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 295   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 296   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 297
 298 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 299   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 300
 301 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 302
 303 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 304   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 305
 306 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 307   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 308
 309 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 310   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 311
 312 Changes in 2.16:
 313
 314 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 315
 316 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 317   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 318   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 319   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 320
 321 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 322   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 323   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 324   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 325
 326 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 327   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 328   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 329   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 330   between ARM and THUMB code.
 331
 332 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 333   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 334
 335 Changes in 2.15:
 336
 337 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 338   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 339   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 340   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 341
 342 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 343   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 344
 345 * readelf can now parse archives.
 346
 347 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 348   format compatible with ctags tool.
 349
 350 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 351   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 352   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 353   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 354   debugging info.
 355
 356 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 357   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 358   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 359
 360 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 361   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 362   with the -a switch.
 363
 364 Changes in 2.14:
 365
 366 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 367
 368 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 369
 370 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 371
 372 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 373   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 374
 375 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 376   Parallel C compiler.
 377
 378 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 379   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 380   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 381
 382 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 383
 384 Changes in 2.13:
 385
 386 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 387   and FR500 included.
 388
 389 Changes in version 2.12:
 390
 391 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 392
 393 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 394
 395 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 396   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 397
 398 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 399
 400 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 401
 402 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 403   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 404
 405 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 406   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 407   by Honda Hiroki.
 408
 409 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 410
 411 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 412   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 413   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 414
 415 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 416   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 417   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 418   By Stefan Geuken.
 419
 420 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 421
 422 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 423
 424 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 425   extenstions.
 426
 427 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 428   By Luciano Gemme.
 429
 430 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 431
 432 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 433
 434 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 435
 436 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 437
 438 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 439
 440 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 441   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 442   file.
 443
 444 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 445   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 446   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 447   raw verions.
 448
 449 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 450   with intel syntax.
 451
 452 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 453   regardless of target machine.
 454
 455 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 456   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 457   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 458   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 459
 460 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 461
 462 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 463   sections.
 464
 465 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 466
 467 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 468   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 469
 470 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 471
 472 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 473   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 474
 475 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 476   the VMA of the sections.
 477
 478 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 479
 480 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 481
 482 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 483   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 484   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 485   output.
 486
 487 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 488   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 489   so they must be in canonical form.
 490
 491 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 492   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 493
 494 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 495
 496 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 497
 498 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 499
 500 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 501
 502 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 503
 504 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 505
 506 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 507
 508 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 509
 510 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 511
 512 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 513
 514 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 515
 516 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 517
 518 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 519
 520 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 521
 522 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 523
 524 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 525
 526 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 527
 528 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 529   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 530   generating plain binary files.
 531
 532 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 533
 534 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 535
 536 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 537
 538 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 539   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 540
 541 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 542   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 543
 544 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 545
 546 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 547   executables.
 548
 549 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 550
 551 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 552   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 553
 554 * Support for Irix 5.
 555
 556 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 557   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 558
 559 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 560
 561 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 562   ELF and COFF files.
 563
 564 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 565   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 566
 567 * The strings program has been added.
 568
 569 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 570
 571 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 572   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 573   'cp'.
 574
 575 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 576   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 577   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 578
 579 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 580   the output from BSD nm.
 581
 582 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 583
 584 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 585
 586 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 587
 588 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 589
 590 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 591
 592 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 593
 594 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 595   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 596
 597 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 598   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 599   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 600   for Posix.2 conformance.
 601
 602 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 603   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 604   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 605
 606 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 607   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 608
 609 \f
 610 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 611
 612 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 613 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 614 notice and this notice are preserved.
 615
 616 Local variables:
 617 fill-column: 79
 618 End: