binutils/NEWS

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