binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
   4   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
   5
   6 Changes in 2.26:
   7
   8 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
   9   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
  10
  11 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  12
  13 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
  14   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
  15   targets.
  16
  17 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
  18
  19 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
  20
  21 Changes in 2.25:
  22
  23 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
  24   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
  25   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
  26   default behaviour.
  27
  28 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
  29
  30 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
  31
  32 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  33
  34 Changes in 2.24:
  35
  36 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  37   section names.
  38
  39 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  40
  41 Changes in 2.23:
  42
  43 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  44
  45 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  46
  47 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  48
  49 Changes in 2.22:
  50
  51 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  52
  53 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  54   passed to preprocessor.
  55
  56 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  57   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  58
  59 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  60
  61 changes in 2.21:
  62
  63 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  64   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  65
  66 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  67
  68 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  69   the -u / --unwind option.
  70
  71 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  72
  73 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  74   binaries.
  75
  76 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  77   '== <ID>' option.
  78
  79 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  80   address before function name or source filename.
  81
  82 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  83   a more human readable output.
  84
  85 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  86
  87 Changes in 2.20:
  88
  89 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  90   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  91   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  92   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  93   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  94
  95 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  96   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  97   instructions.
  98
  99 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 100   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 101
 102 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 103   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 104   file.
 105
 106 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 107   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 108
 109 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 110   for objcopy.
 111
 112 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 113   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 114   set PE optional header.
 115
 116 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 117
 118 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 119   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 120   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 121   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 122
 123 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 124   add absolute paths for -S.
 125
 126 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 127   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 128
 129 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 130   report an error when the import library is associated with
 131   multiple DLLs.
 132
 133 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 134   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 135
 136 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 137   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 138   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 139
 140 Changes in 2.19:
 141
 142 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 143
 144 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 145   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 146   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 147   added to the archive.
 148
 149 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 150
 151 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 152
 153 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 154
 155 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 156
 157 Changes in 2.18:
 158
 159 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 160   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 161   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 162
 163 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 164   Public License.
 165
 166 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 167   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 168
 169 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 170   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 171   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 172   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 173   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 174   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 175
 176 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 177   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 178   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 179   to some OSes.
 180
 181 Changes in 2.17:
 182
 183 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 184
 185 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 186   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 187   of types.
 188
 189 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 190   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 191
 192 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 193   debug sections.
 194
 195 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 196   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 197
 198 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 199   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 200   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 201   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 202
 203 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 204   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 205
 206 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 207
 208 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 209   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 210
 211 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 212   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 213
 214 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 215   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 216
 217 Changes in 2.16:
 218
 219 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 220
 221 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 222   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 223   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 224   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 225
 226 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 227   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 228   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 229   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 230
 231 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 232   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 233   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 234   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 235   between ARM and THUMB code.
 236
 237 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 238   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 239
 240 Changes in 2.15:
 241
 242 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 243   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 244   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 245   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 246
 247 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 248   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 249
 250 * readelf can now parse archives.
 251
 252 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 253   format compatible with ctags tool.
 254
 255 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 256   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 257   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 258   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 259   debugging info.
 260
 261 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 262   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 263   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 264
 265 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 266   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 267   with the -a switch.
 268
 269 Changes in 2.14:
 270
 271 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 272
 273 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 274
 275 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 276
 277 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 278   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 279
 280 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 281   Parallel C compiler.
 282
 283 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 284   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 285   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 286
 287 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 288
 289 Changes in 2.13:
 290
 291 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 292   and FR500 included.
 293
 294 Changes in version 2.12:
 295
 296 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 297
 298 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 299
 300 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 301   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 302
 303 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 304
 305 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 306
 307 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 308   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 309
 310 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 311   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 312   by Honda Hiroki.
 313
 314 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 315
 316 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 317   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 318   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 319
 320 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 321   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 322   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 323   By Stefan Geuken.
 324
 325 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 326
 327 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 328
 329 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 330   extenstions.
 331
 332 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 333   By Luciano Gemme.
 334
 335 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 336
 337 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 338
 339 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 340
 341 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 342
 343 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 344
 345 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 346   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 347   file.
 348
 349 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 350   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 351   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 352   raw verions.
 353
 354 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 355   with intel syntax.
 356
 357 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 358   regardless of target machine.
 359
 360 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 361   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 362   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 363   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 364
 365 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 366
 367 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 368   sections.
 369
 370 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 371
 372 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 373   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 374
 375 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 376
 377 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 378   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 379
 380 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 381   the VMA of the sections.
 382
 383 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 384
 385 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 386
 387 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 388   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 389   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 390   output.
 391
 392 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 393   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 394   so they must be in canonical form.
 395
 396 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 397   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 398
 399 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 400
 401 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 402
 403 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 404
 405 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 406
 407 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 408
 409 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 410
 411 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 412
 413 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 414
 415 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 416
 417 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 418
 419 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 420
 421 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 422
 423 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 424
 425 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 426
 427 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 428
 429 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 430
 431 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 432
 433 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 434   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 435   generating plain binary files.
 436
 437 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 438
 439 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 440
 441 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 442
 443 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 444   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 445
 446 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 447   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 448
 449 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 450
 451 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 452   executables.
 453
 454 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 455
 456 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 457   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 458
 459 * Support for Irix 5.
 460
 461 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 462   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 463
 464 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 465
 466 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 467   ELF and COFF files.
 468
 469 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 470   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 471
 472 * The strings program has been added.
 473
 474 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 475
 476 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 477   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 478   'cp'.
 479
 480 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 481   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 482   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 483
 484 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 485   the output from BSD nm.
 486
 487 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 488
 489 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 490
 491 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 492
 493 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 494
 495 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 496
 497 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 498
 499 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 500   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 501
 502 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 503   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 504   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 505   for Posix.2 conformance.
 506
 507 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 508   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 509   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 510
 511 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 512   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 513
 514 \f
 515 Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 516
 517 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 518 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 519 notice and this notice are preserved.
 520
 521 Local variables:
 522 fill-column: 79
 523 End: