binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
   4   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
   5   information for the file to be held in a seperate file.
   6
   7 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
   8   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
   9   with the -a switch.
  10
  11 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  12
  13 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  14
  15 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  16
  17 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  18   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  19
  20 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  21   Parallel C compiler.
  22
  23 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  24   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  25   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  26
  27 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  28
  29 Changes in 2.13:
  30
  31 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  32   and FR500 included.
  33
  34 Changes in version 2.12:
  35
  36 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  37
  38 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  39
  40 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  41   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  42
  43 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
  44
  45 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
  46
  47 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
  48   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
  49
  50 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
  51   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
  52   by Honda Hiroki.
  53
  54 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
  55
  56 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
  57   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
  58   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
  59
  60 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
  61   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
  62   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
  63   By Stefan Geuken.
  64
  65 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
  66
  67 Changes in binutils 2.11:
  68
  69 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
  70   extenstions.
  71
  72 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
  73   By Luciano Gemme.
  74
  75 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
  76
  77 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  78
  79 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  80
  81 Changes in binutils 2.10:
  82
  83 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
  84
  85 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
  86   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
  87   file.
  88
  89 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
  90   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
  91   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
  92   raw verions.
  93
  94 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
  95   with intel syntax.
  96
  97 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
  98   regardless of target machine.
  99
 100 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 101   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 102   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 103   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 104
 105 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 106
 107 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 108   sections.
 109
 110 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 111
 112 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 113   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 114
 115 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 116
 117 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 118   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 119
 120 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 121   the VMA of the sections.
 122
 123 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 124
 125 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 126
 127 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 128   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 129   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 130   output.
 131
 132 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 133   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 134   so they must be in canonical form.
 135
 136 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 137   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 138
 139 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 140
 141 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 142
 143 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 144
 145 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 146
 147 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 148
 149 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 150
 151 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 152
 153 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 154
 155 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 156
 157 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 158
 159 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 160
 161 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 162
 163 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 164
 165 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 166
 167 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 168
 169 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 170
 171 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 172
 173 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 174   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 175   generating plain binary files.
 176
 177 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 178
 179 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 180
 181 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 182
 183 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 184   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 185
 186 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 187   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 188
 189 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 190
 191 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 192   executables.
 193
 194 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 195
 196 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 197   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 198
 199 * Support for Irix 5.
 200
 201 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 202   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 203
 204 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 205
 206 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 207   ELF and COFF files.
 208
 209 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 210   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 211
 212 * The strings program has been added.
 213
 214 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 215
 216 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 217   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 218   'cp'.
 219
 220 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 221   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 222   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 223
 224 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 225   the output from BSD nm.
 226
 227 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 228
 229 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 230
 231 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 232
 233 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 234
 235 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 236
 237 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 238
 239 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 240   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 241
 242 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 243   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 244   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 245   for Posix.2 conformance.
 246
 247 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 248   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 249   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 250
 251 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 252   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 253
 254 \f
 255 Local variables:
 256 fill-column: 79
 257 End: