binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
   4   dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
   5   (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
   6   __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
   7
   8 * Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
   9   to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
  10
  11 * Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
  12   symbol names.  In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
  13   --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
  14
  15 Changes in 2.35:
  16
  17 * Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
  18   If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
  19   replaced with "[...]".  The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
  20   not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
  21   -T or --silent-truncation options.
  22
  23 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
  24
  25 * The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
  26   on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
  27   These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
  28   the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
  29   was expecting them to actually contain something.
  30
  31 Changes in 2.34:
  32
  33 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
  34   ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
  35   debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
  36   servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
  37   To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
  38   This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
  39   is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
  40   information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
  41
  42 * Add --output option to the "ar" program.  This option can be used to specify
  43   the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
  44
  45 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip.  This option keeps the
  46   specified section from being removed.
  47
  48  * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
  49    graph between the address and the disassembler column.  Enabled via the
  50    --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump.  Currently supported by
  51    the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets.  The output looks something like this:
  52
  53   c6:   |  |     \----------> be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  54   cb:   |  |           /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00      mov    0x0(%rip),%rdi        # d2 <main+0xd2>
  55   d2:   |  |           |      31 c0                     xor    %eax,%eax
  56   d4:   |  |           |  /-- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  d9 <main+0xd9>
  57   d9:   |  |           |  \-> bf 02 00 00 00            mov    $0x2,%edi
  58   de:   |  +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  e3 <main+0xe3>
  59   e3:   |  \-----------|----> 48 89 da                  mov    %rbx,%rdx
  60   e6:   |              |      be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  61   eb:   |              \----- eb de                     jmp    cb <main+0xcb>
  62   ed:   \-------------------> 48 8b 16                  mov    (%rsi),%rdx
  63
  64   Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
  65   output.
  66
  67 Changes in 2.33:
  68
  69 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
  70   provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
  71
  72 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
  73   the changing of section alignments.
  74
  75 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
  76   width of data elements in verilog hex format.
  77
  78 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
  79   instructions.
  80
  81 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
  82   and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
  83   --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
  84   more than one are present in a file.  (This usually happens when gcc's
  85   -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
  86
  87   In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
  88   display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
  89   cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
  90   displayed.  In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
  91   follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
  92   files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
  93
  94  * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
  95    to objdump and readelf.
  96
  97 Changes in 2.32:
  98
  99 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
 100   maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
 101   The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
 102   constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file.  At the time
 103   of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
 104
 105   The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
 106   the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools.  This may be needed in
 107   order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
 108   vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
 109
 110 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
 111   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
 112   symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
 113
 114 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
 115   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
 116   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
 117   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
 118
 119 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
 120   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
 121   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
 122   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
 123
 124 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
 125   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
 126   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
 127   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
 128   compatibility.
 129
 130 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'.  The
 131   results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
 132   except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
 133   Additionally the total is only included once.
 134
 135 Changes in 2.31:
 136
 137 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
 138
 139 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
 140   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
 141   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
 142   to objdump.
 143
 144 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
 145   a named register could be invalid.
 146
 147 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
 148
 149 Changes in 2.30:
 150
 151 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
 152   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
 153   sections.
 154
 155   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
 156   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
 157   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
 158
 159 Changes in 2.29:
 160
 161 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
 162   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
 163
 164 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
 165   disassembly.
 166
 167 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
 168   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
 169   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
 170
 171 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
 172   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
 173
 174 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
 175
 176 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
 177
 178 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
 179
 180 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
 181   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
 182
 183 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
 184   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
 185
 186 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
 187   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
 188   the original file.
 189
 190 Changes in 2.28:
 191
 192 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
 193   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
 194   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
 195   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
 196   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
 197   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
 198   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
 199   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
 200   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
 201   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
 202   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
 203   with the instructions being relocated.
 204
 205 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
 206   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
 207   symbol's name.
 208
 209 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
 210   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
 211
 212 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 213   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 214   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 215   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 216
 217 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 218   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 219   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 220   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 221
 222 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 223   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 224   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 225   the relocation section itself.
 226
 227 Changes in 2.27:
 228
 229 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 230   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 231
 232 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 233   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 234
 235 Changes in 2.26:
 236
 237 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 238   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 239
 240 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 241
 242 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 243   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 244   targets.
 245
 246 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 247
 248 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 249
 250 Changes in 2.25:
 251
 252 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 253   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 254   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 255   default behaviour.
 256
 257 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 258
 259 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 260
 261 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 262
 263 Changes in 2.24:
 264
 265 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 266   section names.
 267
 268 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 269
 270 Changes in 2.23:
 271
 272 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 273
 274 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 275
 276 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 277
 278 Changes in 2.22:
 279
 280 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 281
 282 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 283   passed to preprocessor.
 284
 285 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 286   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 287
 288 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 289
 290 changes in 2.21:
 291
 292 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 293   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 294
 295 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 296
 297 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 298   the -u / --unwind option.
 299
 300 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 301
 302 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 303   binaries.
 304
 305 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 306   '== <ID>' option.
 307
 308 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 309   address before function name or source filename.
 310
 311 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 312   a more human readable output.
 313
 314 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 315
 316 Changes in 2.20:
 317
 318 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 319   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 320   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 321   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 322   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 323
 324 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 325   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 326   instructions.
 327
 328 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 329   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 330
 331 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 332   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 333   file.
 334
 335 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 336   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 337
 338 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 339   for objcopy.
 340
 341 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 342   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 343   set PE optional header.
 344
 345 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 346
 347 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 348   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 349   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 350   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 351
 352 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 353   add absolute paths for -S.
 354
 355 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 356   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 357
 358 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 359   report an error when the import library is associated with
 360   multiple DLLs.
 361
 362 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 363   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 364
 365 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 366   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 367   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 368
 369 Changes in 2.19:
 370
 371 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 372
 373 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 374   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 375   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 376   added to the archive.
 377
 378 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 379
 380 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 381
 382 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 383
 384 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 385
 386 Changes in 2.18:
 387
 388 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 389   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 390   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 391
 392 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 393   Public License.
 394
 395 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 396   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 397
 398 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 399   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 400   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 401   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 402   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 403   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 404
 405 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 406   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 407   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 408   to some OSes.
 409
 410 Changes in 2.17:
 411
 412 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 413
 414 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 415   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 416   of types.
 417
 418 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 419   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 420
 421 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 422   debug sections.
 423
 424 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 425   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 426
 427 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 428   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 429   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 430   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 431
 432 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 433   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 434
 435 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 436
 437 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 438   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 439
 440 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 441   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 442
 443 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 444   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 445
 446 Changes in 2.16:
 447
 448 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 449
 450 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 451   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 452   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 453   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 454
 455 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 456   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 457   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 458   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 459
 460 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 461   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 462   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 463   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 464   between ARM and THUMB code.
 465
 466 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 467   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 468
 469 Changes in 2.15:
 470
 471 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 472   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 473   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 474   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 475
 476 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 477   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 478
 479 * readelf can now parse archives.
 480
 481 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 482   format compatible with ctags tool.
 483
 484 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 485   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 486   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 487   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 488   debugging info.
 489
 490 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 491   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 492   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 493
 494 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 495   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 496   with the -a switch.
 497
 498 Changes in 2.14:
 499
 500 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 501
 502 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 503
 504 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 505
 506 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 507   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 508
 509 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 510   Parallel C compiler.
 511
 512 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 513   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 514   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 515
 516 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 517
 518 Changes in 2.13:
 519
 520 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 521   and FR500 included.
 522
 523 Changes in version 2.12:
 524
 525 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 526
 527 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 528
 529 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 530   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 531
 532 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 533
 534 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 535
 536 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 537   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 538
 539 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 540   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 541   by Honda Hiroki.
 542
 543 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 544
 545 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 546   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 547   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 548
 549 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 550   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 551   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 552   By Stefan Geuken.
 553
 554 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 555
 556 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 557
 558 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 559   extenstions.
 560
 561 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 562   By Luciano Gemme.
 563
 564 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 565
 566 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 567
 568 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 569
 570 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 571
 572 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 573
 574 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 575   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 576   file.
 577
 578 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 579   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 580   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 581   raw verions.
 582
 583 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 584   with intel syntax.
 585
 586 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 587   regardless of target machine.
 588
 589 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 590   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 591   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 592   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 593
 594 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 595
 596 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 597   sections.
 598
 599 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 600
 601 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 602   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 603
 604 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 605
 606 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 607   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 608
 609 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 610   the VMA of the sections.
 611
 612 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 613
 614 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 615
 616 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 617   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 618   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 619   output.
 620
 621 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 622   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 623   so they must be in canonical form.
 624
 625 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 626   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 627
 628 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 629
 630 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 631
 632 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 633
 634 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 635
 636 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 637
 638 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 639
 640 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 641
 642 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 643
 644 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 645
 646 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 647
 648 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 649
 650 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 651
 652 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 653
 654 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 655
 656 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 657
 658 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 659
 660 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 661
 662 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 663   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 664   generating plain binary files.
 665
 666 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 667
 668 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 669
 670 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 671
 672 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 673   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 674
 675 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 676   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 677
 678 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 679
 680 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 681   executables.
 682
 683 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 684
 685 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 686   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 687
 688 * Support for Irix 5.
 689
 690 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 691   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 692
 693 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 694
 695 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 696   ELF and COFF files.
 697
 698 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 699   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 700
 701 * The strings program has been added.
 702
 703 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 704
 705 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 706   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 707   'cp'.
 708
 709 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 710   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 711   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 712
 713 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 714   the output from BSD nm.
 715
 716 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 717
 718 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 719
 720 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 721
 722 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 723
 724 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 725
 726 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 727
 728 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 729   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 730
 731 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 732   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 733   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 734   for Posix.2 conformance.
 735
 736 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 737   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 738   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 739
 740 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 741   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 742
 743 \f
 744 Copyright (C) 2012-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 745
 746 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 747 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 748 notice and this notice are preserved.
 749
 750 Local variables:
 751 fill-column: 79
 752 End: