binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.31:
   4
   5 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
   6
   7 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
   8   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
   9   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
  10   to objdump.
  11
  12 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
  13   a named register could be invalid.
  14
  15 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
  16
  17 Changes in 2.30:
  18
  19 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
  20   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
  21   sections.
  22
  23   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
  24   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
  25   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
  26
  27 Changes in 2.29:
  28
  29 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
  30   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
  31
  32 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
  33   disassembly.
  34
  35 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
  36   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
  37   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
  38
  39 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
  40   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
  41
  42 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
  43
  44 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
  45
  46 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
  47
  48 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
  49   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
  50
  51 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
  52   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
  53
  54 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
  55   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
  56   the original file.
  57
  58 Changes in 2.28:
  59
  60 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
  61   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
  62   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
  63   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
  64   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
  65   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
  66   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
  67   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
  68   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
  69   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
  70   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
  71   with the instructions being relocated.
  72
  73 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
  74   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
  75   symbol's name.
  76
  77 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
  78   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
  79
  80 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
  81   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
  82   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
  83   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
  84
  85 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
  86   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
  87   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
  88   an earlier --only-section pattern.
  89
  90 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
  91   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
  92   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
  93   the relocation section itself.
  94
  95 Changes in 2.27:
  96
  97 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
  98   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
  99
 100 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 101   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 102
 103 Changes in 2.26:
 104
 105 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 106   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 107
 108 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 109
 110 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 111   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 112   targets.
 113
 114 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 115
 116 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 117
 118 Changes in 2.25:
 119
 120 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 121   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 122   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 123   default behaviour.
 124
 125 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 126
 127 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 128
 129 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 130
 131 Changes in 2.24:
 132
 133 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 134   section names.
 135
 136 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 137
 138 Changes in 2.23:
 139
 140 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 141
 142 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 143
 144 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 145
 146 Changes in 2.22:
 147
 148 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 149
 150 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 151   passed to preprocessor.
 152
 153 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 154   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 155
 156 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 157
 158 changes in 2.21:
 159
 160 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 161   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 162
 163 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 164
 165 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 166   the -u / --unwind option.
 167
 168 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 169
 170 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 171   binaries.
 172
 173 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 174   '== <ID>' option.
 175
 176 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 177   address before function name or source filename.
 178
 179 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 180   a more human readable output.
 181
 182 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 183
 184 Changes in 2.20:
 185
 186 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 187   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 188   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 189   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 190   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 191
 192 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 193   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 194   instructions.
 195
 196 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 197   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 198
 199 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 200   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 201   file.
 202
 203 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 204   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 205
 206 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 207   for objcopy.
 208
 209 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 210   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 211   set PE optional header.
 212
 213 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 214
 215 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 216   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 217   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 218   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 219
 220 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 221   add absolute paths for -S.
 222
 223 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 224   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 225
 226 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 227   report an error when the import library is associated with
 228   multiple DLLs.
 229
 230 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 231   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 232
 233 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 234   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 235   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 236
 237 Changes in 2.19:
 238
 239 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 240
 241 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 242   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 243   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 244   added to the archive.
 245
 246 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 247
 248 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 249
 250 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 251
 252 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 253
 254 Changes in 2.18:
 255
 256 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 257   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 258   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 259
 260 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 261   Public License.
 262
 263 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 264   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 265
 266 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 267   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 268   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 269   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 270   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 271   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 272
 273 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 274   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 275   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 276   to some OSes.
 277
 278 Changes in 2.17:
 279
 280 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 281
 282 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 283   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 284   of types.
 285
 286 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 287   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 288
 289 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 290   debug sections.
 291
 292 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 293   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 294
 295 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 296   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 297   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 298   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 299
 300 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 301   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 302
 303 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 304
 305 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 306   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 307
 308 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 309   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 310
 311 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 312   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 313
 314 Changes in 2.16:
 315
 316 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 317
 318 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 319   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 320   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 321   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 322
 323 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 324   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 325   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 326   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 327
 328 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 329   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 330   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 331   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 332   between ARM and THUMB code.
 333
 334 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 335   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 336
 337 Changes in 2.15:
 338
 339 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 340   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 341   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 342   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 343
 344 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 345   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 346
 347 * readelf can now parse archives.
 348
 349 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 350   format compatible with ctags tool.
 351
 352 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 353   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 354   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 355   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 356   debugging info.
 357
 358 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 359   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 360   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 361
 362 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 363   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 364   with the -a switch.
 365
 366 Changes in 2.14:
 367
 368 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 369
 370 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 371
 372 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 373
 374 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 375   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 376
 377 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 378   Parallel C compiler.
 379
 380 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 381   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 382   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 383
 384 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 385
 386 Changes in 2.13:
 387
 388 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 389   and FR500 included.
 390
 391 Changes in version 2.12:
 392
 393 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 394
 395 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 396
 397 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 398   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 399
 400 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 401
 402 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 403
 404 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 405   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 406
 407 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 408   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 409   by Honda Hiroki.
 410
 411 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 412
 413 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 414   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 415   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 416
 417 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 418   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 419   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 420   By Stefan Geuken.
 421
 422 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 423
 424 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 425
 426 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 427   extenstions.
 428
 429 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 430   By Luciano Gemme.
 431
 432 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 433
 434 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 435
 436 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 437
 438 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 439
 440 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 441
 442 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 443   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 444   file.
 445
 446 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 447   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 448   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 449   raw verions.
 450
 451 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 452   with intel syntax.
 453
 454 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 455   regardless of target machine.
 456
 457 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 458   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 459   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 460   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 461
 462 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 463
 464 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 465   sections.
 466
 467 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 468
 469 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 470   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 471
 472 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 473
 474 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 475   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 476
 477 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 478   the VMA of the sections.
 479
 480 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 481
 482 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 483
 484 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 485   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 486   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 487   output.
 488
 489 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 490   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 491   so they must be in canonical form.
 492
 493 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 494   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 495
 496 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 497
 498 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 499
 500 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 501
 502 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 503
 504 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 505
 506 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 507
 508 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 509
 510 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 511
 512 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 513
 514 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 515
 516 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 517
 518 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 519
 520 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 521
 522 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 523
 524 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 525
 526 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 527
 528 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 529
 530 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 531   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 532   generating plain binary files.
 533
 534 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 535
 536 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 537
 538 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 539
 540 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 541   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 542
 543 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 544   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 545
 546 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 547
 548 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 549   executables.
 550
 551 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 552
 553 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 554   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 555
 556 * Support for Irix 5.
 557
 558 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 559   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 560
 561 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 562
 563 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 564   ELF and COFF files.
 565
 566 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 567   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 568
 569 * The strings program has been added.
 570
 571 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 572
 573 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 574   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 575   'cp'.
 576
 577 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 578   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 579   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 580
 581 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 582   the output from BSD nm.
 583
 584 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 585
 586 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 587
 588 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 589
 590 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 591
 592 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 593
 594 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 595
 596 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 597   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 598
 599 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 600   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 601   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 602   for Posix.2 conformance.
 603
 604 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 605   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 606   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 607
 608 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 609   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 610
 611 \f
 612 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 613
 614 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 615 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 616 notice and this notice are preserved.
 617
 618 Local variables:
 619 fill-column: 79
 620 End: