binutils/NEWS

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