binutils/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Add codepage support to the windres tool.
   4
   5 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
   6   strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
   7   for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
   8   to some OSes.
   9
  10 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
  11
  12 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt.  -i disables the display of implementation
  13   specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
  14   of types.
  15
  16 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
  17   that extra switches can be read from <file>.
  18
  19 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
  20   debug sections.
  21
  22 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
  23   "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
  24
  25 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
  26   conscious.  This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
  27   code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt.  The old PLT
  28   and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
  29
  30 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
  31   for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
  32
  33 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
  34
  35 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
  36   when disassembling VAX binaries.
  37
  38 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
  39   to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
  40
  41 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
  42   several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
  43
  44 Changes in 2.16:
  45
  46 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
  47
  48 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
  49   --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
  50   matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
  51   retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
  52
  53 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections.  This
  54   happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered.  The
  55   command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
  56   the contents of the .debug_range section.
  57
  58 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
  59   symbols which the target considers to be special.  By default these symbols
  60   are no longer displayed.  Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
  61   symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
  62   between ARM and THUMB code.
  63
  64 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
  65   import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
  66
  67 Changes in 2.15:
  68
  69 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
  70   disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
  71   pseudo instruction name.  I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
  72   "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
  73
  74 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
  75   the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
  76
  77 * readelf can now parse archives.
  78
  79 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
  80   format compatible with ctags tool.
  81
  82 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
  83   those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug.  The idea is that
  84   this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
  85   a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
  86   debugging info.
  87
  88 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
  89   section into a (presumably stripped) executable.  This allows the debug
  90   information for the file to be held in a separate file.
  91
  92 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
  93   single-character representation.  This can be checked by running nm
  94   with the -a switch.
  95
  96 Changes in 2.14:
  97
  98 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
  99
 100 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
 101
 102 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
 103
 104 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
 105   --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
 106
 107 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
 108   Parallel C compiler.
 109
 110 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
 111   headers that declare the same.  Users of BFD should replace boolean,
 112   false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
 113
 114 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
 115
 116 Changes in 2.13:
 117
 118 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
 119   and FR500 included.
 120
 121 Changes in version 2.12:
 122
 123 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
 124
 125 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
 126
 127 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
 128   lines to fit into 80 columns.
 129
 130 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings.  By Markus Kuhn.
 131
 132 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
 133
 134 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions.  Support added for
 135   displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
 136
 137 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
 138   global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
 139   by Honda Hiroki.
 140
 141 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
 142
 143 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
 144   with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
 145   description.  Only supported for ELF targets.  By Alexandre Oliva.
 146
 147 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
 148   the architecture of the output file to the given argument.  This option only
 149   makes sense, if the input target is binary.  Otherwise it is ignored.
 150   By Stefan Geuken.
 151
 152 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
 153
 154 Changes in binutils 2.11:
 155
 156 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
 157   extenstions.
 158
 159 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
 160   By Luciano Gemme.
 161
 162 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
 163
 164 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
 165
 166 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
 167
 168 Changes in binutils 2.10:
 169
 170 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
 171
 172 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
 173   entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
 174   file.
 175
 176 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
 177   a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
 178   disassembler.  Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
 179   raw verions.
 180
 181 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
 182   with intel syntax.
 183
 184 * New program: readelf.  This displays the contents of ELF format files,
 185   regardless of target machine.
 186
 187 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
 188   --change-section-address options.  The old --adjust-section-vma option is
 189   equivalent to --change-section-address.  The other --adjust-* options are now
 190   renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
 191
 192 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
 193
 194 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
 195   sections.
 196
 197 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
 198
 199 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
 200   --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
 201
 202 Changes in binutils 2.9:
 203
 204 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
 205   files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
 206
 207 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
 208   the VMA of the sections.
 209
 210 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
 211
 212 Changes in binutils 2.8:
 213
 214 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved.  Use
 215   the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format.  There are also new
 216   --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
 217   output.
 218
 219 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets.  For example,
 220   objdump -b i386-pc-linux.  The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
 221   so they must be in canonical form.
 222
 223 * Added new addr2line program.  This uses the debugging information to convert
 224   an address into a file name and line number within a program.
 225
 226 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 227
 228 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
 229
 230 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
 231
 232 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
 233
 234 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
 235
 236 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
 237
 238 Changes in binutils 2.7:
 239
 240 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
 241
 242 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
 243
 244 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
 245
 246 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
 247
 248 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
 249
 250 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
 251
 252 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
 253
 254 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
 255
 256 Changes in binutils 2.6:
 257
 258 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
 259
 260 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
 261   file is laid out in memory.  Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
 262   generating plain binary files.
 263
 264 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
 265
 266 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX.  The tools are now built by default on AIX.
 267
 268 Changes in binutils 2.5:
 269
 270 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
 271   listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
 272
 273 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
 274   Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
 275
 276 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
 277
 278 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
 279   executables.
 280
 281 Changes in binutils 2.4:
 282
 283 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
 284   PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
 285
 286 * Support for Irix 5.
 287
 288 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
 289   ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
 290
 291 Changes in binutils 2.3:
 292
 293 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
 294   ELF and COFF files.
 295
 296 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added.  It can convert object files into
 297   Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
 298
 299 * The strings program has been added.
 300
 301 Changes in binutils 2.2:
 302
 303 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
 304   'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
 305   'cp'.
 306
 307 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
 308   (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names.  (Note: This
 309   may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
 310
 311 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
 312   the output from BSD nm.
 313
 314 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
 315
 316 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
 317
 318 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
 319
 320 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
 321
 322 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
 323
 324 Changes in binutils 2.1:
 325
 326 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
 327   should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.  Please let us know how well this works.
 328
 329 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
 330   version), if there are any object files in the archive.  So running ranlib is
 331   now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used).  This is required
 332   for Posix.2 conformance.
 333
 334 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
 335   independently of the selected target format.  This is to encourage people to
 336   switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
 337
 338 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
 339   and/or local symbols only.  They now also support long options.
 340
 341 \f
 342 Local variables:
 343 fill-column: 79
 344 End: