binutils/NEWS

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