binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
   4
   5 Changes in 2.30:
   6
   7 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
   8   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
   9   sections.
  10
  11   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  12   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  13   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  14
  15 Changes in 2.29:
  16
  17 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  18   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  19
  20 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  21   disassembly.
  22
  23 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
  24   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
  25   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
  26
  27 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
  28   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
  29
  30 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
  31
  32 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  33
  34 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
  35
  36 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
  37   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
  38
  39 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
  40   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
  41
  42 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
  43   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
  44   the original file.
  45
  46 Changes in 2.28:
  47
  48 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
  49   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
  50   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
  51   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
  52   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
  53   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
  54   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
  55   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
  56   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
  57   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command line
  58   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
  59   with the instructions being relocated.
  60
  61 * The nm program has a new command line option (--with-version-strings)
  62   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
  63   symbol's name.
  64
  65 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
  66   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
  67
  68 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
  69   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
  70   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
  71   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
  72
  73 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
  74   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  75   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  76   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  77
  78 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
  79   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
  80   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
  81   the relocation section itself.
  82
  83 Changes in 2.27:
  84
  85 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  86   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  87
  88 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
  89   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
  90
  91 Changes in 2.26:
  92
  93 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
  94   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
  95
  96 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
  97
  98 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
  99   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 100   targets.
 101
 102 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 103
 104 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 105
 106 Changes in 2.25:
 107
 108 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 109   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 110   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 111   default behaviour.
 112
 113 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 114
 115 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 116
 117 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 118
 119 Changes in 2.24:
 120
 121 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
 122   section names.
 123
 124 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 125
 126 Changes in 2.23:
 127
 128 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 129
 130 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 131
 132 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 133
 134 Changes in 2.22:
 135
 136 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 137
 138 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 139   passed to preprocessor.
 140
 141 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 142   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 143
 144 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 145
 146 changes in 2.21:
 147
 148 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 149   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 150
 151 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 152
 153 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 154   the -u / --unwind option.
 155
 156 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 157
 158 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 159   binaries.
 160
 161 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 162   '== <ID>' option.
 163
 164 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 165   address before function name or source filename.
 166
 167 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 168   a more human readable output.
 169
 170 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 171
 172 Changes in 2.20:
 173
 174 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 175   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 176   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 177   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 178   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 179
 180 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 181   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 182   instructions.
 183
 184 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 185   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
 186
 187 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
 188   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 189   file.
 190
 191 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 192   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 193
 194 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 195   for objcopy.
 196
 197 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 198   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 199   set PE optional header.
 200
 201 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 202
 203 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 204   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 205   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 206   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 207
 208 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 209   add absolute paths for -S.
 210
 211 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 212   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 213
 214 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 215   report an error when the import library is associated with
 216   multiple DLLs.
 217
 218 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 219   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 220
 221 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 222   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 223   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 224
 225 Changes in 2.19:
 226
 227 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 228
 229 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 230   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 231   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 232   added to the archive.
 233
 234 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 235
 236 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 237
 238 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 239
 240 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 241
 242 Changes in 2.18:
 243
 244 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 245   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 246   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 247
 248 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 249   Public License.
 250
 251 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 252   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 253
 254 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 255   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 256   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 257   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 258   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 259   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 260
 261 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 262   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 263   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 264   to some OSes.
 265
 266 Changes in 2.17:
 267
 268 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 269
 270 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 271   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 272   of types.
 273
 274 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 275   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 276
 277 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 278   debug sections.
 279
 280 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 281   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 282
 283 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 284   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 285   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 286   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 287
 288 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 289   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 290
 291 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 292
 293 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 294   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 295
 296 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 297   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 298
 299 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 300   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 301
 302 Changes in 2.16:
 303
 304 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 305
 306 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 307   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 308   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 309   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 310
 311 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 312   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 313   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 314   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 315
 316 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 317   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 318   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 319   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 320   between ARM and THUMB code.
 321
 322 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 323   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 324
 325 Changes in 2.15:
 326
 327 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 328   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 329   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 330   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 331
 332 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 333   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 334
 335 * readelf can now parse archives.
 336
 337 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 338   format compatible with ctags tool.
 339
 340 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 341   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 342   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 343   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 344   debugging info.
 345
 346 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 347   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 348   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 349
 350 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 351   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 352   with the -a switch.
 353
 354 Changes in 2.14:
 355
 356 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 357
 358 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 359
 360 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 361
 362 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 363   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 364
 365 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 366   Parallel C compiler.
 367
 368 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 369   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 370   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 371
 372 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 373
 374 Changes in 2.13:
 375
 376 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 377   and FR500 included.
 378
 379 Changes in version 2.12:
 380
 381 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 382
 383 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 384
 385 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 386   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 387
 388 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 389
 390 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 391
 392 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 393   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 394
 395 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 396   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 397   by Honda Hiroki.
 398
 399 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 400
 401 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 402   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 403   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 404
 405 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 406   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 407   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 408   By Stefan Geuken.
 409
 410 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 411
 412 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 413
 414 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 415   extenstions.
 416
 417 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 418   By Luciano Gemme.
 419
 420 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 421
 422 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 423
 424 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 425
 426 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 427
 428 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 429
 430 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 431   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 432   file.
 433
 434 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 435   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 436   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 437   raw verions.
 438
 439 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 440   with intel syntax.
 441
 442 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 443   regardless of target machine.
 444
 445 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 446   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 447   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 448   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 449
 450 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 451
 452 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 453   sections.
 454
 455 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 456
 457 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 458   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 459
 460 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 461
 462 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 463   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 464
 465 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 466   the VMA of the sections.
 467
 468 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 469
 470 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 471
 472 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 473   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 474   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 475   output.
 476
 477 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 478   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 479   so they must be in canonical form.
 480
 481 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 482   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 483
 484 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 485
 486 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 487
 488 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 489
 490 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 491
 492 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 493
 494 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 495
 496 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 497
 498 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 499
 500 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 501
 502 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 503
 504 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 505
 506 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 507
 508 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 509
 510 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 511
 512 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 513
 514 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 515
 516 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 517
 518 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 519   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 520   generating plain binary files.
 521
 522 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 523
 524 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 525
 526 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 527
 528 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 529   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 530
 531 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 532   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 533
 534 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 535
 536 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 537   executables.
 538
 539 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 540
 541 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 542   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 543
 544 * Support for Irix 5.
 545
 546 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 547   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 548
 549 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 550
 551 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 552   ELF and COFF files.
 553
 554 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 555   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 556
 557 * The strings program has been added.
 558
 559 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 560
 561 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 562   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 563   'cp'.
 564
 565 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 566   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 567   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 568
 569 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 570   the output from BSD nm.
 571
 572 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 573
 574 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 575
 576 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 577
 578 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 579
 580 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 581
 582 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 583
 584 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 585   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 586
 587 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 588   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 589   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 590   for Posix.2 conformance.
 591
 592 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 593   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 594   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 595
 596 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 597   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 598
 599 \f
 600 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 601
 602 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 603 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 604 notice and this notice are preserved.
 605
 606 Local variables:
 607 fill-column: 79
 608 End: