binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
   4   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
   5   targets.
   6
   7 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
   8
   9 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
  10
  11 Changes in 2.25:
  12
  13 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
  14   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
  15   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
  16   default behaviour.
  17
  18 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
  19
  20 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
  21
  22 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
  23
  24 Changes in 2.24:
  25
  26 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command line options that take
  27   section names.
  28
  29 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
  30
  31 Changes in 2.23:
  32
  33 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
  34
  35 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
  36
  37 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
  38
  39 Changes in 2.22:
  40
  41 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
  42
  43 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
  44   passed to preprocessor.
  45
  46 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
  47   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
  48
  49 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
  50
  51 changes in 2.21:
  52
  53 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
  54   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
  55
  56 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
  57
  58 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
  59   the -u / --unwind option.
  60
  61 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
  62
  63 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
  64   binaries.
  65
  66 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
  67   '== <ID>' option.
  68
  69 * Add a new command line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
  70   address before function name or source filename.
  71
  72 * Add a new command line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
  73   a more human readable output.
  74
  75 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
  76
  77 Changes in 2.20:
  78
  79 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
  80   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
  81   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
  82   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
  83   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
  84
  85 * Add a new command line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
  86   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
  87   instructions.
  88
  89 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
  90   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command line option.
  91
  92 * The gprof program has been given a new command line option:
  93   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
  94   file.
  95
  96 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
  97   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
  98
  99 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 100   for objcopy.
 101
 102 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 103   --stack and --subsystem command line options to objcopy, which will
 104   set PE optional header.
 105
 106 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 107
 108 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 109   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 110   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 111   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 112
 113 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 114   add absolute paths for -S.
 115
 116 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 117   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 118
 119 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 120   report an error when the import library is associated with
 121   multiple DLLs.
 122
 123 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 124   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 125
 126 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 127   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 128   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 129
 130 Changes in 2.19:
 131
 132 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 133
 134 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 135   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 136   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 137   added to the archive.
 138
 139 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 140
 141 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 142
 143 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 144
 145 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 146
 147 Changes in 2.18:
 148
 149 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 150   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 151   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 152
 153 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 154   Public License.
 155
 156 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 157   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 158
 159 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 160   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 161   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 162   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 163   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 164   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 165
 166 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
 167   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 168   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 169   to some OSes.
 170
 171 Changes in 2.17:
 172
 173 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 174
 175 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 176   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 177   of types.
 178
 179 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 180   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 181
 182 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 183   debug sections.
 184
 185 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 186   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 187
 188 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 189   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 190   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 191   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 192
 193 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 194   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 195
 196 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 197
 198 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 199   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 200
 201 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 202   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 203
 204 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 205   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 206
 207 Changes in 2.16:
 208
 209 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 210
 211 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 212   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 213   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 214   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 215
 216 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 217   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 218   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 219   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 220
 221 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 222   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 223   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 224   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 225   between ARM and THUMB code.
 226
 227 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 228   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 229
 230 Changes in 2.15:
 231
 232 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 233   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 234   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 235   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 236
 237 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 238   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 239
 240 * readelf can now parse archives.
 241
 242 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 243   format compatible with ctags tool.
 244
 245 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 246   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 247   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 248   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 249   debugging info.
 250
 251 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 252   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 253   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 254
 255 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 256   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 257   with the -a switch.
 258
 259 Changes in 2.14:
 260
 261 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 262
 263 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 264
 265 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 266
 267 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 268   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 269
 270 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 271   Parallel C compiler.
 272
 273 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 274   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 275   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 276
 277 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 278
 279 Changes in 2.13:
 280
 281 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 282   and FR500 included.
 283
 284 Changes in version 2.12:
 285
 286 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 287
 288 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 289
 290 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 291   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 292
 293 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 294
 295 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 296
 297 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 298   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 299
 300 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 301   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 302   by Honda Hiroki.
 303
 304 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 305
 306 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 307   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 308   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 309
 310 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 311   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 312   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 313   By Stefan Geuken.
 314
 315 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 316
 317 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 318
 319 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 320   extenstions.
 321
 322 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 323   By Luciano Gemme.
 324
 325 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 326
 327 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 328
 329 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 330
 331 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 332
 333 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 334
 335 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 336   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 337   file.
 338
 339 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 340   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 341   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 342   raw verions.
 343
 344 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 345   with intel syntax.
 346
 347 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 348   regardless of target machine.
 349
 350 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 351   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 352   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 353   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 354
 355 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 356
 357 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 358   sections.
 359
 360 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 361
 362 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 363   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 364
 365 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 366
 367 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 368   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 369
 370 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 371   the VMA of the sections.
 372
 373 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 374
 375 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 376
 377 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 378   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 379   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 380   output.
 381
 382 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 383   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 384   so they must be in canonical form.
 385
 386 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 387   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 388
 389 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 390
 391 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 392
 393 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 394
 395 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 396
 397 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 398
 399 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 400
 401 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 402
 403 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 404
 405 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 406
 407 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 408
 409 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 410
 411 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 412
 413 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 414
 415 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 416
 417 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 418
 419 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 420
 421 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 422
 423 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 424   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 425   generating plain binary files.
 426
 427 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 428
 429 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 430
 431 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 432
 433 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 434   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 435
 436 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 437   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 438
 439 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 440
 441 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 442   executables.
 443
 444 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 445
 446 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 447   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 448
 449 * Support for Irix 5.
 450
 451 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 452   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 453
 454 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 455
 456 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 457   ELF and COFF files.
 458
 459 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 460   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 461
 462 * The strings program has been added.
 463
 464 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 465
 466 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 467   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 468   'cp'.
 469
 470 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 471   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 472   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 473
 474 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 475   the output from BSD nm.
 476
 477 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 478
 479 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 480
 481 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 482
 483 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 484
 485 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 486
 487 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 488
 489 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 490   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 491
 492 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 493   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 494   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 495   for Posix.2 conformance.
 496
 497 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 498   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 499   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 500
 501 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 502   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 503
 504 \f
 505 Copyright (C) 2012-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 506
 507 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 508 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 509 notice and this notice are preserved.
 510
 511 Local variables:
 512 fill-column: 79
 513 End: