gas/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
   4   uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
   5
   6 * Support for SH2E added.
   7
   8 * GASP has now been removed.
   9
  10 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
  11   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
  12
  13 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
  14
  15 Changes in 2.13:
  16
  17 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  18   and FR500 included.
  19
  20 * Support for DLX processor added.
  21
  22 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  Use
  23   the macro facilities in GAS instead.
  24
  25 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
  26   explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
  27   the currently specified base.
  28
  29 Changes in 2.12:
  30
  31 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  32
  33 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
  34
  35 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
  36   specifying the target instruction set.  The old method of specifying the
  37   target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
  38   compatibility.
  39
  40 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
  41   the ARM assembler.
  42
  43 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
  44   in the assembly.  Contributed by Anders Norlander.
  45
  46 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
  47   but still works for compatability.
  48
  49 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
  50   generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
  51   -n will turn on the warning.
  52
  53 Changes in 2.11:
  54
  55 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
  56
  57 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
  58
  59 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
  60
  61 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
  62
  63 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
  64
  65 * Support for IA-64.
  66
  67 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  68
  69 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  70
  71 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
  72
  73 * x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
  74   due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
  75   translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
  76
  77 Changes in 2.10:
  78
  79 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
  80   operand when altering the flags field.
  81
  82 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
  83
  84 * Support for IBM 370 ELF.  Somewhat experimental.
  85
  86 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
  87
  88 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
  89
  90 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
  91
  92 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
  93
  94 * New --fatal-warnings option.
  95
  96 * picoJava architecture support added.
  97
  98 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
  99
 100 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
 101   assembly programs with intel syntax.
 102
 103 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
 104
 105 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
 106
 107 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
 108
 109 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386.  This change will
 110   produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
 111   of gas accepted.  If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
 112   older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
 113
 114 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
 115
 116 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
 117
 118 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
 119
 120 * i960 ELF support added.
 121
 122 * ARM ELF support added.
 123
 124 Changes in 2.9:
 125
 126 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
 127
 128 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
 129   and gcc 2.8.  The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
 130
 131 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
 132
 133 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
 134   listing.
 135
 136 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
 137
 138 Changes in 2.8:
 139
 140 * BeOS support added.
 141
 142 * MIPS16 support added.
 143
 144 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
 145
 146 * Alpha/VMS support added.
 147
 148 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
 149   --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
 150
 151 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
 152   maximum number of bytes to skip.  If doing the alignment would require
 153   skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
 154   all.
 155
 156 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
 157
 158 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
 159   conditionals in listings.
 160
 161 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
 162   the symbol is already defined.
 163
 164 Changes in 2.7:
 165
 166 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
 167   etc.) if -mregnames is used.  Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
 168   can be used any time.  PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
 169   added.
 170
 171 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
 172
 173 * PowerPC ELF support added.
 174
 175 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
 176
 177 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
 178
 179 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
 180
 181 * SCO ELF support added.  For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
 182   default is to build COFF-only support.  To get a set of tools that generate
 183   ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
 184   target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
 185
 186 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
 187
 188 Changes in 2.6:
 189
 190 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
 191
 192 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode.  Use -M or --mri to select
 193   MRI mode.  The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
 194   ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
 195
 196 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
 197
 198 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
 199
 200 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
 201
 202 Changes in 2.4:
 203
 204 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
 205
 206 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
 207
 208 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
 209   debugging support.
 210
 211 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
 212
 213 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
 214   provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
 215   features not available in the native assembler.  If the native assembler is
 216   used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
 217
 218 * Usage message is available with "--help".
 219
 220 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included.  (Actually, it was in 2.3
 221   also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
 222
 223 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
 224
 225 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
 226   Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
 227
 228 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
 229   Paul Kranenburg.
 230
 231 * Improved Alpha support.  Immediate constants can have a much larger range
 232   now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
 233
 234 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
 235
 236 Changes in 2.3:
 237
 238 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
 239
 240 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
 241
 242 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
 243   based on mail received from various people.  The `-h#' option should work
 244   again too.
 245
 246 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law.  Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
 247   with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6.  As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
 248   version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3.  You can retrieve
 249   this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
 250   in the "dist" directory.
 251
 252 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
 253   simple tests okay.  I haven't put it through extensive testing.  (GNU make is
 254   currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
 255
 256 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format).  The gas support is
 257   based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format.  I'm afraid
 258   the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
 259   making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
 260
 261 * Irix 5 support.
 262
 263 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
 264   couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
 265
 266 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
 267   flexibility in evaluating them in some cases.  Some details of relocation
 268   handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
 269   added, to make the Alpha port easier.
 270
 271 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times.  This is
 272   intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
 273   various phases of compilation.  (You should be able to get all of them
 274   printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
 275
 276 Changes in 2.2:
 277
 278 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
 279
 280 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
 281   have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
 282   gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
 283   impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
 284   reliable.
 285
 286 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
 287   displayed.  This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
 288   messages about "internal errors".
 289
 290 * ELF support is falling into place.  Support for the 386 should be working.
 291   Support for SPARC Solaris is in.  HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
 292
 293 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
 294   boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant.  This permits slightly
 295   more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
 296   known.
 297
 298 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
 299   If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
 300   sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section.  The format of the .stab
 301   section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
 302   its string table.  For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
 303   to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
 304   that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
 305
 306 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported.  SPARC LynxOS
 307   support is in progress.
 308
 309 Changes in 2.1:
 310
 311 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
 312   incorporated, but not well tested yet.
 313
 314 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
 315   with gcc now.
 316
 317 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
 318   suggested by Ronald Cole.
 319
 320 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah.  This
 321   includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
 322   2.x.  Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
 323
 324 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
 325
 326 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
 327
 328 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
 329
 330 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
 331
 332 Changes in 2.0:
 333
 334 * Mostly bug fixes.
 335
 336 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
 337
 338 Changes in 1.94:
 339
 340 * BFD merge is partly done.  Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
 341   "--with-bfd-assembler" option.  Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
 342   format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it.  It's the default only for OS "elf"
 343   or "solaris".  (ELF isn't really supported yet.  It needs work.  I've got
 344   some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
 345   fully merged yet.)
 346
 347 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half.  It should now compile under gcc
 348   without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
 349
 350 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size.  This should result in
 351   saving a little bit of space at runtime.
 352
 353 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in.  The OSF
 354   code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet.  (I can
 355   make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.)  Ralph's code, for BSD
 356   4.4, supports a.out format.  We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
 357   coming.
 358
 359 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
 360
 361 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
 362   Youngdale.
 363
 364 Changes in 1.93.01:
 365
 366 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
 367
 368 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
 369
 370 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names.  For COFF format, which
 371   doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
 372   can be distinguished from the register.
 373
 374 * Last public release was 1.38.  Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
 375   of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
 376
 377 \f
 378 Local variables:
 379 fill-column: 79
 380 End: