binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
   4   If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
   5   replaced with "[...]".  The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
   6   not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
   7   -T or --silent-truncation options.
   8
   9 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
  10
  11 * The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
  12   on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
  13   These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
  14   the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
  15   was expecting them to actually contain something.
  16
  17 Changes in 2.34:
  18
  19 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
  20   ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
  21   debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
  22   servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
  23   To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
  24   This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
  25   is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
  26   information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
  27
  28 * Add --output option to the "ar" program.  This option can be used to specify
  29   the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
  30
  31 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip.  This option keeps the
  32   specified section from being removed.
  33
  34  * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
  35    graph between the address and the disassembler column.  Enabled via the
  36    --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump.  Currently supported by
  37    the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets.  The output looks something like this:
  38
  39   c6:   |  |     \----------> be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  40   cb:   |  |           /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00      mov    0x0(%rip),%rdi        # d2 <main+0xd2>
  41   d2:   |  |           |      31 c0                     xor    %eax,%eax
  42   d4:   |  |           |  /-- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  d9 <main+0xd9>
  43   d9:   |  |           |  \-> bf 02 00 00 00            mov    $0x2,%edi
  44   de:   |  +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  e3 <main+0xe3>
  45   e3:   |  \-----------|----> 48 89 da                  mov    %rbx,%rdx
  46   e6:   |              |      be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  47   eb:   |              \----- eb de                     jmp    cb <main+0xcb>
  48   ed:   \-------------------> 48 8b 16                  mov    (%rsi),%rdx
  49
  50   Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
  51   output.
  52
  53 Changes in 2.33:
  54
  55 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
  56   provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
  57
  58 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
  59   the changing of section alignments.
  60
  61 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
  62   width of data elements in verilog hex format.
  63
  64 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
  65   instructions.
  66
  67 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
  68   and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
  69   --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
  70   more than one are present in a file.  (This usually happens when gcc's
  71   -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
  72
  73   In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
  74   display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
  75   cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
  76   displayed.  In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
  77   follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
  78   files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
  79
  80  * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
  81    to objdump and readelf.
  82
  83 Changes in 2.32:
  84
  85 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
  86   maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
  87   The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
  88   constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file.  At the time
  89   of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
  90
  91   The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
  92   the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools.  This may be needed in
  93   order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
  94   vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
  95
  96 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
  97   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
  98   symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
  99
 100 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
 101   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
 102   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
 103   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
 104
 105 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
 106   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
 107   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
 108   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
 109
 110 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
 111   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
 112   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
 113   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
 114   compatibility.
 115
 116 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'.  The
 117   results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
 118   except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
 119   Additionally the total is only included once.
 120
 121 Changes in 2.31:
 122
 123 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
 124
 125 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
 126   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
 127   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
 128   to objdump.
 129
 130 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
 131   a named register could be invalid.
 132
 133 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
 134
 135 Changes in 2.30:
 136
 137 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
 138   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
 139   sections.
 140
 141   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
 142   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
 143   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
 144
 145 Changes in 2.29:
 146
 147 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
 148   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
 149
 150 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
 151   disassembly.
 152
 153 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
 154   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
 155   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
 156
 157 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
 158   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
 159
 160 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
 161
 162 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
 163
 164 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
 165
 166 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
 167   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
 168
 169 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
 170   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
 171
 172 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
 173   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
 174   the original file.
 175
 176 Changes in 2.28:
 177
 178 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
 179   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
 180   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
 181   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
 182   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
 183   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
 184   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
 185   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
 186   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
 187   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
 188   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
 189   with the instructions being relocated.
 190
 191 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
 192   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
 193   symbol's name.
 194
 195 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
 196   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
 197
 198 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 199   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 200   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 201   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 202
 203 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 204   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 205   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 206   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 207
 208 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 209   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 210   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 211   the relocation section itself.
 212
 213 Changes in 2.27:
 214
 215 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 216   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 217
 218 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 219   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 220
 221 Changes in 2.26:
 222
 223 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 224   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 225
 226 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 227
 228 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 229   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 230   targets.
 231
 232 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 233
 234 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 235
 236 Changes in 2.25:
 237
 238 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 239   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 240   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 241   default behaviour.
 242
 243 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 244
 245 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 246
 247 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 248
 249 Changes in 2.24:
 250
 251 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 252   section names.
 253
 254 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 255
 256 Changes in 2.23:
 257
 258 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 259
 260 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 261
 262 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 263
 264 Changes in 2.22:
 265
 266 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 267
 268 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 269   passed to preprocessor.
 270
 271 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 272   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 273
 274 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 275
 276 changes in 2.21:
 277
 278 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 279   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 280
 281 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 282
 283 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 284   the -u / --unwind option.
 285
 286 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 287
 288 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 289   binaries.
 290
 291 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 292   '== <ID>' option.
 293
 294 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 295   address before function name or source filename.
 296
 297 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 298   a more human readable output.
 299
 300 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 301
 302 Changes in 2.20:
 303
 304 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 305   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 306   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 307   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 308   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 309
 310 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 311   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 312   instructions.
 313
 314 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 315   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 316
 317 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 318   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 319   file.
 320
 321 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 322   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 323
 324 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 325   for objcopy.
 326
 327 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 328   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 329   set PE optional header.
 330
 331 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 332
 333 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 334   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 335   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 336   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 337
 338 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 339   add absolute paths for -S.
 340
 341 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 342   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 343
 344 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 345   report an error when the import library is associated with
 346   multiple DLLs.
 347
 348 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 349   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 350
 351 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 352   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 353   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 354
 355 Changes in 2.19:
 356
 357 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 358
 359 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 360   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 361   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 362   added to the archive.
 363
 364 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 365
 366 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 367
 368 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 369
 370 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 371
 372 Changes in 2.18:
 373
 374 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 375   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 376   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 377
 378 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 379   Public License.
 380
 381 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 382   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 383
 384 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 385   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 386   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 387   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 388   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 389   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 390
 391 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 392   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 393   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 394   to some OSes.
 395
 396 Changes in 2.17:
 397
 398 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 399
 400 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 401   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 402   of types.
 403
 404 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 405   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 406
 407 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 408   debug sections.
 409
 410 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 411   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 412
 413 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 414   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 415   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 416   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 417
 418 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 419   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 420
 421 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 422
 423 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 424   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 425
 426 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 427   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 428
 429 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 430   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 431
 432 Changes in 2.16:
 433
 434 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 435
 436 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 437   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 438   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 439   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 440
 441 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 442   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 443   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 444   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 445
 446 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 447   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 448   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 449   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 450   between ARM and THUMB code.
 451
 452 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 453   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 454
 455 Changes in 2.15:
 456
 457 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 458   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 459   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 460   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 461
 462 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 463   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 464
 465 * readelf can now parse archives.
 466
 467 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 468   format compatible with ctags tool.
 469
 470 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 471   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 472   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 473   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 474   debugging info.
 475
 476 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 477   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 478   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 479
 480 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 481   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 482   with the -a switch.
 483
 484 Changes in 2.14:
 485
 486 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 487
 488 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 489
 490 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 491
 492 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 493   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 494
 495 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 496   Parallel C compiler.
 497
 498 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 499   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 500   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 501
 502 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 503
 504 Changes in 2.13:
 505
 506 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 507   and FR500 included.
 508
 509 Changes in version 2.12:
 510
 511 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 512
 513 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 514
 515 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 516   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 517
 518 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 519
 520 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 521
 522 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 523   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 524
 525 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 526   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 527   by Honda Hiroki.
 528
 529 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 530
 531 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 532   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 533   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 534
 535 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 536   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 537   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 538   By Stefan Geuken.
 539
 540 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 541
 542 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 543
 544 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 545   extenstions.
 546
 547 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 548   By Luciano Gemme.
 549
 550 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 551
 552 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 553
 554 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 555
 556 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 557
 558 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 559
 560 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 561   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 562   file.
 563
 564 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 565   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 566   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 567   raw verions.
 568
 569 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 570   with intel syntax.
 571
 572 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 573   regardless of target machine.
 574
 575 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 576   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 577   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 578   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 579
 580 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 581
 582 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 583   sections.
 584
 585 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 586
 587 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 588   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 589
 590 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 591
 592 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 593   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 594
 595 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 596   the VMA of the sections.
 597
 598 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 599
 600 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 601
 602 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 603   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 604   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 605   output.
 606
 607 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 608   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 609   so they must be in canonical form.
 610
 611 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 612   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 613
 614 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 615
 616 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 617
 618 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 619
 620 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 621
 622 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 623
 624 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 625
 626 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 627
 628 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 629
 630 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 631
 632 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 633
 634 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 635
 636 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 637
 638 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 639
 640 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 641
 642 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 643
 644 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 645
 646 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 647
 648 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 649   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 650   generating plain binary files.
 651
 652 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 653
 654 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 655
 656 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 657
 658 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 659   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 660
 661 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 662   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 663
 664 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 665
 666 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 667   executables.
 668
 669 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 670
 671 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 672   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 673
 674 * Support for Irix 5.
 675
 676 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 677   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 678
 679 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 680
 681 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 682   ELF and COFF files.
 683
 684 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 685   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 686
 687 * The strings program has been added.
 688
 689 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 690
 691 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 692   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 693   'cp'.
 694
 695 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 696   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 697   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 698
 699 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 700   the output from BSD nm.
 701
 702 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 703
 704 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 705
 706 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 707
 708 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 709
 710 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 711
 712 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 713
 714 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 715   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 716
 717 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 718   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 719   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 720   for Posix.2 conformance.
 721
 722 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 723   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 724   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 725
 726 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 727   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 728
 729 \f
 730 Copyright (C) 2012-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 731
 732 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 733 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 734 notice and this notice are preserved.
 735
 736 Local variables:
 737 fill-column: 79
 738 End: