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252b5132 1-*- text -*-
97a232d7 2
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3Changes in 2.33:
4
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5* Add command-line option --no-print-map-discarded.
6
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7* The Cortex-A53 Erratum 843419 workaround now supports a choice of which
8 workaround to use. The option --fix-cortex-a53-843419 now takes an
9 optional argument --fix-cortex-a53-843419[=full|adr|adrp] which can be
10 used to force a particular workaround to be used. See --help for AArch64
11 for more details.
12
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13Changes in 2.33:
14
15* Add target handlers for AArch64 for ELF GNU program properties.
16
17* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI in ELF GNU program
18 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
19
20* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_PAC in ELF GNU program
21 properties in the AArch64 ELF linker.
22
8bf6d176 23* Add -z force-bti for AArch64 to enable GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
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24 on output while warning about missing GNU_PROPERTY_AARCH64_FEATURE_1_BTI
25 on inputs and use PLTs protected with BTI.
26
8bf6d176 27* Add -z pac-plt for AArch64 to pick PAC enabled PLTs.
1dbade74 28
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29Changes in 2.32:
30
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31* Report property change in linker map file when merging GNU properties.
32
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33* Add support for the C-SKY processor series.
34
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35* -t now doesn't report members within archives, unless -t is given twice.
36 A single -t is now more useful when generating a list of files that should be
37 packaged for a linker bug report. For example:
38 gcc hello.c -save-temps -Wl,-t | xargs realpath | sort | uniq > files
39 tar cJf test.tar.xz `cat files`
40
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41Changes in 2.31:
42
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43* Speed up direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin and Mingw targets.
44
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45* Add a configure option --enable-separate-code to decide whether
46 -z separate-code should be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default
47 to yes for Linux/x86 targets. Note that -z separate-code can increase
48 disk and memory size.
49
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50Changes in 2.30:
51
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52* Add -z separate-code to generate separate code PT_LOAD segment.
53
a05a5b64 54* Add "-z undefs" command-line option as the inverse of the "-z defs" option.
97a232d7 55
a05a5b64 56* Add -z globalaudit command-line option to force audit libraries to be run
93ab9c0d 57 for every dynamic object loaded by an executable - provided that the loader
6c19b93b 58 supports this functionality.
7feec526 59
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60* Tighten linker script grammar around file name specifiers to prevent the use
61 of SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT and SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY on filenames. These would
62 previously be accepted but had no effect.
63
64* The EXCLUDE_FILE directive can now be placed within any SORT_* directive
65 within input section lists.
66
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67Changes in 2.29:
68
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69* Support for -z shstk in the x86 ELF linker to generate
70 GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program properties.
71
72* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in ELF GNU program
73 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
74
ee2fdd6f 75* Add support for GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
48580982 76 properties in the x86 ELF linker.
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77
78* Support for -z ibtplt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
79 PLT.
80
81* Support for -z ibt in the x86 ELF linker to generate IBT-enabled
82 PLT as well as GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in ELF GNU program
83 properties.
84
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85* Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
86
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87* Add support for ELF GNU program properties.
88
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89* Add support for the Texas Instruments PRU processor.
90
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91* When configuring for arc*-*-linux* targets the default linker emulation will
92 change if --with-cpu=nps400 is used at configure time.
93
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94* Improve assignment of LMAs to orphan sections in some edge cases where a
95 mixture of both AT>LMA_REGION and AT(LMA) are used.
96
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97* Orphan sections placed after an empty section that has an AT(LMA) will now
98 take an load memory address starting from LMA.
99
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100* Section groups can now be resolved (the group deleted and the group members
101 placed like normal sections) at partial link time either using the new linker
102 option --force-group-allocation or by placing FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION into the
103 linker script.
104
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105Changes in 2.28:
106
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107* The EXCLUDE_FILE linker script construct can now be applied outside of the
108 section list in order for the exclusions to apply over all input sections in
109 the list.
110
e23eba97 111* Add support for the RISC-V architecture.
76359541 112
a05a5b64 113* The command-line option --no-eh-frame-hdr can now be used in ELF based
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114 linkers to disable the automatic generation of .eh_frame_hdr sections.
115
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116* Add --in-implib=<infile> to the ARM linker to enable specifying a set of
117 Secure Gateway veneers that must exist in the output import library specified
118 by --out-implib=<outfile> and the address they must have. As such,
119 --in-implib is only supported in combination with --cmse-implib.
120
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121* Extended the --out-implib=<file> option, previously restricted to x86 PE
122 targets, to any ELF based target. This allows the generation of an import
123 library for an ELF executable, which can then be used by another application
124 to link against the executable.
125
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126Changes in 2.27:
127
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128* Add a configure option --enable-relro to decide whether -z relro should
129 be enabled in ELF linker by default. Default to yes for all Linux
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130 targets except FRV, HPPA, IA64 and MIPS. Note that -z relro can increase
131 disk and memory size.
647e4d46 132
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133* Support for -z noreloc-overflow in the x86-64 ELF linker to disable
134 relocation overflow check.
135
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136* Add -z common/-z nocommon options for ELF targets to control whether to
137 convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
138
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139* Support for -z nodynamic-undefined-weak in the x86 ELF linker, which
140 avoids dynamic relocations against undefined weak symbols in executable.
141
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142* The NOCROSSREFSTO command was added to the linker script language.
143
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144* Add --no-apply-dynamic-relocs to the AArch64 linker to do not apply link-time
145 values for dynamic relocations.
146
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147Changes in 2.26:
148
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149* Add --fix-stm32l4xx-629360 to the ARM linker to enable a link-time
150 workaround for a bug in the bus matrix / memory controller for some of
151 the STM32 Cortex-M4 based products (STM32L4xx)
81c23f82 152
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153* Add a configure option --enable-compressed-debug-sections={all,ld} to
154 decide whether DWARF debug sections should be compressed by default.
155
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156* Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
157
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158* Experimental support for linker garbage collection (--gc-sections)
159 has been enabled for COFF and PE based targets.
160
a05a5b64 161* New command-line option for ELF targets to compress DWARF debug
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162 sections, --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi].
163
a05a5b64 164* New command-line option, --orphan-handling=[place|warn|error|discard], to
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165 adjust how orphan sections are handled. The default is 'place' which gives
166 the current behaviour, 'warn' and 'error' issue a warning or error
167 respectively when orphan sections are found, and 'discard' will discard all
168 orphan sections.
3ea60775 169
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170* Add support for LLVM plugin.
171
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172* Add --print-memory-usage option to report memory blocks usage.
173
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174* Add --require-defined option, it's like --undefined except the new symbol
175 must be defined by the end of the link.
176
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177Changes in 2.25:
178
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179* PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default. To disable
180 the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-timestamp
a05a5b64 181 command-line option.
eeb14e5a 182
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183* Replace support for openrisc and or32 with support for or1k.
184
a05a5b64 185* Add support for the --build-id command-line option to COFF based targets.
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186
187* x86/x86_64 pe-coff now supports the --build-id option.
188
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189* Add support for the Andes NDS32.
190
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191Changes in 2.24:
192
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193* Add LOG2CEIL() builtin function to the linker script language
194
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195* Add support for the Texas Instruments MSP430X processor.
196
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197* Add support for Altera Nios II.
198
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199* Add support for the V850E3V5 architecture.
200
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201* Add support for the Imagination Technologies Meta processor.
202
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203* --enable-new-dtags no longer generates old dtags in addition to new dtags.
204
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205* Remove linker support for MIPS ECOFF targets.
206
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207* Add ALIGN_WITH_INPUT to the linker script language to force the alignment of
208 an output section to use the maximum alignment of all its input sections.
209
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210Changes in 2.23:
211
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212* Enable compressed debug section feature for x86/x86_64 pe-coff.
213
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214* Add support for the 64-bit ARM architecture: AArch64.
215
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216* Added SORT_NONE to the linker script language to disable section sorting.
217
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218* Add a linker-provided symbol when producing ELF output, '__ehdr_start'
219 to point to the ELF file header (and nearby program headers) in the
220 program's memory image.
221
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222* Add support for S12X processor.
223
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224* Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
225
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226* Add support for the Freescale XGATE architecture.
227
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228* Add option -f FILE on AIX (for response file).
229
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230* Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
231
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232* Add support for the Adapteva EPIPHANY architecture.
233
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234Changes in 2.22:
235
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236* --copy-dt-needed-entries is no longer enabled by default. Instead
237 --no-copy-dt-needed-entries is the default.
238
ae17ab41 239* INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS has been added to the linker script language
cfb8c092 240 to allow selection of input sections by section header section flags.
ae17ab41 241
69f56ae1 242* Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
90b3661c 243
02ecc8e9 244* Added SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY to the linker script language to permit
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245 sorting sections by numerical value of the GCC init_priority attribute
246 encoded in the section name.
02ecc8e9 247
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248Changes in 2.21:
249
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250* Linker script expression evaluation is somewhat more sane. This may
251 break scripts that depend on quirks of the old expression evaluation.
252
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253* Turn off underscoring for x86_64 PE+-COFF targets. For old behavior the
254 option --enable-leading-mingw64-underscores can be used on configure of
255 bfd.
256
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257* Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
258
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259* --add-needed renamed to --copy-dt-needed-entries in order to avoid confusion
260 with --as-needed option.
261
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262* Extend .def file syntax by '== <ID>' for imports and exports. This allows
263 to alias the import/export table name written in PE image.
264
a72173de 265* Add --exclude-all-symbols option to PE based linkers. This prevents all
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266 symbols from automatically being exported.
267
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268* Add support for the Renesas RX processor.
269
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270* Add support for alpha-vms target.
271
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272Changes in 2.20:
273
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274* GNU/Linux targets now support the STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbol binding. This is a
275 GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. The binding will
276 be passed on to the dynamic linker which will make sure that in the entire
277 process there is just one symbol with the given name and type in use.
ce11ba6c 278
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279* PE targets now support a GNU extension to allow the alignment of common
280 common symbols to be specified. This support uses custom options in
281 the .drectve section, which will be disregarded by the native tools.
282
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283* PE targets now add primitive support for ELF version scripts; symbols
284 are not versioned, but the local and global symbol visibility directives
285 are respected when filtering symbols in auto-export mode.
286
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287* New option --no-export-dynamic to undo the effect of the -E and
288 --export-dynamic options.
289
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290* ELF: --warn-alternate-em option to warn if an object has alternate
291 ELF machine code.
292
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293* New script function REGION_ALIAS to add alias names to memory regions.
294
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295* PE targets no longer make use of the long section names PE extension to
296 the COFF format when generating executable images, by default. The old
297 (slightly non-conformant) behaviour can still be invoked by using the
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298 new '--enable-long-section-names' command-line option. It is also enabled
299 automatically in the presence of un-stripped debug information, as GDB
300 needs to be able to find the debug info sections by their full names.
88183869 301
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302* For GNU/Linux systems the linker will now avoid processing any relocations
303 made against symbols of the STT_GNU_IFUNC type and instead emit them into
304 the resulting binary for processing by the loader.
305
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306* --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
307 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
308 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
309 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
310
a05a5b64 311* Add a new command-line option, -Ttext-segment ADDR, for ELF targets
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312 to set the address of the first byte of the text segment.
313
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314* Add support for Sunplus score architecture.
315
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316* Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to ld for PE targets to
317 allow fallback to old import table generation with null element prefix.
318
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319* Windows PE systems now support a new --exclude-modules-for-implib option,
320 allowing users to partition object files and archive members between a DLL
321 and its associated import library as they are generated during linking.
322
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323* Add support for Lattice Mico32 (lm32) architecture.
324
62655c7b 325* Add CR16 ELF --embedded-relocs (used to embedded relocations into binaries
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326 for Embedded-PIC code) option.
327
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328* Add to the PE/PE+ targets the support of two different kinds of
329 pseudo-relocations. They can be selected by the switches
330 --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v1 and --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc-v2.
331 For the switch --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc it uses for 32-bit
332 runtime pseudo relocation version one, for 64-bit the version two.
333
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334Changes in 2.19:
335
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336* Linker scripts support a new INSERT command that makes it easier to
337 augment the default script.
338
967928e9 339* Linker script input section filespecs may now specify a file within an
66c103b7 340 archive by writing "archive:file".
967928e9 341
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342* The --sort-common switch now has an optional argument which specifies the
343 direction of sorting.
344
7fb9f789 345* The M68K linker now supports multiple GOT generation schemes controlled via
a05a5b64 346 the --got=<type> command-line option.
7fb9f789 347
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348* The ARM EABI linker will now generate stubs for function calls to symbols
349 that are too far away. The placement of the stubs is controlled by a new
a05a5b64 350 linker command-line option: --stub-group-size=N.
726150b7 351
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352Changes in 2.18:
353
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354* Linker sources now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public
355 License.
356
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357* ELF: New --build-id option to generate a unique per-binary identifier
358 embedded in a note section.
359
3d3d428f 360* Added support for National Semicondutor CompactRISC (ie CR16) target.
a19bcec6 361
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362* -l:foo now searches the library path for a filename called foo,
363 without converting it to libfoo.a or libfoo.so.
364
a05a5b64 365* Add a new command-line option '--default-script=FILE' or '-dT FILE'
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366 which specifies a replacement for the built in, default linker
367 script.
368
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369* ELF: Add -Bsymbolic-functions, --dynamic-list-cpp-new, which puts C++
370 operator new and delete on the dynamic list, and --dynamic-list-data,
371 builtin list for --dynamic-list, which puts global data symbols on the
372 dynamic list.
373
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374* Add support for x86_64 PE+ target.
375
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376* Add support for Score target.
377
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378* ELF: Add --dynamic-list option to specify a list of global symbols
379 whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the
380 shared library, or a list of symbols which should be added to the
381 symbol table in the executable.
382
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383* The default output section LMA has changed for allocatable sections from
384 being equal to VMA, to keeping the difference between LMA and VMA the same as
385 the previous output section in the same region. This is a more useful
386 default when using overlays and other cases where you specify an LMA
387 differing from the VMA for some sections.
388
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389* New switch: --print-gc-sections to list any sections removed by garabge
390 collection.
391
c6dd86c6 392* ARM: Added --vfp11-denorm-fix option to work around an erratum in current
f96b4a7b 393 VFP11 coprocessors.
c6dd86c6 394
c17d87de 395Changes in 2.17:
cf88bb9f 396
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397* Support for the Infineon XC16X has been added by KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
398
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399* Modify the Linux linker search order to better match ld.so search order.
400 Look for DT_NEEDED libraries in paths specified by ld.so.conf before
401 searching the default directories, rather than vice versa.
402 Use $prefix/etc/ld.so.conf if it exists, otherwise /etc/ld.so.conf.
c1446dba 403
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404* PE-COFF: Forward exports from DLL's can now be specified in .def files
405 passed directly to ld.
406
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407* Support for the Z80 processor family has been added.
408
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409* Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command line, so that extra
410 switches can be read from <file>.
411
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412Changes in 2.16:
413
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414* Support for the R_ARM_V4BX relocation as defined in the ARM AAELF
415 specification has been added via the --fix-v4bx command-line option.
416
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417* New linker script construct AS_NEEDED(), which sets the --as-needed flag
418 for input files listed inside of it.
419
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420* A new command-line option, --sysroot, can be used to override the
421 default sysroot location. It only applies to toolchains that were
422 configured using --with-sysroot.
423
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424* New linker script functions: ORIGIN() and LENGTH() which return information
425 about a specified memory region.
426
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427* Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
428
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429* Added SEGMENT_START to the linker script language to permit the user to
430 override the base address for a segment from the command-line.
431
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432* ELF: --warn-shared-textrel option to warn if adding a DT_TEXTREL to a shared
433 object.
434
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435* Added SORT_BY_NAME and SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT to the linker script
436 language to permit sorting sections by section name or section
437 maximum alignment.
438
a05a5b64 439* Added a new linker command-line switch, --sort-section name|alignment,
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440 to sort sections by section name or maximum alignment.
441
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442* ELF: --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag
443 should be added when a shared library comes from DT_NEEDED tags.
14b3c463 444
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445* Support for the crx-elf target added.
446
1a320fbb 447* Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
1fe1f39c 448
a05a5b64 449* A new linker command-line switch has been added which allows the hash table
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450 size to be set to a suitable prime value near to its argument. This switch
451 is --hash-size=<NUMBER>. Also if the switch --reduce-memory-overheads is
452 used, and --hash-size has not been used, then the default value will be set
453 to 1021.
454
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455* Linker map files are now generated with an O(N) algorithm for finding symbols
456 that are defined in each section. This uses about 40% more memory for
457 symbols than the old O(N^2) algorithm. You can use the new
458 --reduce-memory-overheads option to select the old algorithm; this option
459 might also be used in the future to select similar tradeoffs.
460
2d643429 461Changes in 2.15:
14b3c463 462
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463* ELF: --as-needed/--no-as-needed options to control if a DT_NEEDED tag should
464 be added only when a shared library is referenced.
c0065db7 465
8fdd7217 466* PE: --large-address-aware option to indicate executables support virtual
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467 addresses greater than 2 gigabytes.
468
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469* DWARF 2 support for i386pe added.
470
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471* The linker script operator DEFINED() will now yield 1 only for a symbol that
472 is defined before the statement where DEFINED is used.
473
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474* The MIPS --embedded-relocs (used to embed relocations into binaries for
475 Embedded-PIC code) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
476
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477* cr16c support added by NSC.
478
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479* m32r Linux (ELF) support added by Renesas.
480
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481* Improved linker's handling of unresolved symbols. The switch
482 --unresolved-symbols=<method> has been added to tell the linker when it
483 should report them and the switch --warn-unresolved-symbols has been added to
484 make reports be issued as warning messages rather than errors.
485
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486Changes in 2.14:
487
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488* Added support for Xtensa architecture.
489
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490* Added --with-sysroot configure switch to specify a target system root, for
491 linking against a target filesystem image.
492
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493* Added --accept-unknown-linker-format to restore old linker behaviour (pre
494 2.14) of silently accepting and linking in any files in an unknown binary
495 file format.
496
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497* Added --no-omagic to undo the effects of the -N option.
498
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499* Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
500 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
c0065db7 501
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502* Added --with-lib-path configure switch to specify default value for
503 LIB_PATH.
504
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505* ARM port to QNX operating system added by Graeme Peterson.
506
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507* IP2K support added by Denis Chertykov.
508
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509Changes in 2.13:
510
511* Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
512 and FR500 included.
7d553a40 513
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514Changes in version 2.13:
515
516* DEC VAX ELF support, by Matt Thomas.
517
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518Changes in version 2.12:
519
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520* Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
521
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522* Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
523
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524* Support for -z nocopyreloc in the x86 ELF linker, which disables
525 production of copy relocs. Warning: using this option may result in
526 non-sharable applications.
5b343f5a 527
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528* Support for -z combreloc in the ELF linker, which puts dynamic
529 relocations against the same symbol together, so that dynamic linker
530 can use an one-entry symbol lookup cache.
531
532* Support for ELF SHF_MERGE section merging, by Jakub Jelinek.
533
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534Changes in version 2.11:
535
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536* Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
537
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538* Support added for eliminating duplicate DWARF2 debug information by
539 having the compiler generate the information in sections called
540 .gnu.linkonce.wi.XXXX where XXXX is a checksum for the contents. The
541 linker then merges these sections together into the normal .debug_info
542 section.
252b5132 543
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544* The native ELF linker now searches the directories in DT_RUNPATH or
545 DT_RPATH of a shared library for shared libraries needed by it.
546
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547* TI C54x support, by Timothy Wall.
548
a05a5b64 549* Added command-line switch --section-start to set the start address of any
c0065db7 550 specified section.
176355da 551
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552* Added ability to emit full relocation information in linked executables,
553 enabled by --emit-relocs. Some post-linkage optimization tools need
554 this information in order to be able to correctly identify and perform
555 symbol relative addressing in the event of changes in section contents
556 (instructions being added or deleted, extending data sections, etc.)
557
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558* Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt (preliminary, alpha quality).
559
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560* Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
561
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562* Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
563
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564Changes in version 2.10:
565
c0065db7 566* Added AT> to the linker script language to allow load-time allocation of
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567 sections into regions.
568
c0065db7 569* Added garbage collection of unused sections, enabled by --gc-sections.
252b5132 570 It does require a bit of backend support; currently implemented are
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571 arm-elf, avr-elf, d10v-elf, fr30-elf, i386-elf, m32r-elf, m68k-elf,
572 mcore-elf, mips-elf, mn10300-elf, ppc-elf, sh-elf, sparc-elf, and v850-elf.
987fd5b4 573 Others will ignore the option.
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574
575* Added SORT to the linker script language to permit sorting sections by file
576 name or section name.
577
578* Added EXTERN to the linker script language as an equivalent to the -u
579 command-line option.
580
581* Added ASSERT to the linker script language.
582
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583* Added EXCLUDE_FILE to the linker script language for further control over
584 wildcard file names.
585
252b5132 586* Added -O option to optimize linker output (as of this writing, this only
500800ca 587 affects ELF shared library generation).
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588
589* The -e option now accepts a number as well as a symbol name.
590
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591* Added --no-undefined option to disallow undefined symbols when creating a
592 shared library.
593
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594* The linker now issues a warning, not an error, for an undefined symbol when
595 using -Bsymbolic; use the new --no-undefined option to get the old
596 behaviour.
597
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598* Added --demangle and --no-demangle options.
599
600Changes in version 2.9:
601
602* Added SQUAD to the linker script language.
603
604* New option --no-warn-mismatch.
605
606* The MEMORY command now parses the attributes to determine where sections that
607 are not placed in a specific memory region are placed.
608
609Changes in version 2.8:
610
611* Linker scripts may now contain shell wildcard characters for file and section
612 names.
613
614* The linker now supports symbol versions in ELF.
615
616* The NOCROSSREFS command was added to the linker script language.
617
618* The LOADADDR expression was added to the linker script language.
619
620* MAX and MIN functions were added to the linker script language.
621
622* The OVERLAY construct was added to the linker script language.
623
624* New option --warn-section-align to warn when the address of an output section
625 changes due to alignment of an input section.
626
627* New options --filter/-F and --auxiliary/-f.
628
629Changes in version 2.7:
630
631* New option --cref to print out a cross reference table.
632
633* New option --wrap SYMBOL.
634
635* New option --no-whole-archive, to turn off the effect of --whole-archive.
636
637* Input sections assigned to the output section /DISCARD/ in the linker script
638 are not included in the output file.
639
640* The SunOS and ELF linkers now merge stabs debugging information which uses
641 the N_BINCL and N_EINCL stab types. This reduces the amount of debugging
642 information generated.
643
644Changes in version 2.6:
645
646* When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
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647of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
648__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
649beginning and the end of the section. This is used by glibc.
650
651 Addendum: Current versions of the linker (at least for version 2.18 onwards
652and possibly much earlier as well) place two restrictions on this feature: The
653symbols are only implemented for orphaned sections, not for explicitly placed
654sections and they are PROVIDEd rather than being defined.
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655
656* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
657contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is
658not copied into the output file. This is used by glibc.
659
660* When an ELF section named .gnu.warning.SYMBOL is encountered in an input
661file, and the symbol SYMBOL is referenced by some object file, the contents of
662the section are displayed as an error message. The section is not copied into
1049f94e 663the output file, unless doing a relocatable or shared link. This is used by
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664glibc.
665
666* New options -split-by-reloc and -split-by-file.
667
668* The linker now supports linking PIC compiled code on SPARC SunOS. It can
669also create SPARC SunOS shared libraries, and, like the native SunOS linker,
670will do so whenever there is an undefined symbol in the link and neither the -e
671nor the -r option was used.
672
673* The -rpath option may be used on SunOS to set the list of directories to be
674searched at run time. This overrides the default of building the list from the
675-L options.
676
677* The COFF linker now combines debugging information for structs, unions, and
678enums, so that even if the same type is defined in multiple input files it will
679only be defined once in the output file. The --traditional-format switch will
680prevent this optimization.
681
682Changes in version 2.5:
683
684* The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries. It still can
685not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
07f3b6ad 686generate shared libraries.
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687
688* The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
689(UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris). It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
690used to generate shared libraries. Shared library generation is not well
691tested; please report any problems encountered. The linker is now enabled for
692Solaris again.
693
694* Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
695Linux a.out shared libraries. The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
696
697* The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code. To use the new
698ELF linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So far,
699this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) MIPS (Irix
7005), and HPPA ELF targets.
701
702* The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
703support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
704This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
705
706* When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
707it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
708file. A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
709default linker script.
710
711* The -warn-once option was added. It causes the linker to only warn once per
712undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
713
714* The COFF backend has been converted to the new linker code. As with ELF, to
715use the new linker, each particular target requires a relocation function. So
716far, this function has been written for the i386, m68k, a29k and SH targets.
717
718* The -V flag was made a synonym for -v, for SVR4 compatibility. The old -V
719behaviour is available via --verbose.
720
721Changes in version 2.4:
722
723* New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor. For a.out and ecoff
724 formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
725 and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
726 before for formats not converted yet.
727
728* Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex. This means
729 oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
730 separators.
731
732* HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law. (No SOM support yet.)
733
734* Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
735
736* Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
737 libraries are not yet supported).
738
739* COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
740
741* The linker is disabled for Solaris. (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
742 forgot to note it.) Some of their C library routines don't work when
743 statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
744
745Changes in version 2.3:
746
747* Weak symbols are now supported.
748
749* ELF support has been added. The linker has been bootstrapped on
750 UnixWare and Solaris.
751
752* Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
753
754Changes in version 2.2:
755
756* The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
757 table size. The effect of this is that files linked from many input
758 files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
759 static symbols) should be much smaller.
760
761Changes in version 2.1:
762
763* The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
764
765* There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
766 other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
767
768\f
82704155 769Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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770
771Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
772are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
773notice and this notice are preserved.
774
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775Local variables:
776fill-column: 79
777End: