binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
   4 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
   5
   6 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
   7   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
   8   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
   9   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
  10
  11 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
  12   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
  13
  14 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
  15
  16 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
  17   when disassembling VAX binaries.
  18
  19 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
  20   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
  21
  22 Changes in 2.16:
  23
  24 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
  25
  26 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
  27   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
  28   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
  29   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
  30
  31 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
  32   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
  33   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
  34   the contents of the .debug_range section.
  35
  36 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
  37   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
  38   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
  39   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
  40   between ARM and THUMB code.
  41
  42 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  43   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  44
  45 Changes in 2.15:
  46
  47 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
  48   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
  49   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
  50   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
  51
  52 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  53   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  54
  55 * readelf can now parse archives.
  56
  57 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  58   format compatible with ctags tool.
  59
  60 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  61   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  62   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  63   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  64   debugging info.
  65
  66 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  67   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  68   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  69
  70 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  71   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  72   with the -a switch.
  73
  74 Changes in 2.14:
  75
  76 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  77
  78 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
  79
  80 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
  81
  82 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
  83   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
  84
  85 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
  86   Parallel C compiler.
  87
  88 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
  89   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
  90   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
  91
  92 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
  93
  94 Changes in 2.13:
  95
  96 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  97   and FR500 included.
  98
  99 Changes in version 2.12:
 100
 101 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 102
 103 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 104
 105 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 106   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 107
 108 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 109
 110 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 111
 112 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 113   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 114
 115 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 116   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 117   by Honda Hiroki.
 118
 119 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 120
 121 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 122   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 123   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 124
 125 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 126   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 127   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 128   By Stefan Geuken.
 129
 130 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 131
 132 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 133
 134 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 135   extenstions.
 136
 137 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 138   By Luciano Gemme.
 139
 140 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 141
 142 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 143
 144 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 145
 146 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 147
 148 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 149
 150 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 151   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 152   file.
 153
 154 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 155   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 156   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 157   raw verions.
 158
 159 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 160   with intel syntax.
 161
 162 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 163   regardless of target machine.
 164
 165 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 166   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 167   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 168   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 169
 170 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 171
 172 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 173   sections.
 174
 175 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 176
 177 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 178   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 179
 180 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 181
 182 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 183   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 184
 185 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 186   the VMA of the sections.
 187
 188 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 189
 190 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 191
 192 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 193   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 194   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 195   output.
 196
 197 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 198   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 199   so they must be in canonical form.
 200
 201 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 202   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 203
 204 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 205
 206 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 207
 208 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 209
 210 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 211
 212 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 213
 214 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 215
 216 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 217
 218 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 219
 220 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 221
 222 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 223
 224 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 225
 226 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 227
 228 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 229
 230 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 231
 232 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 233
 234 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 235
 236 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 237
 238 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 239   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 240   generating plain binary files.
 241
 242 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 243
 244 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 245
 246 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 247
 248 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 249   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 250
 251 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 252   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 253
 254 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 255
 256 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 257   executables.
 258
 259 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 260
 261 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 262   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 263
 264 * Support for Irix 5.
 265
 266 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 267   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 268
 269 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 270
 271 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 272   ELF and COFF files.
 273
 274 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 275   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 276
 277 * The strings program has been added.
 278
 279 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 280
 281 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 282   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 283   'cp'.
 284
 285 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 286   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 287   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 288
 289 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 290   the output from BSD nm.
 291
 292 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 293
 294 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 295
 296 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 297
 298 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 299
 300 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 301
 302 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 303
 304 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 305   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 306
 307 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 308   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 309   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 310   for Posix.2 conformance.
 311
 312 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 313   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 314   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 315
 316 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 317   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 318
 319 \f
 320 Local variables:
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 322 End: