xref: /src/external/gpl3/binutils.old/dist/NEWS

Import binutils 2.45 (previous was 2.42)

2.45 Release Notes
------------------

Assembler:

  All sframe information generated by the assembler is now in compliance
  with the SFrame V2 specification.

  The assembler now supports .errif and .warnif directives, permitting
  user-controlled diagnostics with conditionals that are evaluated only
  at the end of assembly.

  The assembler predefines the symbol "GAS(version)".

  The assembler now supports the generation of SFrame stack trace
  information (.sframe) from CFI directives on s390 64-bit (s390x).

  For RISC-V, the ".option arch, -ext" format is deprecated due to its
  controversial use.

  For RISC-V, stop generating mapping symbols $x and replace with $x<isa>.  The
  $x was defined to have the same ISA as previous $x<isa>, but now is defined
  to have the same ISA as elf architecture attribute.  Once both used .option
  arch/rvc/norvc/push/pop directives (some code have different architectures
  with file attribute) and data directives in text, then the file need to be
  rebuilt since 2.45.

  The assembler supports the latest architecture extensions for the
  RISC-V, LoongArch and AArch64 architectures.

Linker:

  The linker's --stats option can take an optional argument which if used is
  interpreted as a filename into which resource usage information should be
  stored.  As an alternative mechanism the LD_STATS environment variable can
  also be used to achieve the same results.  Resource usage information for
  various phases of the linking operation is now included in the report.
  If a map file is being produced then the information is also included there.
  The --no-stats option can be used to disable stat reporting, should it have
  been enabled.

  On s390 64-bit (s390x), generate SFrame stack trace information (.sframe)
  for the linker generated .plt section.  On s390 32-bit, generate
  ".eh_frame" unwind information for the linker generated .plt section.
  Both features are enabled by default and can be disabled using linker
  option --no-ld-generated-unwind-info.

  On RISC-V, add new PLT formats, and GNU property merge rules for zicfiss and
  zicfilp extensions.

  On AVR, the default linker scripts now assert that the .progmem sections
  don't extend past 0xffff since they are accessed by means of LPM.
  For data in program memory that may be located past 0xffff, a .progmemx
  section should be used.

  On LoongArch, linker relaxation time complexity is no longer quadratic with
  respect to relocation counts.  Linking time of large software should be
  improved.  In addition  R_LARCH_32_PCREL records are now checked for
  overflow.

Other binary utilities:

  New versioned release of libsframe: libsframe.so.2.  This release introduces
  versioned symbols with version node name LIBSFRAME_2.0.  Some new symbols
  have been added to support the new flag SFRAME_F_FDE_FUNC_START_PCREL and
  retrieving flags from SFrame decoder and encoder objects:
    - Addition of sframe_decoder_get_flags,
      sframe_decoder_get_offsetof_fde_start_addr, sframe_encoder_get_flags,
      sframe_encoder_get_offsetof_fde_start_addr.
  This release also includes backward-incompatible ABI changes:
    - Removal of sframe_get_funcdesc_with_addr.
    - Change in the behavior of sframe_decoder_get_funcdesc_v2,
      sframe_encoder_add_funcdesc_v2 and sframe_encoder_write.

  For SFrame stack trace format, the function start address in each SFrame
  FDE has a changed encoding:  The 32-bit signed integer now holds the offset
  of the start PC of the associated function from the sfde_func_start_address
  field itself (instead of the earlier where it was the offset from the start
  of the SFrame section itself).  All SFrame sections generated by gas and ld
  now default to this new encoding, setting the (new)
  SFRAME_F_FDE_FUNC_START_PCREL flag.

  Relocatable SFrame links are now fixed.

Readelf now recognizes RISC-V GNU_PROPERTY_RISCV_FEATURE_1_CFI_SS and
  GNU_PROPERTY_RISCV_FEATURE_1_CFI_LP_UNLABELED for zicfiss and zicfilp
  extensions.

  The LoongArch disassembler now properly accepts multiple disassembly
  options given by -M, such as "-M no-aliases,numeric".  (Previously only the
  first option took effect.)

2.44 Release Notes
------------------

Assembler:
  Support for new architecture extensions for AArch64, Risc-V and
  x86.
  
Linker:
  The default maximum page size was changed from 16KiB to 64KiB for
  LoongArch.

  This now supports mixed LTO and non-LTO object files in
  relocatable output.

  The ELF forms of the linker support a --image-base=<ADDR> option
  for compatibility with LLD.

  The --build-id= option now accepts an argument of "xx" which
  enables the use of the xxhash library.  This produces a 128-bit
  hash and is 2-4x faster than md5 or sha1. 

  The ELF linker option --package-metadata supports percent-encoded
  and %[string] encoded JSON payloads.

Disassembler:
  The RISC-V disassembler now supports -M,max option like QEMU to
  dump instruction without checking architecture support as usual.

GprofNG:
  Support added for hardware event counters for Neoverse-N1,
  Ampere-1, and Appliedmicro processors.

Support for the Nios II target has been removed.

2.43 Release Notes
------------------

    Assembler:

* Add a .base64 directive to the assembler which allows base64 encoded
  binary data to be provided as strings.

* Assembler macros as well as the bodies of .irp / .irpc / .rept can now use
  the syntax \+ to access the number of times a given macro has been executed.
  This is similar to the already existing \@ syntax, except that the count is
  maintained on a per-macro basis.

* References to FB and dollar labels, when supported, are no longer permitted
  in a radix other than 10.  (Note that definitions of such labels were
  already thus restricted, except that leading zeroes were permitted).

    Linker:

* Add support for DT_RELR type compressed runtime relocations for the
  AArch64 and LoongArch architectures.

* Add --rosegment option which changes the -z separate-code option so that
  only one read-only segment is created (instead of two).

* Add --section-ordering-file <FILE> option to add extra mapping of input
  sections to output sections.

* Add -plugin-save-temps to store plugin intermediate files permanently.

    Utilities:

* Readelf will now display DT_RELR relocations in full detail.

* Readelf now has a -j/--display-section option which takes the name
  or index of a section and displays its contents according to its
  type.  The option can be used multiple times on the command line to
  display multiple sections.

* When objdump or readelf are used to display the contents of a
  .eh_frame section they will now also display the contents of the
  .eh_frame_hdr section, if present.

    Gprofng:

* Improved the support for hardware event counters:
    - Re-designed and streamlined the implementation.
    - Defined a common set of events for ARM processors.
    - Added specific events for AMD ZEN3 / ZEN4, and Intel
      Ice Lake processors.
* Added a minimal support for RISC-V.

    General:

* Target specific improvements for many architectures.