binutils/NEWS

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