binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
   4
   5 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
   6   when disassembling VAX binaries.
   7
   8 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
   9   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
  10
  11 Changes in 2.16:
  12
  13 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section group.
  14
  15 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
  16   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
  17   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
  18   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
  19
  20 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
  21   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
  22   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
  23   the contents of the .debug_range section.
  24
  25 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
  26   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
  27   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
  28   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
  29   between ARM and THUMB code.
  30
  31 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  32   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  33
  34 Changes in 2.15:
  35
  36 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
  37   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
  38   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
  39   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
  40
  41 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  42   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  43
  44 * readelf can now parse archives.
  45
  46 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  47   format compatible with ctags tool.
  48
  49 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  50   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  51   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  52   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  53   debugging info.
  54
  55 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  56   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  57   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  58
  59 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  60   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  61   with the -a switch.
  62
  63 Changes in 2.14:
  64
  65 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  66
  67 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  68
  69 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  70
  71 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  72   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  73
  74 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  75   Parallel C compiler.
  76
  77 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  78   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  79   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  80
  81 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  82
  83 Changes in 2.13:
  84
  85 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  86   and FR500 included.
  87
  88 Changes in version 2.12:
  89
  90 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  91
  92 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  93
  94 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  95   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  96
  97 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
  98
  99 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 100
 101 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 102   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 103
 104 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 105   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 106   by Honda Hiroki.
 107
 108 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 109
 110 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 111   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 112   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 113
 114 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 115   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 116   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 117   By Stefan Geuken.
 118
 119 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 120
 121 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 122
 123 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 124   extenstions.
 125
 126 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 127   By Luciano Gemme.
 128
 129 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 130
 131 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 132
 133 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 134
 135 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 136
 137 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 138
 139 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 140   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 141   file.
 142
 143 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 144   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 145   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 146   raw verions.
 147
 148 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 149   with intel syntax.
 150
 151 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 152   regardless of target machine.
 153
 154 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 155   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 156   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 157   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 158
 159 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 160
 161 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 162   sections.
 163
 164 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 165
 166 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 167   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 168
 169 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 170
 171 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 172   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 173
 174 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 175   the VMA of the sections.
 176
 177 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 178
 179 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 180
 181 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 182   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 183   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 184   output.
 185
 186 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 187   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 188   so they must be in canonical form.
 189
 190 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 191   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 192
 193 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 194
 195 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 196
 197 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 198
 199 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 200
 201 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 202
 203 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 204
 205 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 206
 207 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 208
 209 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 210
 211 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 212
 213 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 214
 215 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 216
 217 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 218
 219 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 220
 221 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 222
 223 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 224
 225 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 226
 227 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 228   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 229   generating plain binary files.
 230
 231 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 232
 233 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 234
 235 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 236
 237 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 238   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 239
 240 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 241   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 242
 243 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 244
 245 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 246   executables.
 247
 248 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 249
 250 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 251   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 252
 253 * Support for Irix 5.
 254
 255 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 256   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 257
 258 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 259
 260 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 261   ELF and COFF files.
 262
 263 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 264   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 265
 266 * The strings program has been added.
 267
 268 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 269
 270 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 271   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 272   'cp'.
 273
 274 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 275   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 276   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 277
 278 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 279   the output from BSD nm.
 280
 281 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 282
 283 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 284
 285 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 286
 287 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 288
 289 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 290
 291 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 292
 293 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 294   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 295
 296 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 297   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 298   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 299   for Posix.2 conformance.
 300
 301 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 302   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 303   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 304
 305 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 306   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 307
 308 \f
 309 Local variables:
 310 fill-column: 79
 311 End: