ld/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 Changes since version 2.4:
   4
   5 * The linker now supports linking against SunOS shared libraries.  It still can
   6 not link SunOS PIC (Position Independent Code) files, so it can not be used to
   7 generate shared libaries.
   8
   9 * The linker now supports linking against ELF shared libraries for the i386
  10 (UnixWare) and SPARC (Solaris).  It can also link ELF PIC files, and can be
  11 used to generate shared libraries.  Shared library generation is not well
  12 tested; please report any problems encountered.  The linker is now enabled for
  13 Solaris again.
  14
  15 * Eric Youngdale has contributed Linux support code, including linking against
  16 Linux a.out shared libraries.  The linker produces Linux QMAGIC binaries.
  17
  18 * The ELF backend has been converted to the new linker code.  To use the new
  19 ELF linker, each particular targets requires a relocation function.  So far,
  20 this function has been written for i386 (UnixWare), SPARC (Solaris) and MIPS
  21 (Irix 5) targets.
  22
  23 * The -( (--start-group) and -) (--end-group) options have been added to
  24 support searching a group of archives as though they were a single archive.
  25 This can also be used in a linker script, as GROUP ( files ).
  26
  27 * When a file is named on the command line, and the linker does not recognize
  28 it as an object file, the linker will now treat the file as a linker script
  29 file.  A linker script named in this way augments, but does not replace, the
  30 default linker script.
  31
  32 * The -warn-once option was added.  It causes the linker to only warn once per
  33 undefined symbol, rather than once per reference.
  34
  35 Changes since version 2.3:
  36
  37 * New linker code, by Steve Chamberlain and Ian Taylor.  For a.out and ecoff
  38   formats (so far), this should result in considerable savings in time
  39   and memory used while linking; slightly poorer performance than
  40   before for formats not converted yet.
  41
  42 * Command-line parsing is no longer done with flex.  This means
  43   oddball characters in filenames won't get treated as argument
  44   separators.
  45
  46 * HP-PA ELF support, by Jeff Law.  (No SOM support yet.)
  47
  48 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie.
  49
  50 * Irix 4 shared libraries are now supported (Irix 5 uses ELF, and ELF shared
  51   libraries are not yet supported).
  52
  53 * COFF shared libraries (as on SCO) should work as well.
  54
  55 * The linker is disabled for Solaris.  (Actually, it was in 2.3 also, I just
  56   forgot to note it.)  Some of their C library routines don't work when
  57   statically linked, and the GNU linker doesn't support dynamic linking yet.
  58
  59 Changes since version 2.2:
  60
  61 * Weak symbols are now supported.
  62
  63 * ELF support has been added.  The linker has been bootstrapped on
  64   UnixWare and Solaris.
  65
  66 * Alpha OSF/1 support has been added (non dynamic linking only).
  67
  68 Changes since version 2.1:
  69
  70 * The `bfd' library has been updated to reduce a.out-format string
  71   table size.  The effect of this is that files linked from many input
  72   files with duplicate symbols (`-g' debugging records, or identical
  73   static symbols) should be much smaller.
  74
  75 Changes since version 2.0:
  76
  77 * The ld -ySYMBOL flag (to trace references to SYMBOL) is now implemented.
  78
  79 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the
  80   other utilities should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix.
  81
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