3 * --as-needed now links in a dynamic library if it satisfies undefined
4 symbols in regular objects, or in other dynamic libraries. In the
5 latter case the library is not linked if it is found in a DT_NEEDED
6 entry of one of the libraries already linked.
8 * Added --prefix=PREFIX and --prefix-strip=LEVEL switches to objdump to
9 add absolute paths for -S.
11 * Add new option --use-nul-prefixed-import-tables to dlltool to allow fall-
12 back to old import table generation with null element prefix.
14 * Added --identify-strict switch to cause --identify <implib> to
15 report an error when the import library is associated with
18 * Added --identify <implib> option to dlltool, which determines the
19 name of the DLL associated with the specified <implib>.
21 * Support for PowerPC booke64 instructions has been removed. The assembler no
22 longer accepts -mbooke32 or -mbooke64 and the disassembler no longer accepts
23 -Mbooke32 or -Mbooke64. Instead, -mbooke and -Mbooke should be used.
27 * Added -wL switch to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
29 * Added support for "thin" archives which contain pathnames pointing to
30 object files rather than the files themselves and which contain a
31 flattened symbol index for all objects, and archives, which have been
34 * Added -F switch to objdump to include file offsets in the disassembly.
36 * Added -c switch to readelf to allow string dumps of archive symbol index.
38 * Support for SSE5 has been added to the i386 port.
40 * Added -p switch to readelf to allow string dumps of sections.
44 * Resolved 37 coding problems in bfd including static array overruns, null
45 pointer dereferences and use of a malloc buffer after it has been freed, as
46 revealed by static analysis donated by Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
48 * The binutils sources are now released under version 3 of the GNU General
51 * A new tool "windmc" has been added for some targets. This is a message
52 compiler which attempts to be compatible with the MS version.
54 * Add codepage support to the windres tool. It now supports many new
55 resource types (e.g. MANIFEST, TOOLBAR, etc). The output generation
56 for binary files is done now via bfd itself. The endianess problems
57 for different hosts are solved. Dumps of .res files can now be
58 re-compiled by windres without lossing resources or compilation errors.
59 Some problems on dialog resource translations are corrected.
61 * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
62 strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
63 for its symbol table. Files containing just symbols can be useful
68 * Add "-x NAME" to readelf in addition to "-x NUMBER".
70 * Add -i and -t switches to cxxfilt. -i disables the display of implementation
71 specific extra demangling information (if any) and -t disables the demangling
74 * Add support for the "@<file>" syntax to the command lines of all tools, so
75 that extra switches can be read from <file>.
77 * Add "-W/--dwarf" to objdump to display the contents of the DWARF
80 * Add "-t/--section-details" to readelf to display section details.
81 "-N/--full-section-name" is deprecated.
83 * powerpc-linux ld now supports a variant form of PLT and GOT for the security
84 conscious. This form will automatically be chosen when ld detects that all
85 code in regular object files was generated by gcc -msecure-plt. The old PLT
86 and GOT may be forced by a new ld option, --bss-plt.
88 * Add "-i/--inlines" to addr2line to print enclosing scope information
89 for inlined function chains, back to first non-inlined function.
91 * Add "-N/--full-section-name" to readelf to display full section name.
93 * Add "-M entry:<addr>" switch to objdump to specify a function entry address
94 when disassembling VAX binaries.
96 * Add "--globalize-symbol <name>" and "--globalize-symbols <filename>" switches
97 to objcopy to convert local symbols into global symbols.
99 * gprof now allows input files to have histogram records for
100 several memory ranges, provided those ranges are disjoint.
104 * Add "-g/--section-groups" to readelf to display section groups.
106 * objcopy recognizes two new options --strip-unneeded-symbol and
107 --strip-unneeded-symbols, namely for use together with the wildcard
108 matching the original --strip-symbol/--strip-symbols provided, but
109 retaining any symbols matching but needed by relocations.
111 * readelf can now display address ranges from .debug_range sections. This
112 happens automatically when a DW_AT_range attribute is encountered. The
113 command line switch --debug-dump=Ranges (or -wR) can also be used to display
114 the contents of the .debug_range section.
116 * nm and objdump now have a switch "--special-syms" to enable the displaying of
117 symbols which the target considers to be special. By default these symbols
118 are no longer displayed. Currently the only special symbols are the Mapping
119 symbols used by the ARM port to mark transitions between text and data and
120 between ARM and THUMB code.
122 * dlltool has a switch "--ext-prefix-alias <prefix>" to generate additional
123 import and export symbols with <preifx> prepended to them.
127 * objcopy for MIPS targets now accepts "-M no-aliases" as an option to the
128 disassembler to print the "raw" mips instruction mnemonic instead of some
129 pseudo instruction name. I.E. print "daddu" or "or" instead of "move",
130 "sll" instead of "nop", etc.
132 * objcopy and strip can now take wildcard patterns in symbol names specified on
133 the command line provided that the --wildcard switch is used to enable them.
135 * readelf can now parse archives.
137 * objdump now accepts --debugging-tags to print the debug information in a
138 format compatible with ctags tool.
140 * objcopy and strip now accept --only-keep-debug to create a file containing
141 those sections that would be stripped out by --strip-debug. The idea is that
142 this can be used in conjunction with the --add-gnu-debuglink switch to create
143 a two part program distribution - one a stripped executable and the other the
146 * objcopy now accepts --add-gnu-debuglink=<file> to insert a .gnu_debuglink
147 section into a (presumably stripped) executable. This allows the debug
148 information for the file to be held in a separate file.
150 * BFD marks the sections .comment and .note as 'n' in the BSD/POSIX
151 single-character representation. This can be checked by running nm
156 * Added --info switch to objcopy and strip.
158 * Support for Vitesse IQ2000 added by Red Hat.
160 * Added 'S' encoding to strings to allow the display of 8-bit characters.
162 * Added --prefix-symbols=<text>, --prefix-sections=<text> and
163 --prefix-alloc-sections=<text> to objcopy.
165 * readelf can handle the extensions to the DWARF2 spec used by the Unified
168 * BFD no longer declares a "boolean" type, to avoid clashes with other
169 headers that declare the same. Users of BFD should replace boolean,
170 false and true, with int, 0 and 1, or define their own boolean type.
172 * Support for IP2K added by Denis Chertykov.
176 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
179 Changes in version 2.12:
181 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
183 * size: Add --totals to display summary of sizes (Berkeley format only).
185 * readelf: Add --wide option to not break section header or segment listing
186 lines to fit into 80 columns.
188 * strings: Add --encoding to display wide character strings. By Markus Kuhn.
190 * objcopy: Add --rename-section to change section names.
192 * readelf: Support added for DWARF 2.1 extensions. Support added for
193 displaying the contents of .debug.macinfo sections.
195 * New command line switches added to objcopy to allow symbols to be kept as
196 global symbols, and also to specify files containing lists of such symbols.
199 * Support for OpenRISC by Johan Rydberg.
201 * New command line switch to objcopy --alt-machine-code which creates a binary
202 with an alternate machine code if one is defined in the architecture
203 description. Only supported for ELF targets. By Alexandre Oliva.
205 * New command line switch to objcopy -B (or --binary-architecture) which sets
206 the architecture of the output file to the given argument. This option only
207 makes sense, if the input target is binary. Otherwise it is ignored.
210 * Support for PDP-11 by Lars Brinkhoff.
212 Changes in binutils 2.11:
214 * Add support for ARM v5t and v5te architectures and Intel's XScale ARM
217 * Add --srec-len and --srec-forceS3 command line switch to objcopy.
220 * Support for the MIPS32, by Anders Norlander.
222 * Support for the i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
224 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
226 Changes in binutils 2.10:
228 * Support for 64-bit ELF on HPPA.
230 * New command line switch to objdump --file-start-context which shows the
231 entire file contents up to the source line first encountered for a given
234 * New command line switch to objdump -M (or --disassembler-options) which takes
235 a parameter which can then be interpreted on a per-target basis by the
236 disassembler. Used by ARM targets to select register name sets, ISA, APCS or
239 * objdump support for -mi386:intel which causes disassembly to be displayed
242 * New program: readelf. This displays the contents of ELF format files,
243 regardless of target machine.
245 * objcopy now takes --change-section-lma, --change-section-vma, and
246 --change-section-address options. The old --adjust-section-vma option is
247 equivalent to --change-section-address. The other --adjust-* options are now
248 renamed to --change-*, although --adjust-* continues to work.
250 * objcopy has a --redefine-sym option that lets you rename symbols.
252 * objcopy now takes a -j/--only-section option to copy only the specified
255 * dlltool now supports the IMPORTS command.
257 * dlltool now takes --export-all-symbols, --no-export-all-symbols,
258 --exclude-symbols, and --no-default-excludes options.
260 Changes in binutils 2.9:
262 * Added windres program, which can be used to manipulate resources in WIN32
263 files as used on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
265 * The objcopy --gap-fill and --pad-to options operate on the LMA rather than
266 the VMA of the sections.
268 * Added S modifier to ar to not build a symbol table.
270 Changes in binutils 2.8:
272 * The objdump disassembly format has been changed, and hopefully improved. Use
273 the new --prefix-addresses option to get the old format. There are also new
274 --disassemble-zeroes and --no-show-raw-insn options which affect disassembler
277 * Formats may now be specified as configuration triplets. For example,
278 objdump -b i386-pc-linux. The triplets are not passed through config.sub,
279 so they must be in canonical form.
281 * Added new addr2line program. This uses the debugging information to convert
282 an address into a file name and line number within a program.
284 * Added --change-leading-char argument to objcopy.
286 * Added --weaken argument to objcopy.
288 * objdump --dynamic-reloc now works on ELF executables and shared libraries.
290 * Added --adjust-vma option to objdump.
292 * Added -C/--demangle option to objdump.
294 * Added -p/--preserve-dates option to strip and objcopy.
296 Changes in binutils 2.7:
298 * Added --enable-shared and --enable-commonbfdlib options to configure.
300 * Added --debugging argument to objdump and objcopy.
302 * Added --defined-only argument to nm.
304 * Added --remove-leading-char argument to objcopy.
306 * The objdump --line-numbers option is now meaningful with --reloc.
308 * Added --line-numbers option to nm.
310 * Added --endian/-EB/-EL option to objdump.
312 * Added support for Alpha OpenVMS/AXP.
314 Changes in binutils 2.6:
316 * Added -N/--strip-symbol and -K/--keep-symbol arguments to strip and objcopy.
318 * Added several arguments to objcopy to provide some control over how the new
319 file is laid out in memory. Also added binary output format to BFD to permit
320 generating plain binary files.
322 * Added --start-address and --stop-address options to objdump.
324 * ar and ranlib now work on AIX. The tools are now built by default on AIX.
326 Changes in binutils 2.5:
328 * Changed objdump -dr to dump the relocs interspersed with the assembly
329 listing, for a more useful listing of relocatable files.
331 * Changed objdump -d/--disassemble to only disassemble SEC_CODE sections.
332 Added -D/--disassemble-all option to disassemble all sections.
334 * Added --size-sort option to nm.
336 * strip and objcopy should now be able to handle dynamically linked ELF
339 Changes in binutils 2.4:
341 * Support for HP-PA (by Jeff Law), i386 Mach (by David Mackenzie), RS/6000 and
342 PowerPC (except ar and ranlib; by Ian Taylor).
344 * Support for Irix 5.
346 * Programs `strip' and `objcopy' will not attempt to write dynamically linked
347 ELF output files, since BFD currently can't create them properly.
349 Changes in binutils 2.3:
351 * A new --stabs argument has been added to objdump to dump stabs sections in
354 * A new program, nlmconv, has been added. It can convert object files into
355 Novell NetWare Loadable Modules.
357 * The strings program has been added.
359 Changes in binutils 2.2:
361 * The 'copy' program has been renamed to 'objcopy', for consistency with
362 'objdump', and because 'copy' might more plausibly be used as a synonym for
365 * The new stand-alone program c++filt is a filter that converts encoded
366 (mangled) C++ assembly-level identifiers to user-level names. (Note: This
367 may get moved to the gcc distribution.)
369 * nm -o on an archive now prefixes each line with the archive name, matching
370 the output from BSD nm.
372 * ar (and ld) can now read (but not write) BSD4.4-style archives.
374 * New support for H8500, Z8000, and the Hitach SH.
376 * Dis-assembler interface changed to allow sharing with gdb.
378 * There is new Elf code, but it is not yet ready for general use.
380 * There is the beginnings of a test suite.
382 Changes in binutils 2.1:
384 * There is now support for writing ECOFF files, so ld and the other utilities
385 should work on Risc/Ultrix and Irix. Please let us know how well this works.
387 * ar now automatically creates a symbol table (a __.SYMDEF member, in the BSD
388 version), if there are any object files in the archive. So running ranlib is
389 now redundant (unless the non-standard q command is used). This is required
390 for Posix.2 conformance.
392 * The archive-reading code now reads both BSD-style and SYSV-style archives
393 independently of the selected target format. This is to encourage people to
394 switch to SYSV-format, which has a number of advantages.
396 * The strip and copy programs now have options to remove debug-symbols only
397 and/or local symbols only. They now also support long options.