binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
   4
   5 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
   6   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
   7
   8 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
   9   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
  10   by Honda Hiroki.
  11
  12 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
  13
  14 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
  15   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
  16   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
  17
  18 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
  19   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
  20   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
  21   By Stefan Geuken.
  22
  23 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
  24
  25 Changes in binutils 2.11:
  26
  27 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
  28   extenstions.
  29
  30 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
  31   By Luciano Gemme.
  32
  33 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
  34
  35 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  36
  37 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  38
  39 Changes in binutils 2.10:
  40
  41 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
  42
  43 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
  44   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
  45   file.
  46
  47 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
  48   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
  49   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
  50   raw verions.
  51
  52 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
  53   with intel syntax.
  54
  55 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
  56   regardless of target machine.
  57
  58 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
  59   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
  60   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
  61   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
  62
  63 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
  64
  65 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
  66   sections.
  67
  68 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
  69
  70 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
  71   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
  72
  73 Changes in binutils 2.9:
  74
  75 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
  76   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
  77
  78 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
  79   the VMA of the sections.
  80
  81 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
  82
  83 Changes in binutils 2.8:
  84
  85 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
  86   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
  87   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
  88   output.
  89
  90 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
  91   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
  92   so they must be in canonical form.
  93
  94 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
  95   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
  96
  97 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
  98
  99 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 100
 101 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 102
 103 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 104
 105 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 106
 107 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 108
 109 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 110
 111 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 112
 113 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 114
 115 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 116
 117 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 118
 119 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 120
 121 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 122
 123 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 124
 125 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 126
 127 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 128
 129 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 130
 131 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 132   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 133   generating plain binary files.
 134
 135 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 136
 137 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 138
 139 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 140
 141 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 142   listing, for a more useful listing of relocateable files.
 143
 144 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 145   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 146
 147 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 148
 149 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 150   executables.
 151
 152 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 153
 154 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 155   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 156
 157 * Support for Irix 5.
 158
 159 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 160   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 161
 162 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 163
 164 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 165   ELF and COFF files.
 166
 167 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 168   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 169
 170 * The strings program has been added.
 171
 172 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 173
 174 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 175   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 176   'cp'.
 177
 178 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 179   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 180   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 181
 182 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 183   the output from BSD nm.
 184
 185 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 186
 187 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 188
 189 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 190
 191 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 192
 193 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 194
 195 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 196
 197 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 198   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 199
 200 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 201   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 202   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 203   for Posix.2 conformance.
 204
 205 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 206   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 207   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 208
 209 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 210   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 211
 212 \f
 213 Local variables:
 214 fill-column: 79
 215 End: