dllwrap, windres and dlltools use mktemp, which should be avoided
[binutils-gdb.git] / binutils / NEWS
1 -*- text -*-
2
3 * The dlltool program now accepts --deterministic-libraries and
4 --non-deterministic-libraries as command line options to control whether or
5 not it generates deterministic output libraries. If neither of these options
6 are used the default is whatever was set when the binutils were configured.
7
8 Changes in 2.39:
9
10 * Add --no-weak/-W option to nm to make it ignore weak symbols.
11
12 * Add an option to objdump and readelf to prevent attempts to access debuginfod
13 servers when following links.
14
15 * objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol, and --weaken-symbols now make ELF
16 STB_GNU_UNIQUE symbols weak.
17
18 * objdump now supports syntax highlighting of disassembler output for some
19 architectures. Use the --disassembler-color=MODE command line flag, with
20 mode being either off, color, or extended-color.
21
22 Changes in 2.38:
23
24 * elfedit: Add --output-abiversion option to update ABIVERSION.
25
26 * Add support for the LoongArch instruction set.
27
28 * Tools which display symbols or strings (readelf, strings, nm, objdump)
29 have a new command line option which controls how unicode characters are
30 handled. By default they are treated as normal for the tool. Using
31 --unicode=locale will display them according to the current locale.
32 Using --unicode=hex will display them as hex byte values, whilst
33 --unicode=escape will display them as escape sequences. In addition
34 using --unicode=highlight will display them as unicode escape sequences
35 highlighted in red (if supported by the output device).
36
37 * readelf -r dumps RELR relative relocations now.
38
39 * Support for efi-app-aarch64, efi-rtdrv-aarch64 and efi-bsdrv-aarch64 has been
40 added to objcopy in order to enable UEFI development using binutils.
41
42 * ar: Add --thin for creating thin archives. -T is a deprecated alias without
43 diagnostics. In many ar implementations -T has a different meaning, as
44 specified by X/Open System Interface.
45
46 Changes in 2.37:
47
48 * The readelf tool has a new command line option which can be used to specify
49 how the numeric values of symbols are reported. --sym-base=0|8|10|16 tells
50 readelf to display the values in base 8, base 10 or base 16. A sym base of 0
51 represents the default action of displaying values under 10000 in base 10 and
52 values above that in base 16.
53
54 * Binutils now requires a C99 compiler and library to build.
55
56 * A new format has been added to the nm program. Specifying
57 --format=just-symbols (or just using -j) will tell the program to only
58 display symbol names and nothing else.
59
60 * A new command line --keep-section-symbols has been added to objcopy and
61 strip. This stops the removal of unused section symbols when the file is
62 copied. Removing these symbols saves space, but sometimes they are needed by
63 other tools.
64
65 * objcopy --weaken, --weaken-symbol and --weaken-symbols now make undefined
66 symbols weak on targets that support weak symbols.
67
68 * Readelf and objdump can now display and use the contents of .debug_sup
69 sections.
70
71 * Readelf and objdump will now follow links to separate debug info files by
72 default. This behaviour can be stopped via the use of the new -wN or
73 --debug-dump=no-follow-links options for readelf and the -WN or
74 --dwarf=no-follow-links options for objdump. Also the old behaviour can be
75 restored by the use of the --enable-follow-debug-links=no configure time
76 option.
77
78 The semantics of the =follow-links option have also been slightly changed.
79 When enabled, the option allows for the loading of symbol tables and string
80 tables from the separate files which can be used to enhance the information
81 displayed when dumping other sections, but it does not automatically imply
82 that information from the separate files should be displayed.
83
84 If other debug section display options are also enabled (eg
85 --debug-dump=info) then the contents of matching sections in both the main
86 file and the separate debuginfo file *will* be displayed. This is because in
87 most cases the debug section will only be present in one of the files.
88
89 If however non-debug section display options are enabled (eg --sections) then
90 the contents of matching parts of the separate debuginfo file will *not* be
91 displayed. This is because in most cases the user probably only wanted to
92 load the symbol information from the separate debuginfo file. In order to
93 change this behaviour a new command line option --process-links can be used.
94 This will allow di0pslay options to applied to both the main file and any
95 separate debuginfo files.
96
97 * Nm has a new command line option: --quiet. This suppresses "no symbols"
98 diagnostic.
99
100 Changes in 2.36:
101
102 * Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
103
104 * Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS. This specifies a
105 string of one or two characters. The first character is used as the type
106 character when displaying global ifunc symbols. The second character, if
107 present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
108
109 In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
110 created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
111 from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
112
113 * The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
114 dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
115 (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
116 __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
117
118 * Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
119 to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
120
121 * Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
122 symbol names. In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
123 --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
124
125 * Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
126 This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
127 linker.
128
129 Changes in 2.35:
130
131 * Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
132 If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
133 replaced with "[...]". The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
134 not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
135 -T or --silent-truncation options.
136
137 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
138
139 * The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
140 on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
141 These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
142 the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
143 was expecting them to actually contain something.
144
145 Changes in 2.34:
146
147 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
148 ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
149 debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
150 servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
151 To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
152 This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
153 is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
154 information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
155
156 * Add --output option to the "ar" program. This option can be used to specify
157 the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
158
159 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip. This option keeps the
160 specified section from being removed.
161
162 * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
163 graph between the address and the disassembler column. Enabled via the
164 --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump. Currently supported by
165 the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets. The output looks something like this:
166
167 c6: | | \----------> be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
168 cb: | | /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rdi # d2 <main+0xd2>
169 d2: | | | 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
170 d4: | | | /-- e8 00 00 00 00 callq d9 <main+0xd9>
171 d9: | | | \-> bf 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%edi
172 de: | +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00 callq e3 <main+0xe3>
173 e3: | \-----------|----> 48 89 da mov %rbx,%rdx
174 e6: | | be 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%esi
175 eb: | \----- eb de jmp cb <main+0xcb>
176 ed: \-------------------> 48 8b 16 mov (%rsi),%rdx
177
178 Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
179 output.
180
181 Changes in 2.33:
182
183 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
184 provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
185
186 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
187 the changing of section alignments.
188
189 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
190 width of data elements in verilog hex format.
191
192 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
193 instructions.
194
195 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
196 and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
197 --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
198 more than one are present in a file. (This usually happens when gcc's
199 -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
200
201 In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
202 display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
203 cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
204 displayed. In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
205 follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
206 files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
207
208 * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
209 to objdump and readelf.
210
211 Changes in 2.32:
212
213 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
214 maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
215 The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
216 constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file. At the time
217 of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
218
219 The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
220 the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools. This may be needed in
221 order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
222 vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
223
224 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
225 starting symbol for disassembly. Disassembly will continue from this
226 symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
227
228 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
229 the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
230 Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
231 Loongson 2K1000 processor.
232
233 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
234 implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
235 Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
236 option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
237
238 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
239 which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
240 and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
241 3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
242 compatibility.
243
244 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'. The
245 results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
246 except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
247 Additionally the total is only included once.
248
249 Changes in 2.31:
250
251 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
252
253 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
254 when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
255 instruction being invalid. These can be turned on with the option -M notes
256 to objdump.
257
258 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
259 a named register could be invalid.
260
261 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
262
263 Changes in 2.30:
264
265 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
266 which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
267 sections.
268
269 Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
270 option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
271 to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
272
273 Changes in 2.29:
274
275 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
276 instructions for assembly and disassembly.
277
278 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
279 disassembly.
280
281 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
282 which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
283 of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
284
285 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
286 Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
287
288 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
289
290 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
291
292 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
293
294 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
295 so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
296
297 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
298 a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
299
300 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
301 method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
302 the original file.
303
304 Changes in 2.28:
305
306 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
307 relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
308 R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
309 performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A. This could have been fixed by
310 renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
311 older version of gas compatible with a newer ld. However, that would
312 require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
313 create and process the relocations correctly. It is recommended that
314 all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
315 if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld. If the new ld command-line
316 option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
317 with the instructions being relocated.
318
319 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
320 which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
321 symbol's name.
322
323 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
324 instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
325
326 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
327 patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
328 section. A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
329 matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
330
331 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
332 starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
333 A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
334 an earlier --only-section pattern.
335
336 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
337 This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
338 The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
339 the relocation section itself.
340
341 Changes in 2.27:
342
343 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
344 64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
345
346 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
347 whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
348
349 Changes in 2.26:
350
351 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
352 --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
353
354 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
355
356 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
357 --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
358 targets.
359
360 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
361
362 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
363
364 Changes in 2.25:
365
366 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
367 data sections. Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
368 configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
369 default behaviour.
370
371 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
372
373 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
374
375 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
376
377 Changes in 2.24:
378
379 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
380 section names.
381
382 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
383
384 Changes in 2.23:
385
386 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
387
388 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
389
390 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
391
392 Changes in 2.22:
393
394 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
395
396 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
397 passed to preprocessor.
398
399 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. These are used by
400 the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
401
402 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
403
404 changes in 2.21:
405
406 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
407 bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
408
409 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
410
411 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
412 the -u / --unwind option.
413
414 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
415
416 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
417 binaries.
418
419 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
420 '== <ID>' option.
421
422 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
423 address before function name or source filename.
424
425 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
426 a more human readable output.
427
428 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
429
430 Changes in 2.20:
431
432 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool. Use the --output-delaylib <file>
433 switch to create a delay-import library. The resulting app will load the dll
434 as soon as the first function is called. It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
435 from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
436 GetProcAddress from kernel32.
437
438 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
439 number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
440 instructions.
441
442 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
443 of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
444
445 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
446 --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
447 file.
448
449 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
450 used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
451
452 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
453 for objcopy.
454
455 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
456 --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
457 set PE optional header.
458
459 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
460
461 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
462 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
463 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
464 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
465
466 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
467 add absolute paths for -S.
468
469 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
470 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
471
472 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
473 report an error when the import library is associated with
474 multiple DLLs.
475
476 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
477 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
478
479 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
480 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
481 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
482
483 Changes in 2.19:
484
485 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
486
487 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
488 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
489 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
490 added to the archive.
491
492 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
493
494 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
495
496 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
497
498 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
499
500 Changes in 2.18:
501
502 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
503 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
504 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
505
506 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
507 Public License.
508
509 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
510 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
511
512 * Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
513 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
514 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
515 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
516 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
517 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
518
519 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
520 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
521 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
522 to some OSes.
523
524 Changes in 2.17:
525
526 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
527
528 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
529 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
530 of types.
531
532 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
533 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
534
535 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
536 debug sections.
537
538 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
539 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
540
541 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
542 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
543 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
544 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
545
546 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
547 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
548
549 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
550
551 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
552 when disassembling VAX binaries.
553
554 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
555 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
556
557 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
558 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
559
560 Changes in 2.16:
561
562 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
563
564 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
565 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
566 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
567 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
568
569 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
570 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
571 command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
572 the contents of the .debug_range section.
573
574 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
575 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
576 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
577 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
578 between ARM and THUMB code.
579
580 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
581 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
582
583 Changes in 2.15:
584
585 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
586 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
587 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
588 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
589
590 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
591 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
592
593 * readelf can now parse archives.
594
595 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
596 format compatible with ctags tool.
597
598 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
599 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
600 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
601 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
602 debugging info.
603
604 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
605 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
606 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
607
608 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
609 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
610 with the -a switch.
611
612 Changes in 2.14:
613
614 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
615
616 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
617
618 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
619
620 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
621 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
622
623 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
624 Parallel C compiler.
625
626 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
627 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
628 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
629
630 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
631
632 Changes in 2.13:
633
634 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
635 and FR500 included.
636
637 Changes in version 2.12:
638
639 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
640
641 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
642
643 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
644 lines to fit into 80 columns.
645
646 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
647
648 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
649
650 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
651 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
652
653 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
654 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
655 by Honda Hiroki.
656
657 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
658
659 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
660 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
661 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
662
663 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
664 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
665 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
666 By Stefan Geuken.
667
668 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
669
670 Changes in binutils 2.11:
671
672 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
673 extenstions.
674
675 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
676 By Luciano Gemme.
677
678 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
679
680 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
681
682 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
683
684 Changes in binutils 2.10:
685
686 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
687
688 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
689 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
690 file.
691
692 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
693 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
694 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
695 raw verions.
696
697 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
698 with intel syntax.
699
700 * New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
701 regardless of target machine.
702
703 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
704 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
705 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
706 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
707
708 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
709
710 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
711 sections.
712
713 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
714
715 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
716 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
717
718 Changes in binutils 2.9:
719
720 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
721 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
722
723 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
724 the VMA of the sections.
725
726 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
727
728 Changes in binutils 2.8:
729
730 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
731 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
732 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
733 output.
734
735 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
736 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
737 so they must be in canonical form.
738
739 * Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
740 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
741
742 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
743
744 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
745
746 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
747
748 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
749
750 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
751
752 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
753
754 Changes in binutils 2.7:
755
756 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
757
758 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
759
760 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
761
762 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
763
764 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
765
766 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
767
768 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
769
770 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
771
772 Changes in binutils 2.6:
773
774 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
775
776 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
777 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
778 generating plain binary files.
779
780 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
781
782 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
783
784 Changes in binutils 2.5:
785
786 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
787 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
788
789 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
790 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
791
792 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
793
794 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
795 executables.
796
797 Changes in binutils 2.4:
798
799 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
800 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
801
802 * Support for Irix 5.
803
804 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
805 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
806
807 Changes in binutils 2.3:
808
809 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
810 ELF and COFF files.
811
812 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
813 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
814
815 * The strings program has been added.
816
817 Changes in binutils 2.2:
818
819 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
820 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
821 'cp'.
822
823 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
824 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
825 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
826
827 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
828 the output from BSD nm.
829
830 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
831
832 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
833
834 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
835
836 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
837
838 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
839
840 Changes in binutils 2.1:
841
842 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
843 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
844
845 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
846 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
847 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
848 for Posix.2 conformance.
849
850 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
851 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
852 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
853
854 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
855 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.
856
857 \f
858 Copyright (C) 2012-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
859
860 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
861 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
862 notice and this notice are preserved.
863
864 Local variables:
865 fill-column: 79
866 End: