binutils/NEWS

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