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Commit | Line | Data |
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252b5132 | 1 | -*- text -*- |
97a232d7 | 2 | |
5dba6f05 NA |
3 | * The linker now deduplicates the types in .ctf sections. The new |
4 | command-line option --ctf-share-types describes how to do this: | |
5 | its default value, share-unconflicted, produces the most compact | |
6 | output. | |
7 | ||
8 | * The linker now omits the "variable section" from .ctf sections by | |
9 | default, saving space. This is almost certainly what you want | |
10 | unless you are working on a project that has its own analogue | |
11 | of symbol tables that are not reflected in the ELF symtabs. | |
12 | ||
b115b9fd NC |
13 | Changes in 2.35: |
14 | ||
bbd19b19 L |
15 | * X86 NaCl target support is removed. |
16 | ||
37a141bf FS |
17 | * Add ELF linker command-line options, --export-dynamic-symbol and |
18 | --export-dynamic-symbol-list, to make symbols dynamic. | |
19 | ||
b32632c4 L |
20 | * Add a configure option, --enable-textrel-check=[no|yes|warning|error], |
21 | to decide what ELF linker should do by default with DT_TEXTREL in an | |
6f028f3c | 22 | executable or shared library. Default to yes for Linux/x86 targets. |
b32632c4 | 23 | |
198204a7 | 24 | * The -Map=<filename> command line option has been extended so that if |
72a3b182 NC |
25 | <filename> is a directory then <filename>/<output-filename>.map will be |
26 | created. | |
198204a7 | 27 | |
a6dbf402 L |
28 | * Add a command-line option for ELF linker, --warn-textrel, to warn that |
29 | DT_TEXTREL is set in a position-independent executable or shared object. | |
30 | ||
abf874aa CL |
31 | * Add command-line options --enable-non-contiguous-regions and |
32 | --enable-non-contiguous-regions-warnings. | |
33 | ||
fa1477dc SC |
34 | * Add command-line option --imagic for the pdp11-aout target to output format |
35 | IMAGIC (0411) for separate instruction and data spaces, and change the | |
36 | default format option for pdp11-aout to be --omagic. | |
37 | ||
16171946 FS |
38 | * Relative pathnames in INPUT() and GROUP() directives in linker scripts are |
39 | searched relative to the directory of the linker script before other search | |
40 | paths. | |
41 | ||
cae64165 RM |
42 | * Add ELF linker command-line option `-z start-stop-visibility=...' to control |
43 | the visibility of synthetic `__start_SECNAME` and `__stop_SECNAME` symbols. | |
44 | ||
f37b21b4 RM |
45 | * Add command-line option --dependency-file to write a Make-style dependency |
46 | file listing the input files consulted by the linker, like the files written | |
47 | by the compiler's -M -MP options. | |
48 | ||
ae774686 NC |
49 | Changes in 2.34: |
50 | ||
7b3c2715 AM |
51 | * The ld check for "PHDR segment not covered by LOAD segment" is more |
52 | effective, catching cases that were wrongly allowed by previous versions of | |
53 | ld. If you see this error it is likely you are linking with a bad linker | |
54 | script or the binary you are building is not intended to be loaded by a | |
55 | dynamic loader. In the latter case --no-dynamic-linker is appropriate. | |
56 | ||
595d3787 AM |
57 | * cr16c support removed. |
58 | ||
6655dba2 SB |
59 | * Add support for z80-elf. |
60 | ||
61 | * Add support for relocation of each byte or word of multibyte value to Z80 | |
62 | targets. | |
63 | ||
64 | * Add support for Zilog eZ80 (both ADL and Z80 mode) and Zilog Z180 CPUs. | |
65 | ||
60391a25 PB |
66 | Changes in 2.33: |
67 | ||
035801ce FS |
68 | * Add command-line option --no-print-map-discarded. |
69 | ||
739b5c9c TC |
70 | * The Cortex-A53 Erratum 843419 workaround now supports a choice of which |
71 | workaround to use. The option --fix-cortex-a53-843419 now takes an | |
72 | optional argument --fix-cortex-a53-843419[=full|adr|adrp] which can be | |
73 | used to force a particular workaround to be used. See --help for AArch64 | |
74 | for more details. | |
75 | ||
cd702818 SD |
76 | * Add target handlers for AArch64 for ELF GNU program properties. |
77 | ||
78 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI in ELF GNU program | |
79 | properties in the AArch64 ELF linker. | |
80 | ||
81 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_PAC in ELF GNU program | |
82 | properties in the AArch64 ELF linker. | |
83 | ||
8bf6d176 | 84 | * Add -z force-bti for AArch64 to enable GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI |
37c18eed SD |
85 | on output while warning about missing GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI |
86 | on inputs and use PLTs protected with BTI. | |
87 | ||
8bf6d176 | 88 | * Add -z pac-plt for AArch64 to pick PAC enabled PLTs. |
1dbade74 | 89 | |
f48dfe41 NC |
90 | Changes in 2.32: |
91 | ||
d2ef37eb L |
92 | * Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties. |
93 | ||
b8891f8d AJ |
94 | * Add support for the C-SKY processor series. |
95 | ||
4f4690cd AM |
96 | * -t now doesn't report members within archives, unless -t is given twice. |
97 | A single -t is now more useful when generating a list of files that should be | |
98 | packaged for a linker bug report. For example: | |
99 | gcc hello.c -save-temps -Wl,-t | xargs realpath | sort | uniq > files | |
100 | tar cJf test.tar.xz `cat files` | |
101 | ||
719d8288 NC |
102 | Changes in 2.31: |
103 | ||
142b7a14 EB |
104 | * Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets. |
105 | ||
f6aec96d L |
106 | * Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether |
107 | -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default | |
108 | to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase | |
109 | disk and memory size. | |
110 | ||
9176ac5b NC |
111 | Changes in 2.30: |
112 | ||
47acac12 L |
113 | * Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment. |
114 | ||
a05a5b64 | 115 | * Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option. |
97a232d7 | 116 | |
a05a5b64 | 117 | * Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run |
93ab9c0d | 118 | for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader |
6c19b93b | 119 | supports this functionality. |
7feec526 | 120 | |
2b94abd4 AB |
121 | * Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use |
122 | of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would | |
123 | previously be accepted but had no effect. | |
124 | ||
125 | * The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive | |
126 | within input section lists. | |
127 | ||
55a09eb6 TG |
128 | Changes in 2.29: |
129 | ||
48580982 L |
130 | * Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate |
131 | GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties. | |
132 | ||
133 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program | |
134 | properties in the x86 ELF linker. | |
135 | ||
ee2fdd6f | 136 | * Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program |
48580982 | 137 | properties in the x86 ELF linker. |
ee2fdd6f L |
138 | |
139 | * Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled | |
140 | PLT. | |
141 | ||
142 | * Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled | |
143 | PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program | |
144 | properties. | |
145 | ||
a91e1603 L |
146 | * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX. |
147 | ||
46bed679 L |
148 | * Add support for ELF GNU program properties. |
149 | ||
0220170b DD |
150 | * Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor. |
151 | ||
d7488716 AB |
152 | * When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will |
153 | change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time. | |
154 | ||
77f5e65e AB |
155 | * Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a |
156 | mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used. | |
157 | ||
14ea2c1b AB |
158 | * Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now |
159 | take an load memory address starting from LMA. | |
160 | ||
7bdf4127 AB |
161 | * Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members |
162 | placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker | |
163 | option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the | |
164 | linker script. | |
165 | ||
9703a4ef TG |
166 | Changes in 2.28: |
167 | ||
8f1732fc AB |
168 | * The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the |
169 | section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in | |
170 | the list. | |
171 | ||
e23eba97 | 172 | * Add support for the RISC-V architecture. |
76359541 | 173 | |
a05a5b64 | 174 | * The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based |
29063f8b NC |
175 | linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections. |
176 | ||
0955507f TP |
177 | * Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of |
178 | Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified | |
179 | by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such, | |
180 | --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib. | |
181 | ||
76359541 TP |
182 | * Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE |
183 | targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import | |
184 | library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application | |
185 | to link against the executable. | |
186 | ||
96a84ea3 TG |
187 | Changes in 2.27: |
188 | ||
647e4d46 L |
189 | * Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should |
190 | be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux | |
9194f82d AM |
191 | targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase |
192 | disk and memory size. | |
647e4d46 | 193 | |
4c10bbaa L |
194 | * Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable |
195 | relocation overflow check. | |
196 | ||
b8871f35 L |
197 | * Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to |
198 | convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link. | |
199 | ||
aec6b87e L |
200 | * Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which |
201 | avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable. | |
202 | ||
cdf96953 MF |
203 | * The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language. |
204 | ||
1f56df9d JW |
205 | * Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time |
206 | values for dynamic relocations. | |
207 | ||
7feec526 TG |
208 | Changes in 2.26: |
209 | ||
a504d23a LA |
210 | * Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time |
211 | workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of | |
212 | the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx) | |
81c23f82 | 213 | |
6c3bc0f8 NC |
214 | * Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to |
215 | decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default. | |
216 | ||
886a2506 NC |
217 | * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures. |
218 | ||
0f088b2a KT |
219 | * Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections) |
220 | has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets. | |
221 | ||
a05a5b64 | 222 | * New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug |
ea556d25 L |
223 | sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi]. |
224 | ||
a05a5b64 | 225 | * New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to |
c005eb9e AB |
226 | adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives |
227 | the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error | |
228 | respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all | |
229 | orphan sections. | |
3ea60775 | 230 | |
b0619670 L |
231 | * Add support for LLVM plugin. |
232 | ||
3604cb1f TG |
233 | * Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage. |
234 | ||
0a618243 AB |
235 | * Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol |
236 | must be defined by the end of the link. | |
237 | ||
c50415e2 TG |
238 | Changes in 2.25: |
239 | ||
eeb14e5a LZ |
240 | * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable |
241 | the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp | |
a05a5b64 | 242 | command-line option. |
eeb14e5a | 243 | |
73589c9d CS |
244 | * Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k. |
245 | ||
a05a5b64 | 246 | * Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets. |
61e2488c JT |
247 | |
248 | * x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option. | |
249 | ||
35c08157 KLC |
250 | * Add support for the Andes NDS32. |
251 | ||
58ca03a2 TG |
252 | Changes in 2.24: |
253 | ||
2e53f7d6 NC |
254 | * Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language |
255 | ||
13761a11 NC |
256 | * Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor. |
257 | ||
36591ba1 SL |
258 | * Add support for Altera Nios II. |
259 | ||
78c8d46c NC |
260 | * Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture. |
261 | ||
a3c62988 NC |
262 | * Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor. |
263 | ||
b1b00fcc MF |
264 | * --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags. |
265 | ||
e8044f35 RS |
266 | * Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets. |
267 | ||
1eec346e NC |
268 | * Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of |
269 | an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections. | |
270 | ||
af18cb59 TG |
271 | Changes in 2.23: |
272 | ||
8d55a8a0 KT |
273 | * Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff. |
274 | ||
da2bb560 NC |
275 | * Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64. |
276 | ||
eda680f8 L |
277 | * Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting. |
278 | ||
62655c7b RM |
279 | * Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start' |
280 | to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the | |
281 | program's memory image. | |
282 | ||
6927f982 NC |
283 | * Add support for S12X processor. |
284 | ||
b9c361e0 JL |
285 | * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture. |
286 | ||
f6c1a2d5 NC |
287 | * Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture. |
288 | ||
a72173de TG |
289 | * Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file). |
290 | ||
99c513f6 DD |
291 | * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture. |
292 | ||
cfb8c092 NC |
293 | * Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture. |
294 | ||
a7142d94 TG |
295 | Changes in 2.22: |
296 | ||
d064f206 NC |
297 | * --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead |
298 | --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default. | |
299 | ||
ae17ab41 | 300 | * INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language |
cfb8c092 | 301 | to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags. |
ae17ab41 | 302 | |
69f56ae1 | 303 | * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures. |
90b3661c | 304 | |
02ecc8e9 | 305 | * Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit |
cfb8c092 NC |
306 | sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute |
307 | encoded in the section name. | |
02ecc8e9 | 308 | |
44f45767 TG |
309 | Changes in 2.21: |
310 | ||
5fec8599 L |
311 | * Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may |
312 | break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation. | |
313 | ||
17f73277 KT |
314 | * Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the |
315 | option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of | |
316 | bfd. | |
317 | ||
40b36596 JM |
318 | * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family. |
319 | ||
ddbb8a31 NC |
320 | * --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion |
321 | with --as-needed option. | |
322 | ||
7fcab871 KT |
323 | * Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows |
324 | to alias the import/export table name written in PE image. | |
325 | ||
a72173de | 326 | * Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all |
2927aaca NC |
327 | symbols from automatically being exported. |
328 | ||
c7927a3c NC |
329 | * Add support for the Renesas RX processor. |
330 | ||
75875724 TG |
331 | * Add support for alpha-vms target. |
332 | ||
81c23f82 TG |
333 | Changes in 2.20: |
334 | ||
3e7a7d11 NC |
335 | * GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a |
336 | GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will | |
337 | be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire | |
338 | process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use. | |
ce11ba6c | 339 | |
c1711530 DK |
340 | * PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common |
341 | common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in | |
342 | the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools. | |
343 | ||
09e2aba4 DK |
344 | * PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols |
345 | are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives | |
346 | are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode. | |
347 | ||
267e2722 CD |
348 | * New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and |
349 | --export-dynamic options. | |
350 | ||
a0c402a5 L |
351 | * ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate |
352 | ELF machine code. | |
353 | ||
4a93e180 NC |
354 | * New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions. |
355 | ||
88183869 DK |
356 | * PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to |
357 | the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old | |
358 | (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the | |
3efd345c DK |
359 | new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled |
360 | automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB | |
361 | needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names. | |
88183869 | 362 | |
d8045f23 NC |
363 | * For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations |
364 | made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into | |
365 | the resulting binary for processing by the loader. | |
366 | ||
28024d9d L |
367 | * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined |
368 | symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the | |
369 | latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED | |
370 | entry of one of the libraries already linked. | |
371 | ||
a05a5b64 | 372 | * Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets |
258795f5 L |
373 | to set the address of the first byte of the text segment. |
374 | ||
c3b7224a NC |
375 | * Add support for Sunplus score architecture. |
376 | ||
ce11ba6c KT |
377 | * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to |
378 | allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix. | |
379 | ||
e1c37eb5 DK |
380 | * Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option, |
381 | allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL | |
382 | and its associated import library as they are generated during linking. | |
383 | ||
84e94c90 NC |
384 | * Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture. |
385 | ||
62655c7b | 386 | * Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries |
7251ccbf SR |
387 | for Embedded-PIC code) option. |
388 | ||
6cb442d3 KT |
389 | * Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of |
390 | pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches | |
391 | --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2. | |
392 | For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit | |
393 | runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two. | |
394 | ||
6e33da12 TG |
395 | Changes in 2.19: |
396 | ||
66c103b7 AM |
397 | * Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to |
398 | augment the default script. | |
399 | ||
967928e9 | 400 | * Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an |
66c103b7 | 401 | archive by writing "archive:file". |
967928e9 | 402 | |
de7dd2bd NC |
403 | * The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the |
404 | direction of sorting. | |
405 | ||
7fb9f789 | 406 | * The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via |
a05a5b64 | 407 | the --got=<type> command-line option. |
7fb9f789 | 408 | |
66c103b7 AM |
409 | * The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols |
410 | that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new | |
a05a5b64 | 411 | linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N. |
726150b7 | 412 | |
7c3d153f NC |
413 | Changes in 2.18: |
414 | ||
f96b4a7b NC |
415 | * Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public |
416 | License. | |
417 | ||
c0065db7 RM |
418 | * ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier |
419 | embedded in a note section. | |
420 | ||
3d3d428f | 421 | * Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target. |
a19bcec6 | 422 | |
bcb674cf RS |
423 | * -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo, |
424 | without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so. | |
425 | ||
a05a5b64 | 426 | * Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE' |
14be8564 L |
427 | which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker |
428 | script. | |
429 | ||
40b36307 L |
430 | * ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++ |
431 | operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data, | |
432 | builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the | |
433 | dynamic list. | |
434 | ||
99ad8390 NC |
435 | * Add support for x86_64 PE+ target. |
436 | ||
1c0d3aa6 NC |
437 | * Add support for Score target. |
438 | ||
55255dae L |
439 | * ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols |
440 | whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the | |
441 | shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the | |
442 | symbol table in the executable. | |
443 | ||
dc0b6aa0 AM |
444 | * The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from |
445 | being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as | |
446 | the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful | |
447 | default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA | |
448 | differing from the VMA for some sections. | |
449 | ||
c17d87de NC |
450 | * New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge |
451 | collection. | |
452 | ||
c6dd86c6 | 453 | * ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current |
f96b4a7b | 454 | VFP11 coprocessors. |
c6dd86c6 | 455 | |
c17d87de | 456 | Changes in 2.17: |
cf88bb9f | 457 | |
d70c5fc7 NC |
458 | * Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems. |
459 | ||
dfcffada AM |
460 | * Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order. |
461 | Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before | |
462 | searching the default directories, rather than vice versa. | |
463 | Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf. | |
c1446dba | 464 | |
4b5bd4e7 DS |
465 | * PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files |
466 | passed directly to ld. | |
467 | ||
3c9b82ba NC |
468 | * Support for the Z80 processor family has been added. |
469 | ||
3e8a519c MM |
470 | * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra |
471 | switches can be read from <file>. | |
472 | ||
957d91c1 NC |
473 | Changes in 2.16: |
474 | ||
319850b4 JB |
475 | * Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF |
476 | specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option. | |
477 | ||
b717d30e JJ |
478 | * New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag |
479 | for input files listed inside of it. | |
480 | ||
e2243057 RS |
481 | * A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the |
482 | default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were | |
483 | configured using --with-sysroot. | |
484 | ||
3ec57632 NC |
485 | * New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information |
486 | about a specified memory region. | |
487 | ||
7499d566 NC |
488 | * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech. |
489 | ||
ba916c8a MM |
490 | * Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to |
491 | override the base address for a segment from the command-line. | |
492 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
493 | * ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared |
494 | object. | |
495 | ||
bcaa7b3e L |
496 | * Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script |
497 | language to permit sorting sections by section name or section | |
498 | maximum alignment. | |
499 | ||
a05a5b64 | 500 | * Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment, |
bcaa7b3e L |
501 | to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment. |
502 | ||
8fdd7217 NC |
503 | * ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag |
504 | should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags. | |
14b3c463 | 505 | |
1fe1f39c NC |
506 | * Support for the crx-elf target added. |
507 | ||
1a320fbb | 508 | * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added. |
1fe1f39c | 509 | |
a05a5b64 | 510 | * A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table |
2d643429 NC |
511 | size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch |
512 | is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is | |
513 | used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set | |
514 | to 1021. | |
515 | ||
35835446 JR |
516 | * Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols |
517 | that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for | |
518 | symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new | |
519 | --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option | |
520 | might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs. | |
521 | ||
2d643429 | 522 | Changes in 2.15: |
14b3c463 | 523 | |
8fdd7217 NC |
524 | * ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should |
525 | be added only when a shared library is referenced. | |
c0065db7 | 526 | |
8fdd7217 | 527 | * PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual |
26d2d8a2 BF |
528 | addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. |
529 | ||
1b169501 BF |
530 | * DWARF 2 support for i386pe added. |
531 | ||
c894ddfb HPN |
532 | * The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that |
533 | is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used. | |
534 | ||
7a7f4e42 CD |
535 | * The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for |
536 | Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. | |
537 | ||
0949843d NC |
538 | * cr16c support added by NSC. |
539 | ||
6edf0760 NC |
540 | * m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas. |
541 | ||
560e09e9 NC |
542 | * Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch |
543 | --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it | |
544 | should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to | |
545 | make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors. | |
546 | ||
43c58ae6 CD |
547 | Changes in 2.14: |
548 | ||
e8fd7476 NC |
549 | * Added support for Xtensa architecture. |
550 | ||
9c8ebd6a DJ |
551 | * Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for |
552 | linking against a target filesystem image. | |
553 | ||
312b768e NC |
554 | * Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre |
555 | 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary | |
556 | file format. | |
557 | ||
63fd3b82 NC |
558 | * Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option. |
559 | ||
004d9caf NC |
560 | * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of |
561 | DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal. | |
c0065db7 | 562 | |
8e523c23 NC |
563 | * Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for |
564 | LIB_PATH. | |
565 | ||
7e392df6 NC |
566 | * ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson. |
567 | ||
cf88bb9f NC |
568 | * IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov. |
569 | ||
2cbb2eef NC |
570 | Changes in 2.13: |
571 | ||
572 | * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400 | |
573 | and FR500 included. | |
7d553a40 | 574 | |
37020578 JT |
575 | Changes in version 2.13: |
576 | ||
577 | * DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas. | |
578 | ||
9a66911f NC |
579 | Changes in version 2.12: |
580 | ||
49fda6c8 HPN |
581 | * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson. |
582 | ||
3b16e843 NC |
583 | * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores. |
584 | ||
8bd621d8 AM |
585 | * Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables |
586 | production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in | |
587 | non-sharable applications. | |
5b343f5a | 588 | |
db6751f2 JJ |
589 | * Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic |
590 | relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker | |
591 | can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache. | |
592 | ||
593 | * Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek. | |
594 | ||
9a66911f NC |
595 | Changes in version 2.11: |
596 | ||
b8355149 JH |
597 | * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs. |
598 | ||
18e03609 NC |
599 | * Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by |
600 | having the compiler generate the information in sections called | |
601 | .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The | |
602 | linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info | |
603 | section. | |
252b5132 | 604 | |
ec4eb78a L |
605 | * The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or |
606 | DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it. | |
607 | ||
2d30b3da TW |
608 | * TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall. |
609 | ||
a05a5b64 | 610 | * Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any |
c0065db7 | 611 | specified section. |
176355da | 612 | |
a712da20 NC |
613 | * Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables, |
614 | enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need | |
615 | this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform | |
616 | symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents | |
617 | (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.) | |
618 | ||
22b36938 JE |
619 | * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality). |
620 | ||
5bcac8a4 HPN |
621 | * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series). |
622 | ||
500800ca NC |
623 | * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff. |
624 | ||
919e4093 AM |
625 | Changes in version 2.10: |
626 | ||
c0065db7 | 627 | * Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of |
5948916f TW |
628 | sections into regions. |
629 | ||
c0065db7 | 630 | * Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections. |
252b5132 | 631 | It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are |
4667035e AM |
632 | arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf, |
633 | mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf. | |
987fd5b4 | 634 | Others will ignore the option. |
252b5132 RH |
635 | |
636 | * Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file | |
637 | name or section name. | |
638 | ||
639 | * Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u | |
640 | command-line option. | |
641 | ||
642 | * Added ASSERT to the linker script language. | |
643 | ||
277c9afe ILT |
644 | * Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over |
645 | wildcard file names. | |
646 | ||
252b5132 | 647 | * Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only |
500800ca | 648 | affects ELF shared library generation). |
252b5132 RH |
649 | |
650 | * The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name. | |
651 | ||
2575273d ILT |
652 | * Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a |
653 | shared library. | |
654 | ||
9b1d3b78 ILT |
655 | * The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when |
656 | using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old | |
657 | behaviour. | |
658 | ||
252b5132 RH |
659 | * Added --demangle and --no-demangle options. |
660 | ||
661 | Changes in version 2.9: | |
662 | ||
663 | * Added SQUAD to the linker script language. | |
664 | ||
665 | * New option --no-warn-mismatch. | |
666 | ||
667 | * The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that | |
668 | are not placed in a specific memory region are placed. | |
669 | ||
670 | Changes in version 2.8: | |
671 | ||
672 | * Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section | |
673 | names. | |
674 | ||
675 | * The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF. | |
676 | ||
677 | * The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language. | |
678 | ||
679 | * The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language. | |
680 | ||
681 | * MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language. | |
682 | ||
683 | * The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language. | |
684 | ||
685 | * New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section | |
686 | changes due to alignment of an input section. | |
687 | ||
688 | * New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f. | |
689 | ||
690 | Changes in version 2.7: | |
691 | ||
692 | * New option --cref to print out a cross reference table. | |
693 | ||
694 | * New option --wrap SYMBOL. | |
695 | ||
696 | * New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive. | |
697 | ||
698 | * Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script | |
699 | are not included in the output file. | |
700 | ||
701 | * The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses | |
702 | the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging | |
703 | information generated. | |
704 | ||
705 | Changes in version 2.6: | |
706 | ||
707 | * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true | |
45f111cc NC |
708 | of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols |
709 | __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the | |
710 | beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc. | |
711 | ||
712 | Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards | |
713 | and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The | |
714 | symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed | |
715 | sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined. | |
252b5132 RH |
716 | |
717 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the | |
718 | contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is | |
719 | not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc. | |
720 | ||
721 | * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input | |
722 | file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of | |
723 | the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into | |
1049f94e | 724 | the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by |
252b5132 RH |
725 | glibc. |
726 | ||
727 | * New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file. | |
728 | ||
729 | * The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can | |
730 | also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker, | |
731 | will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e | |
732 | nor the -r option was used. | |
733 | ||
734 | * The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be | |
735 | searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the | |
736 | -L options. | |
737 | ||
738 | * The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and | |
739 | enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will | |
740 | only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will | |
741 | prevent this optimization. | |
742 | ||
743 | Changes in version 2.5: | |
744 | ||
745 | * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can | |
746 | not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to | |
07f3b6ad | 747 | generate shared libraries. |
252b5132 RH |
748 | |
749 | * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386 | |
750 | (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be | |
751 | used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well | |
752 | tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for | |
753 | Solaris again. | |
754 | ||
755 | * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against | |
756 | Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries. | |
757 | ||
758 | * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new | |
759 | ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far, | |
760 | this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix | |
761 | 5), and HPPA ELF targets. | |
762 | ||
763 | * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to | |
764 | support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive. | |
765 | This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ). | |
766 | ||
767 | * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize | |
768 | it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script | |
769 | file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the | |
770 | default linker script. | |
771 | ||
772 | * The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per | |
773 | undefined symbol, rather than once per reference. | |
774 | ||
775 | * The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to | |
776 | use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So | |
777 | far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets. | |
778 | ||
779 | * The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V | |
780 | behaviour is available via --verbose. | |
781 | ||
782 | Changes in version 2.4: | |
783 | ||
784 | * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff | |
785 | formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time | |
786 | and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than | |
787 | before for formats not converted yet. | |
788 | ||
789 | * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means | |
790 | oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument | |
791 | separators. | |
792 | ||
793 | * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.) | |
794 | ||
795 | * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie. | |
796 | ||
797 | * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared | |
798 | libraries are not yet supported). | |
799 | ||
800 | * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well. | |
801 | ||
802 | * The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just | |
803 | forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when | |
804 | statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet. | |
805 | ||
806 | Changes in version 2.3: | |
807 | ||
808 | * Weak symbols are now supported. | |
809 | ||
810 | * ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on | |
811 | UnixWare and Solaris. | |
812 | ||
813 | * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only). | |
814 | ||
815 | Changes in version 2.2: | |
816 | ||
817 | * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string | |
818 | table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input | |
819 | files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical | |
820 | static symbols) should be much smaller. | |
821 | ||
822 | Changes in version 2.1: | |
823 | ||
824 | * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented. | |
825 | ||
826 | * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the | |
827 | other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. | |
828 | ||
829 | \f | |
b3adc24a | 830 | Copyright (C) 2012-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
5bf135a7 NC |
831 | |
832 | Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, | |
833 | are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright | |
834 | notice and this notice are preserved. | |
835 | ||
252b5132 RH |
836 | Local variables: |
837 | fill-column: 79 | |
838 | End: |