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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
6d96a594 2
d100d8c1
HJ
3* Add support for Intel AMX-COMPLEX instructions.
4
60336e19
RS
5* Add SME2 support to the AArch64 port.
6
695a8c34
JB
7* A new .insn directive is recognized by x86 gas.
8
a72b0718
NC
9Changes in 2.40:
10
b06311ad
KL
11* Add support for Intel RAO-INT instructions.
12
01d8ce74 13* Add support for Intel AVX-NE-CONVERT instructions.
14
2188d6ea
HL
15* Add support for Intel MSRLIST instructions.
16
941f0833
HL
17* Add support for Intel WRMSRNS instructions.
18
a93e3234
HJ
19* Add support for Intel CMPccXADD instructions.
20
23ae61ad
CL
21* Add support for Intel AVX-VNNI-INT8 instructions.
22
4321af3e
HW
23* Add support for Intel AVX-IFMA instructions.
24
ef07be45
CL
25* Add support for Intel PREFETCHI instructions.
26
68830fba
CL
27* Add support for Intel AMX-FP16 instructions.
28
2cac01e3
FS
29* gas now supports --compress-debug-sections=zstd to compress
30 debug sections with zstd.
d846c35e 31
b0c295e1
ML
32* Add --enable-default-compressed-debug-sections-algorithm={zlib,zstd}
33 that selects the default compression algorithm
34 for --enable-compressed-debug-sections.
2cac01e3 35
27e60212 36* Add support for various T-Head extensions (XTheadBa, XTheadBb, XTheadBs,
01804a09 37 XTheadCmo, XTheadCondMov, XTheadFMemIdx, XTheadFmv, XTheadInt, XTheadMemIdx,
4a3bc79b
CM
38 XTheadMemPair, XTheadMac, and XTheadSync) from version 2.0 of the T-Head
39 ISA manual, which are implemented in the Allwinner D1.
27e60212 40
f262d2df
PD
41* Add support for the RISC-V Zawrs extension, version 1.0-rc4.
42
cafdb713
SP
43* Add support for Cortex-X1C for Arm.
44
b2cb03d5
IB
45* New command line option --gsframe to generate SFrame unwind information
46 on x86_64 and aarch64 targets.
47
0bd09323
NC
48Changes in 2.39:
49
c085ab00
JB
50* Remove (rudimentary) support for the x86-64 sub-architectures Intel L1OM and
51 Intel K1OM.
52
5a3ca6e3
PD
53* Add support for the RISC-V Zicbop, Zicbom, and Zicboz extensions, version
54 1.0-fd39d01.
55
56* Add support for the RISC-V Zfh extension, version 1.0.
57
58* Add support for the Zhinx extension, version 1.0.0-rc.
59
60* Add support for the RISC-V H extension.
61
62* Add support for the RISC-V Zfhmin extension, version 1.0, and Zhinxmin
63 extension, version 1.0.0-rc.
64
a74e1cb3
NC
65Changes in 2.38:
66
36cb9e7e
RS
67* Add support for AArch64 system registers that were missing in previous
68 releases.
69
4462d7c4 70* Add support for the LoongArch instruction set.
71
c8480b58
L
72* Add a command-line option, -muse-unaligned-vector-move, for x86 target
73 to encode aligned vector move as unaligned vector move.
74
80cfde76
PW
75* Add support for Cortex-R52+ for Arm.
76
50aaf5e6 77* Add support for Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-X2 for AArch64.
98ab23ab 78
14f45859
PW
79* Add support for Cortex-A710 for Arm.
80
57f02370
PW
81* Add support for Scalable Matrix Extension (SME) for AArch64.
82
578c64a4
NC
83* The --multibyte-handling=[allow|warn|warn-sym-only] option tells the
84 assembler what to when it encoutners multibyte characters in the input. The
85 default is to allow them. Setting the option to "warn" will generate a
86 warning message whenever any multibyte character is encountered. Using the
87 option to "warn-sym-only" will make the assembler generate a warning whenever a
88 symbol is defined containing multibyte characters. (References to undefined
89 symbols will not generate warnings).
90
ff01bb6c
L
91* Outputs of .ds.x directive and .tfloat directive with hex input from
92 x86 assembler have been reduced from 12 bytes to 10 bytes to match the
93 output of .tfloat directive.
94
35180222
RS
95* Add support for 'armv8.8-a', 'armv9-a', 'armv9.1-a', 'armv9.2-a' and
96 'armv9.3-a' for -march in AArch64 GAS.
d5007f02 97
a2b1ea81
RS
98* Add support for 'armv8.7-a', 'armv8.8-a', 'armv9-a', 'armv9.1-a',
99 'armv9.2-a' and 'armv9.3-a' for -march in Arm GAS.
3197e593 100
0cc78721
CL
101* Add support for Intel AVX512_FP16 instructions.
102
6b60a1ec
PD
103* Add support for the RISC-V scalar crypto extension, version 1.0.0.
104
105* Add support for the RISC-V vector extension, version 1.0.
106
107* Add support for the Z{f,d,q}inx extensions, version 1.0.0-rc.
108
109* Add support for the RISC-V svinval extension, version 1.0.
110
111* Add support for the RISC-V hypervisor extension, as defined by Privileged
112 Specification 1.12.
113
51419248
NC
114Changes in 2.37:
115
933feaf3
AM
116* arm-symbianelf support removed.
117
02202574
PW
118* Add support for Realm Management Extension (RME) for AArch64.
119
157a088c
PD
120* Add support for the Zba, Zbb, Zbc, and Zbs subsets of the RISC-V
121 bit manipulation extension, version 0.93.
122
055bc77a
NC
123Changes in 2.36:
124
58bf9b6a
L
125* Add support for Intel AVX VNNI instructions.
126
c1fa250a
LC
127* Add support for Intel HRESET instruction.
128
f64c42a9
LC
129* Add support for Intel UINTR instructions.
130
6d96a594
C
131* Support non-absolute segment values for i386 lcall and ljmp.
132
b71702f1
NC
133* When setting the link order attribute of ELF sections, it is now possible to
134 use a numeric section index instead of symbol name.
42c36b73 135
a3a02fe8
PW
136* Add support for Cortex-A78, Cortex-A78AE, Cortex-A78C and Cortex-X1 for
137 AArch64 and ARM.
b71702f1 138 Add support for Cortex-R82, Neoverse V1, and Neoverse N2 for ARM.
77718e5b 139
b71702f1 140* Add support for ETMv4 (Embedded Trace Macrocell), ETE (Embedded Trace
82c70b08
KT
141 Extension), TRBE (Trace Buffer Extension)and BRBE (Branch Record Buffer
142 Extension) system registers for AArch64.
c81946ef 143
8926e54e 144* Add support for Armv8-R and Armv8.7-A AArch64.
c81946ef 145
a984d94a 146* Add support for DSB memory nXS barrier, WFET and WFIT instruction for Armv8.7
82503ca7 147 AArch64.
fd195909 148
e64441b1 149* Add support for +flagm feature for -march in Armv8.4 AArch64.
dd4a72c8 150
fd65497d
PW
151* Add support for +ls64 feature for -march in Armv8.7 AArch64. Add atomic
152 64-byte load/store instructions for this feature.
153
3f4ff088
PW
154* Add support for +pauth (Pointer Authentication) feature for -march in
155 AArch64.
156
81d54bb7 157* Add support for Intel TDX instructions.
96a84ea3 158
c4694f17
TG
159* Add support for Intel Key Locker instructions.
160
b1766e7c
NC
161* Added a .nop directive to generate a single no-op instruction in a target
162 neutral manner. This instruction does have an effect on DWARF line number
163 generation, if that is active.
164
a0522545
ML
165* Removed --reduce-memory-overheads and --hash-size as gas now
166 uses hash tables that can be expand and shrink automatically.
167
789198ca
L
168* Add {disp16} pseudo prefix to x86 assembler.
169
260cd341
LC
170* Add support for Intel AMX instructions.
171
939b95c7
L
172* Configure with --enable-x86-used-note by default for Linux/x86.
173
99fabbc9
JL
174* Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN flag, which can be applied to
175 sections using the 'R' flag in the .section directive.
176 SHF_GNU_RETAIN specifies that the section should not be garbage
177 collected by the linker. It requires the GNU or FreeBSD ELF OSABIs.
178
c17cf68c
PD
179* Add support for the RISC-V Zihintpause extension.
180
b115b9fd
NC
181Changes in 2.35:
182
bbd19b19
L
183* X86 NaCl target support is removed.
184
6914be53
L
185* Extend .symver directive to update visibility of the original symbol
186 and assign one original symbol to different versioned symbols.
187
6e0e8b45
L
188* Add support for Intel SERIALIZE and TSXLDTRK instructions.
189
9e8f1c90
L
190* Add -mlfence-after-load=, -mlfence-before-indirect-branch= and
191 -mlfence-before-ret= options to x86 assembler to help mitigate
192 CVE-2020-0551.
193
5496f3c6
NC
194* Add --gdwarf-5 option to the assembler to generate DWARF 5 debug output
195 (if such output is being generated). Added the ability to generate
196 version 5 .debug_line sections.
197
251dae91
TC
198* Add -mbig-obj support to i386 MingW targets.
199
4362996c
PD
200* Add support for the -mriscv-isa-version argument, to select the version of
201 the RISC-V ISA specification used when assembling.
202
203* Remove support for the RISC-V privileged specification, version 1.9.
204
ae774686
NC
205Changes in 2.34:
206
5eb617a7
L
207* Add -malign-branch-boundary=NUM, -malign-branch=TYPE[+TYPE...],
208 -malign-branch-prefix-size=NUM and -mbranches-within-32B-boundaries
209 options to x86 assembler to align branches within a fixed boundary
210 with segment prefixes or NOPs.
211
6655dba2
SB
212* Add support for Zilog eZ80 and Zilog Z180 CPUs.
213
214* Add support for z80-elf target.
215
216* Add support for relocation of each byte or word of multibyte value to Z80
217 targets (just use right shift to 0, 8, 16, or 24 bits or AND operation
218 with 0xff/0xffff mask): ld a, label >> 16 \ ld hl, label & 0xffff
219
220* Add SDCC support for Z80 targets.
221
60391a25
PB
222Changes in 2.33:
223
7738ddb4
MM
224* Add support for the Arm Scalable Vector Extension version 2 (SVE2)
225 instructions.
226
227* Add support for the Arm Transactional Memory Extension (TME)
228 instructions.
229
514bbb0f
AV
230* Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
231 instructions.
232
b20d3859
BW
233* For MIPS, Add -m[no-]fix-loongson3-llsc option to fix (or not) Loongson3
234 LLSC Errata. Add a --enable-mips-fix-loongson3-llsc=[yes|no] configure
235 time option to set the default behavior. Set the default if the configure
236 option is not used to "no".
6f2117ba 237
546053ac
DZ
238* Add support for the Arm Cortex-A76AE, Cortex-A77 and Cortex-M35P
239 processors.
240
241* Add support for the AArch64 Cortex-A34, Cortex-A65, Cortex-A65AE,
242 Cortex-A76AE, and Cortex-A77 processors.
243
b20d3859
BW
244* Add .float16 directive for both Arm and AArch64 to allow encoding of 16-bit
245 floating point literals. Add .float16_format directive and
246 -mfp16-format=[ieee|alternative] option for Arm to control the format of the
247 encoding.
248
66f8b2cb
AB
249* Add --gdwarf-cie-version command line flag. This allows control over which
250 version of DWARF CIE the assembler creates.
251
f974f26c
NC
252Changes in 2.32:
253
03751133
L
254* Add -mvexwig=[0|1] option to x86 assembler to control encoding of
255 VEX.W-ignored (WIG) VEX instructions.
256
b4a3a7b4
L
257* Add -mx86-used-note=[yes|no] option to generate (or not) x86 GNU property
258 notes. Add a --enable-x86-used-note configure time option to set the
259 default behavior. Set the default if the configure option is not used
260 to "no".
261
a693765e
CX
262* Add support for the MIPS Loongson EXTensions R2 (EXT2) instructions.
263
bdc6c06e
CX
264* Add support for the MIPS Loongson EXTensions (EXT) instructions.
265
716c08de
CX
266* Add support for the MIPS Loongson Content Address Memory (CAM) ASE.
267
b8891f8d
AJ
268* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
269
8095d2f7
CX
270* Add support for the MIPS Loongson MultiMedia extensions Instructions (MMI)
271 ASE.
272
719d8288
NC
273Changes in 2.31:
274
fc6141f0
NC
275* The ADR and ADRL pseudo-instructions supported by the ARM assembler
276 now only set the bottom bit of the address of thumb function symbols
277 if the -mthumb-interwork command line option is active.
278
6f20c942
FS
279* Add support for the MIPS Global INValidate (GINV) ASE.
280
730c3174
SE
281* Add support for the MIPS Cyclic Redudancy Check (CRC) ASE.
282
7b4ae824
JD
283* Add support for the Freescale S12Z architecture.
284
0df8ad28
NC
285* Add --generate-missing-build-notes=[yes|no] option to create (or not) GNU
286 Build Attribute notes if none are present in the input sources. Add a
287 --enable-generate-build-notes=[yes|no] configure time option to set the
288 default behaviour. Set the default if the configure option is not used
289 to "no".
290
bd5dea88
L
291* Remove -mold-gcc command-line option for x86 targets.
292
b6f8c7c4
L
293* Add -O[2|s] command-line options to x86 assembler to enable alternate
294 shorter instruction encoding.
295
8f065d3b 296* Add support for .nops directive. It is currently supported only for
62a02d25
L
297 x86 targets.
298
64411043
PD
299* Add support for the .insn directive on RISC-V targets.
300
9176ac5b
NC
301Changes in 2.30:
302
ba8826a8
AO
303* Add support for loaction views in DWARF debug line information.
304
55a09eb6
TG
305Changes in 2.29:
306
a91e1603
L
307* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND.
308
f96bd6c2
PC
309* Add support for the WebAssembly file format and wasm32 ELF conversion.
310
7e0de605 311* PowerPC gas now checks that the correct register class is used in
ece5dcc1
AM
312 instructions. For instance, "addi %f4,%cr3,%r31" warns three times
313 that the registers are invalid.
7e0de605 314
93f11b16
DD
315* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
316
0cda1e19
TP
317* Support for the ARMv8-R architecture and Cortex-R52 processor has been
318 added to the ARM port.
ced40572 319
9703a4ef
TG
320Changes in 2.28:
321
e23eba97
NC
322* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
323
b19ea8d2 324* Add support for the ARM Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors.
ce1b0a45 325
96a84ea3
TG
326Changes in 2.27:
327
4e3e1fdf
L
328* Default to --enable-compressed-debug-sections=gas for Linux/x86 targets.
329
2edb36e7
NC
330* Add --no-pad-sections to stop the assembler from padding the end of output
331 sections up to their alignment boundary.
332
15afaa63
TP
333* Support for the ARMv8-M architecture has been added to the ARM port. Support
334 for the ARMv8-M Security and DSP Extensions has also been added to the ARM
335 port.
336
f36e33da
CZ
337* ARC backend accepts .extInstruction, .extCondCode, .extAuxRegister, and
338 .extCoreRegister pseudo-ops that allow an user to define custom
339 instructions, conditional codes, auxiliary and core registers.
340
b8871f35
L
341* Add a configure option --enable-elf-stt-common to decide whether ELF
342 assembler should generate common symbols with the STT_COMMON type by
343 default. Default to no.
344
a05a5b64 345* New command-line option --elf-stt-common= for ELF targets to control
b8871f35
L
346 whether to generate common symbols with the STT_COMMON type.
347
9fb71ee4
NC
348* Add ability to set section flags and types via numeric values for ELF
349 based targets.
81c23f82 350
0cb4071e
L
351* Add a configure option --enable-x86-relax-relocations to decide whether
352 x86 assembler should generate relax relocations by default. Default to
353 yes, except for x86 Solaris targets older than Solaris 12.
354
a05a5b64 355* New command-line option -mrelax-relocations= for x86 target to control
0cb4071e
L
356 whether to generate relax relocations.
357
a05a5b64 358* New command-line option -mfence-as-lock-add=yes for x86 target to encode
9d3fc4e1
L
359 lfence, mfence and sfence as "lock addl $0x0, (%[re]sp)".
360
4670103e
CZ
361* Add assembly-time relaxation option for ARC cpus.
362
9004b6bd
AB
363* Add --with-cpu=TYPE configure option for ARC gas. This allows the default
364 cpu type to be adjusted at configure time.
365
7feec526
TG
366Changes in 2.26:
367
edeefb67
L
368* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,gas} to
369 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
e12fe555 370
886a2506
NC
371* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures. Remove
372 assembler support for Argonaut RISC architectures.
373
d02603dc
NC
374* Symbol and label names can now be enclosed in double quotes (") which allows
375 them to contain characters that are not part of valid symbol names in high
376 level languages.
377
f33026a9
MW
378* Added the correctly spelled -march=armv6kz, for ARMv6KZ support. The
379 previous spelling, -march=armv6zk, is still accepted.
380
88f0ea34
MW
381* Support for the ARMv8.1 architecture has been added to the Aarch64 port.
382 Support for the individual ARMv8.1 Adv.SIMD, LOR and PAN architecture
383 extensions has also been added to the Aarch64 port.
384
a5932920
MW
385* Support for the ARMv8.1 architecture has been added to the ARM port. Support
386 for the individual ARMv8.1 Adv.SIMD and PAN architecture extensions has also
387 been added to the ARM port.
388
ea556d25
L
389* Extend --compress-debug-sections option to support
390 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
391 targets.
392
0d2b51ad
L
393* --compress-debug-sections is turned on for Linux/x86 by default.
394
c50415e2
TG
395Changes in 2.25:
396
f36e8886
BS
397* Add support for the AVR Tiny microcontrollers.
398
73589c9d
CS
399* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
400
2e6976a8 401* Enhanced the ARM port to accept the assembler output from the CodeComposer
a05a5b64 402 Studio tool. Support is enabled via the new command-line option -mccs.
2e6976a8 403
35c08157
KLC
404* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
405
58ca03a2
TG
406Changes in 2.24:
407
13761a11
NC
408* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
409
a05a5b64 410* Add -gdwarf-sections command-line option to enable per-code-section
b40bf0a2
NC
411 generation of DWARF .debug_line sections.
412
36591ba1
SL
413* Add support for Altera Nios II.
414
a3c62988
NC
415* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
416
5bf135a7
NC
417* Add support for the v850e3v5.
418
e8044f35
RS
419* Remove assembler support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
420
af18cb59
TG
421Changes in 2.23:
422
da2bb560
NC
423* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
424
6927f982
NC
425* Add support for S12X processor.
426
b9c361e0
JL
427* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
428
f6c1a2d5
NC
429* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
430
fa94de6b
RM
431* Add support for .bundle_align_mode, .bundle_lock, and .bundle_unlock
432 directives. These are currently available only for x86 and ARM targets.
433
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DD
434* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
435
cfb8c092
NC
436* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
437
fe13e45b 438* For x86, allow 'rep bsf', 'rep bsr', and 'rep ret' syntax.
29c048b6 439
a7142d94
TG
440Changes in 2.22:
441
69f56ae1 442* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
44f45767 443
90b3661c 444Changes in 2.21:
44f45767 445
5fec8599
L
446* Gas no longer requires doubling of ampersands in macros.
447
40b36596
JM
448* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
449
31907d5e
DK
450* GAS now understands an extended syntax in the .section directive flags
451 for COFF targets that allows the section's alignment to be specified. This
452 feature has also been backported to the 2.20 release series, starting with
453 2.20.1.
454
c7927a3c
NC
455* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
456
a05a5b64 457* New command-line option, --compress-debug-sections, which requests
700c4060
CC
458 compression of DWARF debug information sections in the relocatable output
459 file. Compressed debug sections are supported by readelf, objdump, and
460 gold, but not currently by Gnu ld.
461
81c23f82
TG
462Changes in 2.20:
463
1cd986c5
NC
464* Added support for v850e2 and v850e2v3.
465
3e7a7d11
NC
466* GNU/Linux targets now supports "gnu_unique_object" as a value in the .type
467 pseudo op. It marks the symbol as being globally unique in the entire
468 process.
469
c921be7d
NC
470* ARM assembler now supports .inst[.nw] pseudo-ops to insert opcodes specified
471 in binary rather than text.
6e33da12 472
c1711530
DK
473* Add support for common symbol alignment to PE formats.
474
92846e72
CC
475* Add support for the new discriminator column in the DWARF line table,
476 with a discriminator operand for the .loc directive.
477
c3b7224a
NC
478* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
479
d8045f23
NC
480* The .type pseudo-op now accepts a type of STT_GNU_IFUNC which can be used to
481 indicate that if the symbol is the target of a relocation, its value should
482 not be use. Instead the function should be invoked and its result used as
483 the value.
fa94de6b 484
84e94c90
NC
485* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
486
fa94de6b 487* Add support for Xilinx MicroBlaze architecture.
caa03924 488
6e33da12
TG
489Changes in 2.19:
490
4f6d9c90
DJ
491* New pseudo op .cfi_val_encoded_addr, to record constant addresses in unwind
492 tables without runtime relocation.
493
a05a5b64 494* New command-line option, -h-tick-hex, for sh, m32c, and h8/300 targets, which
6fd4f6cc
DD
495 adds compatibility with H'00 style hex constants.
496
a05a5b64 497* New command-line option, -msse-check=[none|error|warning], for x86
daf50ae7
L
498 targets.
499
a05a5b64 500* New sub-option added to the assembler's -a command-line switch to
83f10cb2
NC
501 generate a listing output. The 'g' sub-option will insert into the listing
502 various information about the assembly, such as assembler version, the
a05a5b64 503 command-line options used, and a time stamp.
83f10cb2 504
a05a5b64 505* New command-line option -msse2avx for x86 target to encode SSE
c0f3af97
L
506 instructions with VEX prefix.
507
f1f8f695 508* Add Intel XSAVE, EPT, MOVBE, AES, PCLMUL, AVX/FMA support for x86 target.
c0f3af97 509
a05a5b64 510* New command-line options, -march=CPU[,+EXTENSION...], -mtune=CPU,
ae40c993
L
511 -mmnemonic=[att|intel], -msyntax=[att|intel], -mindex-reg,
512 -mnaked-reg and -mold-gcc, for x86 targets.
513
38a57ae7
NC
514* Support for generating wide character strings has been added via the new
515 pseudo ops: .string16, .string32 and .string64.
516
85f10a01
MM
517* Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
518
7c3d153f
NC
519Changes in 2.18:
520
ec2655a6
NC
521* The GAS sources are now released under the GPLv3.
522
3d3d428f
NC
523* Support for the National Semiconductor CR16 target has been added.
524
3f9ce309
AM
525* Added gas .reloc pseudo. This is a low-level interface for creating
526 relocations.
527
99ad8390
NC
528* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
529
1c0d3aa6 530* Add support for Score target.
83518699 531
ec2655a6
NC
532Changes in 2.17:
533
d70c5fc7
NC
534* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
535
08333dc4
NS
536* Support for ms2 architecture has been added.
537
b7b8fb1d
NC
538* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
539
3e8a519c
MM
540* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
541 switches can be read from <file>.
542
a05a5b64 543* The SH target supports a new command-line switch --enable-reg-prefix which,
37dedf66
NC
544 if enabled, will allow register names to be optionally prefixed with a $
545 character. This allows register names to be distinguished from label names.
fa94de6b 546
6eaeac8a
JB
547* Macros with a variable number of arguments are now supported. See the
548 documentation for how this works.
549
4bdd3565
NC
550* Added --reduce-memory-overheads switch to reduce the size of the hash
551 tables used, at the expense of longer assembly times, and
552 --hash-size=<NUMBER> to set the size of the hash tables used by gas.
553
5e75c3ab
JB
554* Macro names and macro parameter names can now be any identifier that would
555 also be legal as a symbol elsewhere. For macro parameter names, this is
556 known to cause problems in certain sources when the respective target uses
557 characters inconsistently, and thus macro parameter references may no longer
558 be recognized as such (see the documentation for details).
fa94de6b 559
d2c5f73e
NC
560* Support the .f_floating, .d_floating, .g_floating and .h_floating directives
561 for the VAX target in order to be more compatible with the VAX MACRO
562 assembler.
563
a05a5b64 564* New command-line option -mtune=[itanium1|itanium2] for IA64 targets.
8c2fda1d 565
957d91c1
NC
566Changes in 2.16:
567
fffeaa5f
JB
568* Redefinition of macros now results in an error.
569
a05a5b64 570* New command-line option -mhint.b=[ok|warning|error] for IA64 targets.
91d777ee 571
a05a5b64 572* New command-line option -munwind-check=[warning|error] for IA64
970d6792
L
573 targets.
574
f1dab70d
JB
575* The IA64 port now uses automatic dependency violation removal as its default
576 mode.
577
7499d566
NC
578* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
579
7ed4c4c5
NC
580* Added support for generating unwind tables for ARM ELF targets.
581
a05a5b64 582* Add a -g command-line option to generate debug information in the target's
329e276d
NC
583 preferred debug format.
584
1fe1f39c
NC
585* Support for the crx-elf target added.
586
1a320fbb 587* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 588
0503b355
BF
589* Added a pseudo-op (.secrel32) to generate 32 bit section relative relocations
590 on pe[i]-i386; required for this target's DWARF 2 support.
591
6b6e92f4
NC
592* Support for Motorola MCF521x/5249/547x/548x added.
593
fd99574b
NC
594* Support for ColdFire EMAC instructions added and Motorola syntax for MAC/EMAC
595 instrucitons.
596
a05a5b64 597* New command-line option -mno-shared for MIPS ELF targets.
aa6975fb 598
a05a5b64 599* New command-line option --alternate and pseudo-ops .altmacro and .noaltmacro
caa32fe5
NC
600 added to enter (and leave) alternate macro syntax mode.
601
0477af35
NC
602Changes in 2.15:
603
7a7f4e42
CD
604* The MIPS -membedded-pic option (Embedded-PIC code generation) is
605 deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
606
6edf0760
NC
607* Added PIC m32r Linux (ELF) and support to M32R assembler.
608
09d92015
MM
609* Added support for ARM V6.
610
88da98f3
MS
611* Added support for sh4a and variants.
612
eb764db8
NC
613* Support for Renesas M32R2 added.
614
88da98f3
MS
615* Limited support for Mapping Symbols as specified in the ARM ELF
616 specification has been added to the arm assembler.
ed769ec1 617
0bbf2aa4
NC
618* On ARM architectures, added a new gas directive ".unreq" that undoes
619 definitions created by ".req".
620
3e602632
NC
621* Support for Motorola ColdFire MCF528x added.
622
05da4302
NC
623* Added --gstabs+ switch to enable the generation of STABS debug format
624 information with GNU extensions.
fa94de6b 625
6a265366
CD
626* Added support for MIPS64 Release 2.
627
8ad30312
NC
628* Added support for v850e1.
629
12b55ccc
L
630* Added -n switch for x86 assembler. By default, x86 GAS replaces
631 multiple nop instructions used for alignment within code sections
632 with multi-byte nop instructions such as leal 0(%esi,1),%esi. This
633 switch disables the optimization.
634
78849248
ILT
635* Removed -n option from MIPS assembler. It was not useful, and confused the
636 existing -non_shared option.
637
43c58ae6
CD
638Changes in 2.14:
639
69be0a2b
CD
640* Added support for MIPS32 Release 2.
641
e8fd7476
NC
642* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
643
e16bb312
NC
644* Support for Intel's iWMMXt processor (an ARM variant) added.
645
cce4814f
NC
646* An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
647 uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
fa94de6b 648
5177500f
NC
649* Support for SH2E added.
650
fea17916
NC
651* GASP has now been removed.
652
004d9caf
NC
653* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
654 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
fa94de6b 655
a40cbfa3
NC
656* Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
657
2cbb2eef
NC
658Changes in 2.13:
659
a40cbfa3
NC
660* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
661 and FR500 included.
0ebb9a87 662
a40cbfa3 663* Support for DLX processor added.
52216602 664
a40cbfa3
NC
665* GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use
666 the macro facilities in GAS instead.
3f965e60 667
a40cbfa3
NC
668* GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
669 explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
670 the currently specified base.
1ac57253 671
9a66911f
NC
672Changes in 2.12:
673
a40cbfa3 674* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
49fda6c8 675
a40cbfa3 676* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
3b16e843 677
fa94de6b
RM
678* The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
679 specifying the target instruction set. The old method of specifying the
a40cbfa3
NC
680 target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
681 compatibility.
03b1477f 682
a40cbfa3
NC
683* Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
684 the ARM assembler.
252b5132 685
a40cbfa3
NC
686* New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
687 in the assembly. Contributed by Anders Norlander.
7e005732 688
a40cbfa3
NC
689* The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
690 but still works for compatability.
ec68c924 691
fa94de6b 692* The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
a05a5b64 693 generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command-line option
a40cbfa3 694 -n will turn on the warning.
63486801 695
2dac7317
JW
696Changes in 2.11:
697
500800ca
NC
698* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
699
a40cbfa3 700* x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
a167610d 701
a40cbfa3 702* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
c0d8940f 703
a40cbfa3 704* Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
df86943d 705
a40cbfa3 706* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
39bec121 707
a40cbfa3 708* Support for IA-64.
2dac7317 709
a40cbfa3 710* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
22b36938 711
a40cbfa3 712* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
5bcac8a4 713
a40cbfa3 714* x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
a38cf1db 715
a05a5b64 716* x86 gas -q command-line option quietens warnings about register size changes
a40cbfa3
NC
717 due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
718 translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
a38cf1db 719
252b5132
RH
720Changes in 2.10:
721
a40cbfa3
NC
722* Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
723 operand when altering the flags field.
d14442f4 724
a40cbfa3 725* Support for ATMEL AVR.
adde6300 726
a40cbfa3 727* Support for IBM 370 ELF. Somewhat experimental.
b5ebe70e 728
a40cbfa3 729* Support for numbers with suffixes.
3fd9f047 730
a40cbfa3 731* Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
6a6987a9 732
a40cbfa3 733* Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
6a6987a9 734
a40cbfa3 735* New .elseif pseudo-op added.
3fd9f047 736
a40cbfa3 737* New --fatal-warnings option.
1f776aa5 738
a40cbfa3 739* picoJava architecture support added.
252b5132 740
a40cbfa3 741* Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
041dd5a9 742
fa94de6b 743* A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
a40cbfa3 744 assembly programs with intel syntax.
252b5132 745
a40cbfa3 746* New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
252b5132 747
a40cbfa3 748* Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
041dd5a9 749
a40cbfa3 750* Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
252b5132 751
fa94de6b 752* Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386. This change will
a40cbfa3
NC
753 produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
754 of gas accepted. If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
755 older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
252b5132 756
a40cbfa3 757* Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
252b5132 758
a40cbfa3 759* Mitsubishi D30V support added.
252b5132 760
a40cbfa3 761* Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
252b5132 762
a40cbfa3 763* i960 ELF support added.
bedf545c 764
a40cbfa3 765* ARM ELF support added.
a057431b 766
252b5132
RH
767Changes in 2.9:
768
a40cbfa3 769* Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
252b5132 770
fa94de6b 771* The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
a40cbfa3 772 and gcc 2.8. The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
252b5132 773
a40cbfa3 774* Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
252b5132 775
fa94de6b 776* The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
a40cbfa3 777 listing.
252b5132 778
a40cbfa3 779* Added -MD option to print dependencies.
252b5132
RH
780
781Changes in 2.8:
782
a40cbfa3 783* BeOS support added.
252b5132 784
a40cbfa3 785* MIPS16 support added.
252b5132 786
a40cbfa3 787* Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
252b5132 788
a40cbfa3 789* Alpha/VMS support added.
252b5132 790
a40cbfa3
NC
791* m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
792 --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
252b5132 793
a40cbfa3
NC
794* The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
795 maximum number of bytes to skip. If doing the alignment would require
796 skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
797 all.
252b5132 798
a40cbfa3 799* The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
252b5132 800
a40cbfa3
NC
801* The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
802 conditionals in listings.
252b5132 803
a40cbfa3
NC
804* Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
805 the symbol is already defined.
252b5132
RH
806
807Changes in 2.7:
808
a40cbfa3
NC
809* The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
810 etc.) if -mregnames is used. Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
811 can be used any time. PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
812 added.
252b5132 813
a40cbfa3 814* Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
252b5132 815
a40cbfa3 816* PowerPC ELF support added.
252b5132 817
a40cbfa3 818* m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
252b5132 819
a40cbfa3 820* i960 Hx/Jx support added.
252b5132 821
a40cbfa3 822* i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
252b5132 823
a40cbfa3
NC
824* SCO ELF support added. For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
825 default is to build COFF-only support. To get a set of tools that generate
fa94de6b 826 ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
a40cbfa3 827 target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
252b5132 828
a40cbfa3 829* m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
252b5132
RH
830
831Changes in 2.6:
832
a40cbfa3 833* Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
252b5132 834
a40cbfa3
NC
835* Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode. Use -M or --mri to select
836 MRI mode. The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
837 ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
252b5132 838
a40cbfa3 839* Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
252b5132 840
a40cbfa3 841* Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
252b5132 842
a40cbfa3 843* Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
252b5132
RH
844
845Changes in 2.4:
846
a40cbfa3 847* Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
252b5132 848
a40cbfa3 849* ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
252b5132 850
a40cbfa3
NC
851* Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
852 debugging support.
252b5132 853
a40cbfa3 854* Support for the control registers in the 68060.
252b5132 855
a40cbfa3 856* Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
fa94de6b
RM
857 provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
858 features not available in the native assembler. If the native assembler is
a40cbfa3 859 used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
252b5132 860
a40cbfa3 861* Usage message is available with "--help".
252b5132 862
fa94de6b 863* The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included. (Actually, it was in 2.3
a40cbfa3 864 also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
252b5132 865
a40cbfa3 866* Weak symbol support for a.out.
252b5132 867
fa94de6b 868* A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
a40cbfa3 869 Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
252b5132 870
a40cbfa3
NC
871* Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
872 Paul Kranenburg.
252b5132 873
a40cbfa3
NC
874* Improved Alpha support. Immediate constants can have a much larger range
875 now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
252b5132 876
a40cbfa3 877* Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
252b5132
RH
878
879Changes in 2.3:
880
a40cbfa3 881* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
252b5132 882
a40cbfa3 883* RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
252b5132 884
a40cbfa3
NC
885* VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
886 based on mail received from various people. The `-h#' option should work
887 again too.
252b5132 888
a40cbfa3 889* HP-PA work, by Jeff Law. Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
fa94de6b 890 with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6. As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
a40cbfa3
NC
891 version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3. You can retrieve
892 this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
893 in the "dist" directory.
252b5132 894
a40cbfa3
NC
895* Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
896 simple tests okay. I haven't put it through extensive testing. (GNU make is
897 currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
252b5132 898
fa94de6b 899* Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format). The gas support is
a40cbfa3
NC
900 based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format. I'm afraid
901 the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
902 making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
252b5132 903
a40cbfa3 904* Irix 5 support.
252b5132 905
fa94de6b 906* The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
a40cbfa3 907 couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
252b5132 908
fa94de6b
RM
909* Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
910 flexibility in evaluating them in some cases. Some details of relocation
a40cbfa3
NC
911 handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
912 added, to make the Alpha port easier.
252b5132 913
a40cbfa3
NC
914* New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times. This is
915 intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
916 various phases of compilation. (You should be able to get all of them
917 printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
252b5132
RH
918
919Changes in 2.2:
920
a40cbfa3 921* RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
252b5132 922
fa94de6b
RM
923* Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
924 have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
a40cbfa3
NC
925 gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
926 impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
927 reliable.
252b5132 928
fa94de6b 929* The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
a40cbfa3
NC
930 displayed. This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
931 messages about "internal errors".
252b5132 932
fa94de6b 933* ELF support is falling into place. Support for the 386 should be working.
a40cbfa3 934 Support for SPARC Solaris is in. HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
252b5132 935
a40cbfa3
NC
936* Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
937 boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant. This permits slightly
938 more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
939 known.
252b5132 940
a40cbfa3 941* DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
fa94de6b
RM
942 If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
943 sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section. The format of the .stab
a40cbfa3
NC
944 section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
945 its string table. For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
946 to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
947 that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
252b5132 948
fa94de6b 949* LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported. SPARC LynxOS
a40cbfa3 950 support is in progress.
252b5132
RH
951
952Changes in 2.1:
953
fa94de6b 954* Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
a40cbfa3 955 incorporated, but not well tested yet.
252b5132 956
fa94de6b 957* Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
a40cbfa3 958 with gcc now.
252b5132 959
a40cbfa3
NC
960* Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
961 suggested by Ronald Cole.
252b5132 962
a40cbfa3
NC
963* HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah. This
964 includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
965 2.x. Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
252b5132 966
a40cbfa3 967* HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
252b5132 968
a40cbfa3 969* Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
252b5132 970
a40cbfa3 971* Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
252b5132 972
a40cbfa3 973* Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
252b5132
RH
974
975Changes in 2.0:
976
a40cbfa3 977* Mostly bug fixes.
252b5132 978
a40cbfa3 979* Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
252b5132
RH
980
981Changes in 1.94:
982
a40cbfa3
NC
983* BFD merge is partly done. Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
984 "--with-bfd-assembler" option. Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
985 format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it. It's the default only for OS "elf"
986 or "solaris". (ELF isn't really supported yet. It needs work. I've got
987 some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
988 fully merged yet.)
252b5132 989
a40cbfa3
NC
990* The 68K opcode table has been split in half. It should now compile under gcc
991 without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
252b5132 992
a40cbfa3
NC
993* A couple data structures have been reduced in size. This should result in
994 saving a little bit of space at runtime.
252b5132 995
a40cbfa3
NC
996* Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in. The OSF
997 code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet. (I can
998 make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.) Ralph's code, for BSD
999 4.4, supports a.out format. We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
1000 coming.
252b5132 1001
a40cbfa3 1002* Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
252b5132 1003
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1004* VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
1005 Youngdale.
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1006
1007Changes in 1.93.01:
1008
a40cbfa3 1009* For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
252b5132 1010
a40cbfa3 1011* For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
252b5132 1012
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1013* For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names. For COFF format, which
1014 doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
1015 can be distinguished from the register.
252b5132 1016
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1017* Last public release was 1.38. Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
1018 of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
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1019
1020\f
d87bef3a 1021Copyright (C) 2012-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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1022
1023Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
1024are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
1025notice and this notice are preserved.
1026
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1027Local variables:
1028fill-column: 79
1029End: