binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes in 2.36:
   4
   5 * Update elfedit and readelf with LAM_U48 and LAM_U57 support.
   6
   7 * Nm has a new command line option: --ifunc-chars=CHARS.  This specifies a
   8   string of one or two characters.  The first character is used as the type
   9   character when displaying global ifunc symbols.  The second character, if
  10   present is used when displaying local ifunc symbols.
  11
  12   In addition a new configure time option --enable-f-for-ifunc-symbols has been
  13   created, which if used will change nm's default characters for ifunc symbols
  14   from i (both local and global) to F (global) and f (local).
  15
  16 * The ar tool's previously unused l modifier is now used for specifying
  17   dependencies of a static library. The arguments of this option
  18   (or --record-libdeps long form option) will be stored verbatim in the
  19   __.LIBDEP member of the archive, which the linker may read at link time.
  20
  21 * Readelf can now display the contents of LTO symbol table sections when asked
  22   to do so via the --lto-syms command line option.
  23
  24 * Readelf now accepts the -C command line option to enable the demangling of
  25   symbol names.  In addition the --demangle=<style>, --no-demangle,
  26   --recurse-limit and --no-recurse-limit options are also now availale.
  27
  28 * Add support for the SHF_GNU_RETAIN ELF section flag.
  29   This flag specifies that the section should not be garbage collected by the
  30   linker.
  31
  32 Changes in 2.35:
  33
  34 * Changed readelf's display of symbol names when wide mode is not enabled.
  35   If the name is too long it will be truncated and the last five characters
  36   replaced with "[...]".  The old behaviour of displaying 5 more characters but
  37   not indicating that truncation has happened can be restored by the use of the
  38   -T or --silent-truncation options.
  39
  40 * X86 NaCl target support is removed.
  41
  42 * The readelf tool now has a -L or --lint or --enable-checks option which turns
  43   on warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined.
  44   These checks include things like zero-sized sections, which are allowed by
  45   the ELF standard but which nevertheless might be of concern if the user
  46   was expecting them to actually contain something.
  47
  48 Changes in 2.34:
  49
  50 * Binutils now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing
  51   ELF/DWARF debugging information as well as source code. When built with
  52   debuginfod, readelf and objdump can automatically query debuginfod
  53   servers for separate debug files when they otherwise cannot be found.
  54   To build binutils with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure.
  55   This requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library. debuginfod
  56   is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. For more
  57   information see https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
  58
  59 * Add --output option to the "ar" program.  This option can be used to specify
  60   the output directory when extracting members from an archive.
  61
  62 * Add --keep-section option to objcopy and strip.  This option keeps the
  63   specified section from being removed.
  64
  65  * Add visualization of jumps inside a function by drawing an ascii character
  66    graph between the address and the disassembler column.  Enabled via the
  67    --visualize-jumps command line option for objdump.  Currently supported by
  68    the x86, x86_64, and ARM targets.  The output looks something like this:
  69
  70   c6:   |  |     \----------> be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  71   cb:   |  |           /----> 48 8b 3d 00 00 00 00      mov    0x0(%rip),%rdi        # d2 <main+0xd2>
  72   d2:   |  |           |      31 c0                     xor    %eax,%eax
  73   d4:   |  |           |  /-- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  d9 <main+0xd9>
  74   d9:   |  |           |  \-> bf 02 00 00 00            mov    $0x2,%edi
  75   de:   |  +-----------|----- e8 00 00 00 00            callq  e3 <main+0xe3>
  76   e3:   |  \-----------|----> 48 89 da                  mov    %rbx,%rdx
  77   e6:   |              |      be 00 00 00 00            mov    $0x0,%esi
  78   eb:   |              \----- eb de                     jmp    cb <main+0xcb>
  79   ed:   \-------------------> 48 8b 16                  mov    (%rsi),%rdx
  80
  81   Additional arguments to the --visualize-jumps option add colors to the
  82   output.
  83
  84 Changes in 2.33:
  85
  86 * Add --source-comment[=<txt>] option to objdump which if present,
  87   provides a prefix to source code lines displayed in a disassembly.
  88
  89 * Add --set-section-alignment <section-name>=<align> option to objcopy to allow
  90   the changing of section alignments.
  91
  92 * Add --verilog-data-width option to objcopy for verilog targets to control
  93   width of data elements in verilog hex format.
  94
  95 * Add support for the Armv8.1-M Mainline and M-profile Vector Extension (MVE)
  96   instructions.
  97
  98 * The separate debug info file options of readelf (--debug-dump=links
  99   and --debug-dump=follow) and objdump (--dwarf=links and
 100   --dwarf=follow-links) will now display and/or follow multiple links if
 101   more than one are present in a file.  (This usually happens when gcc's
 102   -gsplit-dwarf option is used).
 103
 104   In addition objdump's --dwarf=follow-links now also affects its other
 105   display options, so that for example, when combined with --syms it will
 106   cause the symbol tables in any linked debug info files to also be
 107   displayed.  In addition when combined with --disassemble the --dwarf=
 108   follow-links option will ensure that any symbol tables in the linked
 109   files are read and used when disassembling code in the main file.
 110
 111  * Add support for dumping types encoded in the Compact Type Format
 112    to objdump and readelf.
 113
 114 Changes in 2.32:
 115
 116 * The addr2line, c++filt, nm and objdump tools now have a limit on the
 117   maximum amount of recursion that is allowed whilst demangling strings.
 118   The value for this limit is defined by the DEMANGLE_RECRUSE_LIMIT
 119   constant declared in the include/demangle.h header file.  At the time
 120   of writing this constant has the value of 2048.
 121
 122   The --no-recurse-limit option can be used to remove the limit, restoring
 123   the behaviour of earlier versions of these tools.  This may be needed in
 124   order to dmangle truly complicated names, but it also leaves the tools
 125   vulnerable to stack exhaustion from maliciously constructed mangled names.
 126
 127 * Objdump's --disassemble option can now take a parameter, specifying the
 128   starting symbol for disassembly.  Disassembly will continue from this
 129   symbol up to the next symbol or the end of the function.
 130
 131 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 2K1000 processor which implements
 132   the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE, Loongson-ext ASE,
 133   Loongson-ext2 ASE and MSA ASE instructions. Add -march=gs264e option for
 134   Loongson 2K1000 processor.
 135
 136 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor which
 137   implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE,
 138   Loongson-ext ASE and Loongson-ext2 ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464e
 139   option for Loongson 3A2000/3A3000 processor.
 140
 141 * The MIPS port now supports the Loongson 3A1000 processor, aka Loongson3a,
 142   which implements the MIPS64r2 ISA, the Loongson-mmi ASE, Loongson-cam ASE
 143   and Loongson-ext ASE instructions. Add -march=gs464 option for Loongson
 144   3A1000 processor, The -march=loongson3a is an alias of -march=gs464 for
 145   compatibility.
 146
 147 * The size tool now has a new output format '--format=GNU' or '-G'.  The
 148   results are displayed in a similar manor to the default berkeley layout,
 149   except read-only data is counted in the data column, not the text column.
 150   Additionally the total is only included once.
 151
 152 Changes in 2.31:
 153
 154 * Add support for disassembling netronome Flow Processor (NFP) firmware files.
 155
 156 * The AArch64 port now supports showing disassembly notes which are emitted
 157   when inconsistencies are found with the instruction that may result in the
 158   instruction being invalid.  These can be turned on with the option -M notes
 159   to objdump.
 160
 161 * The AArch64 port now emits warnings when a combination of an instruction and
 162   a named register could be invalid.
 163
 164 * Added O modifier to ar to display member offsets inside an archive
 165
 166 Changes in 2.30:
 167
 168 * Add --debug-dump=links option to readelf and --dwarf=links option to objdump
 169   which displays the contents of any .gnu_debuglink or .gnu_debugaltlink
 170   sections.
 171
 172   Add a --debug-dump=follow-links option to readelf and a --dwarf=follow-links
 173   option to objdump which causes indirect links into separate debug info files
 174   to be followed when dumping other DWARF sections.
 175
 176 Changes in 2.29:
 177
 178 * The MIPS port now supports microMIPS eXtended Physical Addressing (XPA)
 179   instructions for assembly and disassembly.
 180
 181 * The MIPS port now supports the microMIPS Release 5 ISA for assembly and
 182   disassembly.
 183
 184 * The MIPS port now supports the Imagination interAptiv MR2 processor,
 185   which implements the MIPS32r3 ISA, the MIPS16e2 ASE as well as a couple
 186   of implementation-specific regular MIPS and MIPS16e2 ASE instructions.
 187
 188 * The SPARC port now supports the SPARC M8 processor, which implements the
 189   Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017.
 190
 191 * The MIPS port now supports the MIPS16e2 ASE for assembly and disassembly.
 192
 193 * Add support for ELF SHF_GNU_MBIND and PT_GNU_MBIND_XXX.
 194
 195 * Add support for the wasm32 ELF conversion of the WebAssembly file format.
 196
 197 * Add --inlines option to objdump, which extends the --line-numbers option
 198   so that inlined functions will display their nesting information.
 199
 200 * Add --merge-notes options to objcopy to reduce the size of notes in
 201   a binary file by merging and deleting redundant notes.
 202
 203 * Add support for locating separate debug info files using the build-id
 204   method, where the separate file has a name based upon the build-id of
 205   the original file.
 206
 207 Changes in 2.28:
 208
 209 * This version of binutils fixes a problem with PowerPC VLE 16A and 16D
 210   relocations which were functionally swapped, for example,
 211   R_PPC_VLE_HA16A performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16D while R_PPC_VLE_HA16D
 212   performed like R_PPC_VLE_HA16A.  This could have been fixed by
 213   renumbering relocations, which would keep object files created by an
 214   older version of gas compatible with a newer ld.  However, that would
 215   require an ABI update, affecting other assemblers and linkers that
 216   create and process the relocations correctly.  It is recommended that
 217   all VLE object files be recompiled, but ld can modify the relocations
 218   if --vle-reloc-fixup is passed to ld.  If the new ld command-line
 219   option is not used, ld will ld warn on finding relocations inconsistent
 220   with the instructions being relocated.
 221
 222 * The nm program has a new command-line option (--with-version-strings)
 223   which will display a symbol's version information, if any, after the
 224   symbol's name.
 225
 226 * The ARC port of objdump now accepts a -M option to specify the extra
 227   instruction class(es) that should be disassembled.
 228
 229 * The --remove-section option for objcopy and strip now accepts section
 230   patterns starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching
 231   section.  A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections
 232   matched by an earlier --remove-section pattern.
 233
 234 * The --only-section option for objcopy now accepts section patterns
 235   starting with an exclamation point to indicate a non-matching section.
 236   A non-matching section is removed from the set of sections matched by
 237   an earlier --only-section pattern.
 238
 239 * New --remove-relocations=SECTIONPATTERN option for objcopy and strip.
 240   This option can be used to remove sections containing relocations.
 241   The SECTIONPATTERN is the section to which the relocations apply, not
 242   the relocation section itself.
 243
 244 Changes in 2.27:
 245
 246 * Add a configure option, --enable-64-bit-archive, to force use of a
 247   64-bit format when creating an archive symbol index.
 248
 249 * Add --elf-stt-common= option to objcopy for ELF targets to control
 250   whether to convert common symbols to the STT_COMMON type.
 251
 252 Changes in 2.26:
 253
 254 * Add option to objcopy to insert new symbols into a file:
 255   --add-symbol <name>=[<section>:]<value>[,<flags>]
 256
 257 * Add support for the ARC EM/HS, and ARC600/700 architectures.
 258
 259 * Extend objcopy --compress-debug-sections option to support
 260   --compress-debug-sections=[none|zlib|zlib-gnu|zlib-gabi] for ELF
 261   targets.
 262
 263 * Add --update-section option to objcopy.
 264
 265 * Add --output-separator option to strings.
 266
 267 Changes in 2.25:
 268
 269 * Add --data option to strings to only print strings in loadable, initialized
 270   data sections.  Change the default behaviour to be --all, but add a new
 271   configure time option of --disable-default-strings-all to restore the old
 272   default behaviour.
 273
 274 * Add --include-all-whitespace to strings.
 275
 276 * Add --dump-section option to objcopy.
 277
 278 * Add support for the Andes NDS32.
 279
 280 Changes in 2.24:
 281
 282 * Objcopy now supports wildcard characters in command-line options that take
 283   section names.
 284
 285 * Add support for Altera Nios II.
 286
 287 Changes in 2.23:
 288
 289 * Add support for the VLE extension to the PowerPC architecture.
 290
 291 * Add support for x64 Windows target of the delayed-load-library.
 292
 293 * Add support for the Renesas RL78 architecture.
 294
 295 Changes in 2.22:
 296
 297 * Add support for displaying the contents of .debug.macro sections.
 298
 299 * Add --preprocessor-arg option to windres to specify additional options
 300   passed to preprocessor.
 301
 302 * Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump.  These are used by
 303   the new Emacs mode, see dwarf-mode.el.
 304
 305 * Add support for the Tilera TILEPro and TILE-Gx architectures.
 306
 307 changes in 2.21:
 308
 309 * Add --interleave-width option to objcopy to allowing copying a range of
 310   bytes from the input to the output with the --interleave option.
 311
 312 * Add support for the TMS320C6000 (TI C6X) processor family.
 313
 314 * Readelf can now display ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) using
 315   the -u / --unwind option.
 316
 317 * Add --dyn-syms to readelf to dump dynamic symbol table.
 318
 319 * A new tool - elfedit - has been added to directly manipulate ELF format
 320   binaries.
 321
 322 * Add to dlltool .def file feature of aliasing PE internal symbol name by
 323   '== <ID>' option.
 324
 325 * Add a new command-line option -a / --addresses to addr2line to display the
 326   address before function name or source filename.
 327
 328 * Add a new command-line option -p / --pretty-print to addr2line to have
 329   a more human readable output.
 330
 331 * The hppa/som targets can now be compiled on any host.
 332
 333 Changes in 2.20:
 334
 335 * Add support for delay importing to dlltool.  Use the --output-delaylib <file>
 336   switch to create a delay-import library.  The resulting app will load the dll
 337   as soon as the first function is called.  It will link to __delayLoadHelper2()
 338   from the static delayimp library, which will import LoadLibraryA and
 339   GetProcAddress from kernel32.
 340
 341 * Add a new command-line option, --insn-width=WIDTH, to objdump to specify
 342   number of bytes to be displayed on a single line when disassembling
 343   instructions.
 344
 345 * Readelf can now display the relocated contents of a section as a sequence
 346   of bytes via the --relocated-dump=<name|number> command-line option.
 347
 348 * The gprof program has been given a new command-line option:
 349   --external-symbols-table=<filename> which reads in symbols from a specified
 350   file.
 351
 352 * The plugin target has been added to bfd. It can load the same shared objects
 353   used by gold and uses them to provide basic support for new file formats.
 354
 355 * The verilog memory hex dump file format is now supported as an output format
 356   for objcopy.
 357
 358 * Add --file-alignment, --heap, --image-base, --section-alignment,
 359   --stack and --subsystem command-line options to objcopy, which will
 360   set PE optional header.
 361
 362 * Option --dwarf/-W of objdump is now as flexible as readelf --debug-dump/-w.
 363
 364 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
 365   symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries.  In the
 366   latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
 367   entry of one of the libraries already linked.
 368
 369 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
 370   add absolute paths for -S.
 371
 372 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
 373   back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
 374
 375 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
 376   report an error when the import library is associated with
 377   multiple DLLs.
 378
 379 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
 380   name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
 381
 382 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed.  The assembler no
 383   longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
 384   -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64.  Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
 385
 386 Changes in 2.19:
 387
 388 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
 389
 390 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
 391   object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
 392   flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
 393   added to the archive.
 394
 395 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
 396
 397 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
 398
 399 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
 400
 401 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
 402
 403 Changes in 2.18:
 404
 405 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
 406   pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
 407   revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
 408
 409 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
 410   Public License.
 411
 412 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets.  This is a message
 413   compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
 414
 415 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.  It now supports many new
 416   resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc).  The output generation
 417   for binary files is done now via bfd itself.  The endianess problems
 418   for different hosts are solved.  Dumps of .res files can now be
 419   re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
 420   Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
 421
 422 * Add --extract-symbol command-line option to objcopy, which will
 423   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
 424   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
 425   to some OSes.
 426
 427 Changes in 2.17:
 428
 429 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
 430
 431 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
 432   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
 433   of types.
 434
 435 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
 436   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
 437
 438 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
 439   debug sections.
 440
 441 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
 442   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
 443
 444 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
 445   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
 446   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
 447   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
 448
 449 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
 450   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
 451
 452 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
 453
 454 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
 455   when disassembling VAX binaries.
 456
 457 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
 458   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
 459
 460 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
 461   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
 462
 463 Changes in 2.16:
 464
 465 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
 466
 467 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
 468   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
 469   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
 470   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
 471
 472 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
 473   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
 474   command-line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
 475   the contents of the .debug_range section.
 476
 477 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
 478   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
 479   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
 480   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
 481   between ARM and THUMB code.
 482
 483 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
 484   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
 485
 486 Changes in 2.15:
 487
 488 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
 489   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
 490   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
 491   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
 492
 493 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
 494   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
 495
 496 * readelf can now parse archives.
 497
 498 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
 499   format compatible with ctags tool.
 500
 501 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
 502   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
 503   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
 504   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
 505   debugging info.
 506
 507 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
 508   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
 509   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
 510
 511 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
 512   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
 513   with the -a switch.
 514
 515 Changes in 2.14:
 516
 517 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
 518
 519 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 520
 521 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 522
 523 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 524   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 525
 526 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 527   Parallel C compiler.
 528
 529 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 530   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 531   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 532
 533 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 534
 535 Changes in 2.13:
 536
 537 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 538   and FR500 included.
 539
 540 Changes in version 2.12:
 541
 542 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 543
 544 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 545
 546 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 547   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 548
 549 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 550
 551 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 552
 553 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 554   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 555
 556 * New command-line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 557   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 558   by Honda Hiroki.
 559
 560 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 561
 562 * New command-line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 563   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 564   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 565
 566 * New command-line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 567   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 568   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 569   By Stefan Geuken.
 570
 571 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 572
 573 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 574
 575 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 576   extenstions.
 577
 578 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command-line switch to objcopy.
 579   By Luciano Gemme.
 580
 581 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 582
 583 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 584
 585 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 586
 587 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 588
 589 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 590
 591 * New command-line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 592   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 593   file.
 594
 595 * New command-line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 596   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 597   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 598   raw verions.
 599
 600 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 601   with intel syntax.
 602
 603 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 604   regardless of target machine.
 605
 606 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 607   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 608   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 609   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 610
 611 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 612
 613 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 614   sections.
 615
 616 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 617
 618 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 619   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 620
 621 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 622
 623 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 624   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 625
 626 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 627   the VMA of the sections.
 628
 629 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 630
 631 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 632
 633 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 634   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 635   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 636   output.
 637
 638 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 639   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 640   so they must be in canonical form.
 641
 642 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 643   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 644
 645 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 646
 647 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 648
 649 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 650
 651 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 652
 653 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 654
 655 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 656
 657 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 658
 659 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 660
 661 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 662
 663 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 664
 665 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 666
 667 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 668
 669 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 670
 671 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 672
 673 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 674
 675 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 676
 677 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 678
 679 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 680   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 681   generating plain binary files.
 682
 683 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 684
 685 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 686
 687 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 688
 689 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 690   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 691
 692 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 693   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 694
 695 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 696
 697 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 698   executables.
 699
 700 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 701
 702 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 703   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 704
 705 * Support for Irix 5.
 706
 707 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 708   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 709
 710 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 711
 712 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 713   ELF and COFF files.
 714
 715 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 716   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 717
 718 * The strings program has been added.
 719
 720 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 721
 722 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 723   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 724   'cp'.
 725
 726 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 727   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 728   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 729
 730 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 731   the output from BSD nm.
 732
 733 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 734
 735 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 736
 737 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 738
 739 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 740
 741 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 742
 743 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 744
 745 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 746   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 747
 748 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 749   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 750   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 751   for Posix.2 conformance.
 752
 753 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 754   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 755   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 756
 757 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 758   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 759
 760 \f
 761 Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 762
 763 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 764 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 765 notice and this notice are preserved.
 766
 767 Local variables:
 768 fill-column: 79
 769 End: