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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
60391a25 2
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3* Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
4
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5* Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
6 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
7 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
8 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
9
10 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
11 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
12 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
13
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14* The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
15 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
16 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
17 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
18
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19* Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
20 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
21
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22* Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
23 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
24 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
25
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26* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
27 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
28 linker.
29
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30Changes in 2.35:
31
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32* Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
33 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
34 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
35 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
36 -T or --silent-truncation options.
37
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38* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
39
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40* The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
41 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
42 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
43 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
44 was expecting them to actually contain something.
45
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46Changes in 2.34:
47
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48* Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
49 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
50 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
51 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
52 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
53 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
54 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
55 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
56
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57* Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
58 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
59
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60* Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
61 specified section from being removed.
62
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63 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
64 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
65 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
66 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
67
68 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
69 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
70 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
71 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
72 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
73 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
74 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
75 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
76 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
77 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
78
79 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
80 output.
81
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82Changes in 2.33:
83
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84* Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
85 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
2c610e4b 86
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87* Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
88 the changing of section alignments.
89
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90* Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
91 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
92
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93* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
94 instructions.
95
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96* The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
97 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
98 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
99 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
100 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
101
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102 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
103 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
104 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
105 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
106 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
107 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
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108
109 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
110 to objdump and readelf.
111
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112Changes in 2.32:
113
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114* The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
115 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
116 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
117 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
69799d67 118 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
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119
120 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
121 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
122 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
123 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
124
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125* Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
126 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
baae986a 127 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
d3def5d7 128
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129* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
130 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
131 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
132 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
133
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134* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
135 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
136 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
137 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
138
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139* The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
140 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
141 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
142 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
143 compatibility.
144
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145* The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
146 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
147 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
148 Additionally the total is only included once.
149
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150Changes in 2.31:
151
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152* Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
153
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154* The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
155 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
156 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
157 to objdump.
158
159* The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
160 a named register could be invalid.
161
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162* Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
163
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164Changes in 2.30:
165
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166* Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
167 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
168 sections.
169
170 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
171 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
172 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
173
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174Changes in 2.29:
175
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176* The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
177 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
178
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179* The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
180 disassembly.
181
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182* The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
183 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
184 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
185
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186* The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
187 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
188
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189* The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
190
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191* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
192
efdf7a02 193* Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
f96bd6c2 194
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195* Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
196 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
197
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198* Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
199 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
200
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201* Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
202 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
203 the original file.
204
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205Changes in 2.28:
206
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207* This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
208 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
209 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
210 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
211 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
212 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
213 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
214 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
215 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
a05a5b64 216 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
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217 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
218 with the instructions being relocated.
219
a05a5b64 220* The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
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221 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
222 symbol's name.
223
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224* The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
225 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
226
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227* The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
228 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
229 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
230 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
231
232* The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
233 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
234 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
235 an earlier --only-section pattern.
236
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237* New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
238 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
239 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
240 the relocation section itself.
241
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242Changes in 2.27:
243
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244* Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
245 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
246
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247* Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
248 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
249
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250Changes in 2.26:
251
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252* Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
253 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
254
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255* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
256
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257* Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
258 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
259 targets.
260
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261* Add --update-section option to objcopy.
262
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263* Add --output-separator option to strings.
264
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265Changes in 2.25:
266
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267* Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
268 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
269 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
270 default behaviour.
271
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272* Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
273
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274* Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
275
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276* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
277
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278Changes in 2.24:
279
a05a5b64 280* Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
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281 section names.
282
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283* Add support for Altera Nios II.
284
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285Changes in 2.23:
286
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287* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
288
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289* Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
290
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291* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
292
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293Changes in 2.22:
294
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295* Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
296
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297* Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
298 passed to preprocessor.
44f45767 299
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300* Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
301 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
302
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303* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
304
305changes in 2.21:
44f45767 306
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307* Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
308 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
309
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310* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
311
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312* Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
313 the -u / --unwind option.
314
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315* Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
316
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317* A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
318 binaries.
81c23f82 319
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320* Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
321 '== <ID>' option.
322
a05a5b64 323* Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
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324 address before function name or source filename.
325
a05a5b64 326* Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
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327 a more human readable output.
328
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329* The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
330
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331Changes in 2.20:
332
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333* Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
334 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
335 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
336 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
337 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
338
a05a5b64 339* Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
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340 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
341 instructions.
3dcb3fcb 342
cf13d699 343* Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
a05a5b64 344 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
cf13d699 345
a05a5b64 346* The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
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347 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
348 file.
6e33da12 349
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350* The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
351 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
352
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353* The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
354 for objcopy.
c067354b 355
92dd4511 356* Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
a05a5b64 357 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
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358 set PE optional header.
359
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360* Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
361
362* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
363 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
364 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
365 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
366
0dafdf3f 367* Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
28024d9d 368 add absolute paths for -S.
0dafdf3f 369
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370* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
371 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
372
3aade688 373* Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
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374 report an error when the import library is associated with
375 multiple DLLs.
376
377* Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
378 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
379
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380* Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
381 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
382 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
383
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384Changes in 2.19:
385
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386* Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
387
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388* Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
389 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
390 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
391 added to the archive.
3aade688 392
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393* Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
394
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395* Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
396
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397* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
398
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399* Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
400
876c34bf 401Changes in 2.18:
98ec6e72 402
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403* Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
404 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
405 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1e4cf259 406
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407* The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
408 Public License.
409
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410* A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
411 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
412
413* Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
414 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
415 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
416 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
417 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
418 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
d856f2dd 419
a05a5b64 420* Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
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421 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
422 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
423 to some OSes.
424
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425Changes in 2.17:
426
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427* Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
428
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429* Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
430 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
431 of types.
432
433* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
434 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
435
4de2ad99 436* Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
cbf1f5df 437 debug sections.
4de2ad99 438
5477e8a0 439* Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
cbf1f5df 440 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
5477e8a0 441
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442* powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
443 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
444 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
445 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
446
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447* Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
448 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
449
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450* Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
451
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452* Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
453 when disassembling VAX binaries.
454
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455* Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
456 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
3aade688 457
9fbad737 458* gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
3aade688 459 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
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460
461Changes in 2.16:
462
b12fe839 463* Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
81fc812e 464
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465* objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
466 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
467 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
468 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
469
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470* readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
471 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
a05a5b64 472 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
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473 the contents of the .debug_range section.
474
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475* nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
476 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
477 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
478 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
479 between ARM and THUMB code.
480
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481* dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
482 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
483
484Changes in 2.15:
485
e39893d7 486* objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
9d317d34 487 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
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488 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
489 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
490
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491* objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
492 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
493
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494* readelf can now parse archives.
495
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496* objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
497 format compatible with ctags tool.
498
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499* objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
500 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
501 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
502 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
503 debugging info.
504
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505* objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
506 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
50c2245b 507 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
3aade688 508
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509* BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
510 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
511 with the -a switch.
512
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513Changes in 2.14:
514
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515* Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
516
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517* Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
518
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519* Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
520
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521* Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
522 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
523
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524* readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
525 Parallel C compiler.
526
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527* BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
528 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
529 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
530
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531* Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
532
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533Changes in 2.13:
534
535* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
536 and FR500 included.
252b5132 537
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538Changes in version 2.12:
539
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540* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
541
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542* size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
543
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544* readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
545 lines to fit into 80 columns.
546
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547* strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
548
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549* objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
550
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551* readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
552 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
553
a05a5b64 554* New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
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555 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
556 by Honda Hiroki.
557
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558* Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
559
a05a5b64 560* New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
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561 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
562 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
563
a05a5b64 564* New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
09ad7db3 565 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
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566 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
567 By Stefan Geuken.
568
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569* Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
570
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571Changes in binutils 2.11:
572
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573* Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
574 extenstions.
575
a05a5b64 576* Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
077b8428 577 By Luciano Gemme.
7d036af2 578
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579* Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
580
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581* Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
582
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583* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
584
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585Changes in binutils 2.10:
586
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587* Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
588
a05a5b64 589* New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
f1563258 590 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
7d036af2 591 file.
f1563258 592
a05a5b64 593* New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
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594 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
595 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
596 raw verions.
7d036af2 597
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598* objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
599 with intel syntax.
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600
601* New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
602 regardless of target machine.
603
604* objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
605 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
606 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
607 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
608
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609* objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
610
611* objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
612 sections.
613
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614* dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
615
616* dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
617 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
618
619Changes in binutils 2.9:
620
621* Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
622 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
623
624* The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
625 the VMA of the sections.
626
627* Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
628
629Changes in binutils 2.8:
630
631* The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
632 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
633 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
634 output.
635
636* Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
637 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
638 so they must be in canonical form.
639
640* Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
641 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
642
643* Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
644
645* Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
646
647* objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
648
649* Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
650
651* Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
652
653* Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
654
655Changes in binutils 2.7:
656
657* Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
658
659* Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
660
661* Added --defined-only argument to nm.
662
663* Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
664
665* The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
666
667* Added --line-numbers option to nm.
668
669* Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
670
671* Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
672
673Changes in binutils 2.6:
674
675* Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
676
677* Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
678 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
679 generating plain binary files.
680
681* Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
682
683* ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
684
685Changes in binutils 2.5:
686
687* Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
1049f94e 688 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
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689
690* Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
691 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
692
693* Added --size-sort option to nm.
694
695* strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
696 executables.
697
698Changes in binutils 2.4:
699
700* Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
701 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
702
703* Support for Irix 5.
704
705* Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
706 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
707
708Changes in binutils 2.3:
709
710* A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
711 ELF and COFF files.
712
713* A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
714 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
715
716* The strings program has been added.
717
718Changes in binutils 2.2:
719
720* The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
721 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
722 'cp'.
723
724* The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
725 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
726 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
727
728* nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
729 the output from BSD nm.
730
731* ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
732
733* New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
734
735* Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
736
737* There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
738
739* There is the beginnings of a test suite.
740
741Changes in binutils 2.1:
742
743* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
744 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
745
746* ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
747 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
748 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
749 for Posix.2 conformance.
750
751* The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
752 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
753 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
754
755* The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
756 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
757
758\f
250d07de 759Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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760
761Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
762are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
763notice and this notice are preserved.
764
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765Local variables:
766fill-column: 79
767End: