binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
   4   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
   5   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
   6   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
   7
   8 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
   9   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
  10   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
  11   the contents of the .debug_range section.
  12
  13 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
  14   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
  15   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
  16   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
  17   between ARM and THUMB code.
  18
  19 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  20   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  21
  22 Changes in 2.15:
  23
  24 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  25   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  26
  27 * readelf can now parse archives.
  28
  29 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  30   format compatible with ctags tool.
  31
  32 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  33   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  34   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  35   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  36   debugging info.
  37
  38 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  39   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  40   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  41
  42 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  43   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  44   with the -a switch.
  45
  46 Changes in 2.14:
  47
  48 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  49
  50 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  51
  52 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  53
  54 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  55   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  56
  57 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  58   Parallel C compiler.
  59
  60 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  61   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  62   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  63
  64 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  65
  66 Changes in 2.13:
  67
  68 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  69   and FR500 included.
  70
  71 Changes in version 2.12:
  72
  73 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  74
  75 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
  76
  77 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
  78   lines to fit into 80 columns.
  79
  80 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
  81
  82 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
  83
  84 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
  85   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
  86
  87 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
  88   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
  89   by Honda Hiroki.
  90
  91 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
  92
  93 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
  94   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
  95   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
  96
  97 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
  98   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
  99   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 100   By Stefan Geuken.
 101
 102 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 103
 104 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 105
 106 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 107   extenstions.
 108
 109 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 110   By Luciano Gemme.
 111
 112 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 113
 114 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 115
 116 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 117
 118 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 119
 120 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 121
 122 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 123   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 124   file.
 125
 126 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 127   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 128   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 129   raw verions.
 130
 131 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 132   with intel syntax.
 133
 134 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 135   regardless of target machine.
 136
 137 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 138   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 139   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 140   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 141
 142 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 143
 144 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 145   sections.
 146
 147 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 148
 149 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 150   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 151
 152 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 153
 154 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 155   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 156
 157 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 158   the VMA of the sections.
 159
 160 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 161
 162 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 163
 164 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 165   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 166   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 167   output.
 168
 169 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 170   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 171   so they must be in canonical form.
 172
 173 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 174   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 175
 176 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 177
 178 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 179
 180 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 181
 182 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 183
 184 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 185
 186 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 187
 188 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 189
 190 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 191
 192 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 193
 194 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 195
 196 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 197
 198 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 199
 200 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 201
 202 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 203
 204 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 205
 206 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 207
 208 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 209
 210 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 211   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 212   generating plain binary files.
 213
 214 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 215
 216 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 217
 218 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 219
 220 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 221   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 222
 223 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 224   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 225
 226 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 227
 228 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 229   executables.
 230
 231 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 232
 233 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 234   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 235
 236 * Support for Irix 5.
 237
 238 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 239   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 240
 241 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 242
 243 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 244   ELF and COFF files.
 245
 246 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 247   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 248
 249 * The strings program has been added.
 250
 251 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 252
 253 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 254   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 255   'cp'.
 256
 257 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 258   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 259   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 260
 261 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 262   the output from BSD nm.
 263
 264 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 265
 266 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 267
 268 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 269
 270 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 271
 272 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 273
 274 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 275
 276 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 277   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 278
 279 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 280   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 281   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 282   for Posix.2 conformance.
 283
 284 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 285   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 286   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 287
 288 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 289   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 290
 291 \f
 292 Local variables:
 293 fill-column: 79
 294 End: