The Linux binutils 2.18.50.0.8 is released

["H.J. Lu" <hjl dot tools at gmail dot com>]

This is the beta release of binutils 2.18.50.0.8 for Linux, which is
based on binutils 2008 0709 in CVS on sourceware.org plus various
changes. It is purely for Linux.

All relevant patches in patches have been applied to the source tree.
You can take a look at patches/README to see what have been applied and
in what order they have been applied.

Starting from the 2.18.50.0.4 release, the x86 assembler no longer
accepts

	fnstsw %eax

fnstsw stores 16bit into %ax and the upper 16bit of %eax is unchanged.
Please use

	fnstsw %ax

Starting from the 2.17.50.0.4 release, the default output section LMA
(load memory address) has changed for allocatable sections from being
equal to VMA (virtual memory address), to keeping the difference between
LMA and VMA the same as the previous output section in the same region.

For

.data.init_task : { *(.data.init_task) }

LMA of .data.init_task section is equal to its VMA with the old linker.
With the new linker, it depends on the previous output section. You
can use

.data.init_task : AT (ADDR(.data.init_task)) { *(.data.init_task) }

to ensure that LMA of .data.init_task section is always equal to its
VMA. The linker script in the older 2.6 x86-64 kernel depends on the
old behavior.  You can add AT (ADDR(section)) to force LMA of
.data.init_task section equal to its VMA. It will work with both old
and new linkers. The x86-64 kernel linker script in kernel 2.6.13 and
above is OK.

The new x86_64 assembler no longer accepts

	monitor %eax,%ecx,%edx

You should use

	monitor %rax,%ecx,%edx

or
	monitor

which works with both old and new x86_64 assemblers. They should
generate the same opcode.

The new i386/x86_64 assemblers no longer accept instructions for moving
between a segment register and a 32bit memory location, i.e.,

	movl (%eax),%ds
	movl %ds,(%eax)

To generate instructions for moving between a segment register and a
16bit memory location without the 16bit operand size prefix, 0x66,

	mov (%eax),%ds
	mov %ds,(%eax)

should be used. It will work with both new and old assemblers. The
assembler starting from 2.16.90.0.1 will also support

	movw (%eax),%ds
	movw %ds,(%eax)

without the 0x66 prefix. Patches for 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels are
available at

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/linux-2.4-seg-4.patch
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/linux-2.6-seg-5.patch

The ia64 assembler is now defaulted to tune for Itanium 2 processors.
To build a kernel for Itanium 1 processors, you will need to add

ifeq ($(CONFIG_ITANIUM),y)
	CFLAGS += -Wa,-mtune=itanium1
	AFLAGS += -Wa,-mtune=itanium1
endif

to arch/ia64/Makefile in your kernel source tree.

Please report any bugs related to binutils 2.18.50.0.8 to
hjl.tools@gmail.com

and

http://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.7:

1. Update from binutils 2008 0709.
2. Allow vmovd with 64bit operand in x86 assembler.
3. Improve -msse-check in x86 assembler.
4. Fix an AVX assembler bug in Intel syntax.  PR 6517.
5. Improve error message in Intel syntax for x86 assembler.  PR 6518.
6. Add the ".sse_check" directive to x86 assembler.
7. Improve gold.
8. Improve objcopy/strip.  PR 2995/6473.
9. Improve objdump -g.  PR 6483.
10. Improve ld --sort-common.  PR 6430.
11. Add multi-GOT support for m68k.
12. Fix various arm bugs.
13. Fix various avr bugs.
14. Fix various hppa bugs.
15. Fix various m68k bugs.
16. Fix various mips bugs.
17. Fix various mmix bugs.
18. Fix various ppc bugs.
19. Fix various spu bugs.
20. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.6:

1. Update from binutils 2008 0502.
2. Add Intel EPT and MOVBE support.
3. Correct Intel FMA operand order.
4. Change Intel CLMUL to Intel PCLMUL.
5. Add -msse-check to x86 assembler to warn SSE instruction where
there is AVX equivalent.
6. Provide backward compatibility for ELF object files with more
than 64K sections generated by the older binutils.  PR 6412.
7. Improve FDPIC support.
8. Add -wL switch to readelf to dump decoded contents of .debug_line.
9. Add -ag switch to assembler show general information in listings.
10. Improve objcopy symbol filtering performance.  PR 6034.
12. Correct think archive support.
13. Improve ELF/Sparc support.
14. Fix various mips bugs.
15. Fix various sh bugs.
16. Fix various spu bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.5:

1. Update from binutils 2008 0403.
2. Add Intel AES, CLMUL, AVX/FMA support.
3. Improve error handling in x86 linker for undefined hidden/internal
symbols when building a shared object.  PR ld/5789/5943.
4. Add a new ELF linker, gold.
5. Add think archive support.
6. Fix various arm bugs.
7. Fix various avr bugs.
8. Fix various bfin bugs.
9. Fix various hppa bugs.
10. Fix various m68k bugs.
11. Fix various mips bugs.
12. Fix various s390 bugs.
13. Fix various spu bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.4:

1. Update from binutils 2008 0314.
2. Add Intel XSAVE new instruction support.
3. Fix an ia64 linker crash on unsupported TLS relocations.  PR 5913.
4. Fix x86 assembler for gcc 4.3.
5. Fix a linker memory corruption.  PR 5788.
6. Correct linker 64k section support.  PR 5900.
7. Correct hidden, weak and undefined symbol handling. PR 5789.
8. Fix linker for 64bit targets on 32bit hosts.  PR 5303/5755.
9. Fix assembler crash with .set on register.  PR 5543.
10. Fix a typo in linker.  PR 5765.
11. Fix "string -O" infinite loop.  PR 5713.
12. Fix .exitm in assembler.  PR 5895.
13. Fix a linker crash.  PR 5761.
14. Fix various arm bugs.
15. Fix various bfin bugs.
16. Fix various h8 bugs.
17. Fix various ppc bugs.
18. Fix various spu bugs.
19. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2008 0208.
2. Update readelf/objdump to dump DWARF frame info with machine
register names on x86.
3. Optimize x86-64 assembler to omit REX.W prefix when it is ignored.
4. Add operand size check to x86 assembler.  PR 5534.
5. Add -march=CPU[,+EXTENSION...], -mmnemonic, -msyntax, -mindex-reg,
-mnaked-reg and -mold-gcc options to x86 assembler.
6. Add -Mintel-mnemonic/-Mintel-mnemonic options to x86 disassembler.
7. Update x86 disassembler to handle r12 like rsp in memory operand.
8. Update x86 disassembler to properly support movntq, movntsd,
movntss, movntps, movntpd, movntdq and movntdqa.
9. Update x86 disassembler to support AMD nops.
10. Update x86 disassembler for cvtsi2ss/cvtsi2sd.
11. Fix x86 assembler to support new instructions on 2 different archs.
12. Update linker not to generate incorrect debug info for 64bit target
on 32bit host.  PR 5303.
13. Update ia64 assembler to support new registers in Itanium 9100
series.
14. Fix strip on PT_NOTE segment.  PR 5488.
15. Fix strip/objcopy on HPUX/ia64.  PR 5449.
16. Fix strip/objcopy for EFI.  PR 5307.
17. Remove duplicated sections from objdump for COFF/PE.  PR 5299.
18. Fix a linker corruption.  PR 5522.
19. Fix mingw for 64bit targets.
20. Fix various arm bugs.
21. Fix various fr30 bugs.
22. Fix various frv bugs.
23. Fix various hppa bugs.
24. Fix various m10300 bugs.
25. Fix various m32r bugs.
26. Fix various m68k bugs.
27. Fix various mips bugs.
28. Fix various ppc bugs.
29. Fix various spu bugs.
30. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2007 1102.
2. Support link in Linux object files on FreeBSD.  PR 4424.
3. Add Intel SMX instruction support to x86 assembler/diasassembler.
4. Fix an objcopy regression where we failed to adjust section
flags.  PR 5233.
5. Improve irregular instruction support in x86 assembler.
6. Improve support for instructions with restricted operands in x86
diasassembler.
7. Fix an x86-64 assembler bug where extra REX byte generated in Intel
mode.  PR 5109.
8. Update .pushsection directive support in assembler.  PRs 5221.
9. Improve linker -z relro support.
10. Add support for generating wide character strings in assembler.
11. Improve relocation process for DWARF debug info in readelf.
12. Add a linker warning for invalid merge section with unterminated
strings.
13. Improve linker support of DWARF debug info for discarded sections
during linker-relaxation.
14. Improve fabs detection.  PR 5147.
15. Improve non-bash support.  PR 5215.
16. Improve support for non-gcc compiler.  PRs 5146/5160.
17. Improve error messages.  PRs 5172/5173/5161/5158/5155/
5121-5126/5129/5131-5137/5143/5142/5078/5089/5090.
18. Fix various cr16 bugs.
19. Fix various m10300 bugs.
20. Fix various mips bugs.
21. Fix various ppc bugs.
22. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.18.50.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2007 1001.
2. Speed up hash table lookup in linker. 
3. Add -c/--archive-index option to readelf.
4. Fix an readelf crash. PR 5011.
5. Fix an x86 assembler Intel mode bug. PR 5080.
6. Add EIP support in x86 assembler.
7. Add fake index registers, EIZ/RIZ, to x86 assembler/disassembler.
8. Improve x86 assembler error message for truncated values. PR 5026.
9. Remove a COFF assertion in COFF assembler. PR 5035.
10. Add AMD SSE5 support to x86 assembler/disassembler.
11. Fix x86 assembler for extrq/insertq in Intel mode.
12. Fix x86 disassembler for invalid opcodes in 64bit. PR 5072.
13. Fix auto-import in PE-COFF linker.  PR 4844.
14. Correct -z now in ELF linker.
15. Fix a --build-id linker crash.  PR 5025.
16. Improved x86 assembler/disassembler infrastructure for new
instruction support.
17. Fix various m68k bugs.
18. Fix various ppc bugs.
19. Fix various spu bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.18:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0908.
2. Fix an ELF linker for SHT_NOBITS sections.  PR 2864/5006.
3. Improve TLS transition check in i386 and x86-64 linkers.
4. Fix a GD->LE/LD->LE TLS transition bug in i386 and x86-64 linkers.
PR 4918.
5. Update ELF linker to dump segment map when a section can't be allocated
in segment. PR 4909.
6. Clean up x86 disassembler to remove fixups and make it more
table driven.
7. Fix x86 disassember for SSE instructions in Intel mode. PR 4834.
8. Properly handle bss segments in ELF linker.
9. Add --string-dump to readelf.
10. Fix objcopy -R .debug_* --only-keep-debug regression. PR 4888.
11. Change x86 assembler to follow SVME specification.
12. Fix x86 assembler for cmpxchg8b, pextrb and pinsrb in Intel mode.
13. Update x86 assembler to better handle expressions with @GOT suffix.
PR 4079.
14. Properly handle section alignment >= 128 byte for PECOFF.
15. Fix an ELF linker --build-id option crash.  PR 4923.
16. Fix binutils build on HP-UX. PR 4875.
17. Fix a regression of the a.out linker -N option. PR 4515.
18. Update x86 disassembler for invlpg, fxsave, fxrstor, ldmxcsr and
stmxcsr in Intel mode.
19. Fix x86 assembler for SSE4 instructions in Intel mode.
20. Fix various arm bugs.
21. Fix various mips bugs.
22. Fix various ppc bugs.
23. Fix various spu bugs.
24. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.17:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0731.
2. Switching from GPLv2 to GPLv3.
3. Add a new ELF linker option, --build-id, to generate a unique
per-binary identifier embedded in a note section.
4. Remove COFF/x86-64 from PE-COFF/x86-64.
5. Fix a "nm -l" crash on DWARF info. PR 4797.
6. Match symbol type when creating symbol aliase in ELF shared library. 
7. Fix addr2line on relocatable linux kernel. PR 4756.
8. Change disassembler to print addend as signed.
9. Support section alignment from 128 to 8192 bytes for PE-COFF.
10. Add attribute section to ELF linker.
11. Fix ELF linker to meet gABI alignment requirement. PR 4701.
12. Add support for reading in debug information via a .gnu_debuglink
section.
13. Fix string merge for ia64 linker. PR 4590.
14. Add --common to size to display total size for *COM* syms.
15. Fix "strip --strip-unneeded" on relocatable files. PR 4716.
16. Fix "objcopy/strip --only-keep-debug" for SHT_NOTE sections.
17. Fix objdump -S with unit-at-a-time.
18. Properly handle "-shared -pie" in linker. PR 4409.
19. Fix x86 disassembler in Intel mode for various SIMD instruction.
PRs 4667/4834.
20. Update x86-64 assembler to long nop sequence by default.
21. Fix --32 for x86-64 mingw assembler.
22. Fix a memory corruption in assembler.  PR 4722.
22. Properly support 64bit PE-COFF on hosts where long isn't 64bit.
23. Add #line in generated linker source files.
24. Fix linker crash on SIZEOF.  PR 4782.
27. Add CR16 support.
28. Add windmc tool for Windows.
29. Generate x86 instruction/register definitions from ascii tables.
30. Fix strip for Solaris. PR 4712.
31. Fix various mips bugs.
32. Fix various ppc bugs.
33. Fix various spu bugs.
34. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.16:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0615.
2. Preserve section alignment for copy relocation.  PR 4504.
3. Properly fix regression with objcopy --only-keep-debug.  PR 4479.
4. Fix ELF eh frame handling.  PR 4497.
5. Fix ia64 string merge.  PR 4590.
5. Don't use PE target on EFI files nor EFI target on PE files.
6. Speed up linker with many input files.
7. Support cross compiling windres.  PR 2737.
8. Fix various windres bugs.
9. Fix various arms bugs.
10. Fix various m68k bugs.
11. Fix various mips bugs.
12. Fix various ppc bugs.
13. Fix various sparc bugs.
14. Fix various spu bugs.
15. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.15:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0511.
2. Fix objcopy --only-keep-debug and linker multiple BSS sections handling.
PR 4479.
3. Fix "readelf -s -D" for gnu hash.  PR 4476.
4. Fix ia64 linker crash with --unresolved-symbols=ignore-all. PR 4409.
5. Improve crc32 support in x86 assembler/dissassembler.
6. Improve displacement handling in x86 dissassembler. PR 4430.
7. Correct PC relative displacement handling in x86-64 dissassembler for
Intel mode. PR 4429.
8. Fix various PPC bugs.
9. Fix various SPU bugs.
10. Fix various ARM bugs.
11. Fix various m68k bugs.
12. Fix various xtensa bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.14:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0418.
2. Support Intel SSE4 instructions.
3. Fix linker --fatal-warnings for --warn-shared-textrel. PR 4304.
4. Improve linker error message to identify linker script error
location. PR 4090.
5. Fix objcopy to allow removing all sections. PR 4348.
6. Don't print addresses of 32-bit targets as 64-bit values on 64bit
host. PR 4292.
7. Improve checking for corrupted input files. PR 4110.
8. Improve alpha linker performance.
9. Add a new linker option, -l:foo.
10. Fix a PPC linker bug. PR 4267.
11. Misc vxworks bug fixes.
12. Misc SH bug fixes.
13. Misc SPU bug fixes.
14. Misc ARM bug fixes.
15. Misc MIPS bug fixes.
16. Misc xtensa bug fixes.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.13:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0322.
2. Fix >16byte nop padding regression in x86 assembler.
3. Fix x86-64 disassembler for xchg. PR 4218.
4. Optimize opcode for x86-64 xchg.
5. Allow register operand with x86 nop.
6. Properly handle holes between sections for PE-COFF. PR 4210.
7. Print more PE-COFF info for objdump -p.
8. Report missing matching LO16 relocation for HI16 relocation in mips
linker.
9. Use PC-relative relocation for Win64.
10. Fix strip for Solaris. PR 3535.
11. Fix a C++ demangler crash.
12. Some m32c update.
13. Fix misc ARM bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.12:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0315.
2. Add EFI/x86-64 support.
3. Fix ELF linker for relocation against STN_UNDEF. PR 3958.
4. Fix ELF linker for SHT_NOBITS section whose VMA > page size. PR 4144.
5. Make assembler and disassembler consistent for "test %eax,%ebx". PR
4027.
6. Fix i386 32bit address wraparound. PR 3966.
7. Allow Linux/i386 linker to read FreeBSD/i386 object files.
8. Fix ELF linker crash upon use of .gnu.warning.<symbol> sections. PR
3953.
9. Fix ELF linker to issue an error on bad section in segment. PR 4007.
10. Support enabling both x86_64-mingw32 and i386-mingw32. PR 3945.
11. Fix assembler to stabilize .gcc_except_table relaxation. PR 4029.
12. Fix a MIPS linker crash. PR 3852.
13. Fix readelf for h8300-elf. PR 3800.
14. Fix strip for Solaris. PR 3535.
15. Misc xtensa bug fixes.
16. Misc PPC bug fixes.
17. Misc SPU bug fixes.
18. Add support for Toshiba MeP.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.11:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0128.
2. Remove duplicate code in x86 assembler.
3. Fix 32bit and 64bit HPPA/ELF.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.10:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0125.
2. Support environment variables, LD_SYMBOLIC for -Bsymbolic and
LD_SYMBOLIC_FUNCTIONS for -Bsymbolic-functions.
3. Build binutils rpm with LD_SYMBOLIC_FUNCTIONS=1 and reduce PLT
relocations in libfd.so by 84%.
4. Enable sharable sections only for ia32, x86-64 and ia64.
5. Properly handle PT_GNU_RELRO segment for objcopy.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.9:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0122.
2. Implement sharable section proposal for ia32, x86-64 and ia64:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/generic-abi

3. Implement linker enhancement, -Bsymbolic-functions,
--dynamic-list-cpp-new and --dynamic-list-data.  PR 3831.
4. Implement new linker switch, --default-script=FILE/-dT FILE.
5. Check EI_OSABI when reading ELF files.  PR 3826.
6. Fix x86 assembler error message. PR 3830.
7. Fix a bug in ld testsuite.  PR 1283.
8. Don't include archive64.o for 32bit target.  PR 3631.
9. Support -z max-page-size and -z common-page-size in user provided
linker script.
10. Fix 32bit library support for GNU/kFreeBSD/x86-64.  PR 3843.
11. Fix some bugs in Score assembler. PR 3871.
12. Fix various bugs in ARM assembler. PR 3707 and more.
13. Add Fido support.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.8:

1. Update from binutils 2007 0103.
2. Fix --wrap linker bug.
3. Improve handling ELF binaries generated by foreign ELF linkers.
4. Various ELF M68K bug fixes.
5. Score bug fixes.
6. Don't read past end of archive elements. PR 3704.
7. Improve .eh_frame_hdr section handling.
8. Fix symbol visibility with comdat/linkonce sections in ELF linker.
PR 3666.
9. Fix 4 operand instruction handling in x86 assembler.
10. Properly check the 4th operand in x86 assembler. PR 3712.
11. Fix .cfi_endproc handling in assembler. PR 3607.
12. Various ARM bug fixes.
13. Various PE linker fixes.
14. Improve x86 dissassembler for cmpxchg16b.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.7:

1. Update from binutils 2006 1201.
2. Fix "objcopy --only-keep-debug" crash. PR 3609.
3. Fix various ARM ELF bugs.
4. Fix various xtensa bugs.
5. Update x86 disassembler.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.6:

1. Update from binutils 2006 1127.
2. Properly set ELF output segment address when the first section in
input segment is removed.
3. Better merging of CIEs in linker .eh_frame optimizations.
4. Support .cfi_personality and .cfi_lsda assembler directives.
5. Fix an ARM linker crash. PR 3532.
6. Fix various PPC64 ELF bugs.
7. Mark discarded debug info more thoroughly in linker output.
8. Fix various MIPS ELF bugs.
9. Fix readelf to display program interpreter path > 64 chars. PR 3384.
10. Add support for PowerPC SPU.
11. Properly handle cloned symbols used in relocations in assembler. PR
3469.
12. Update opcode for POPCNT in amdfam10 architecture.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.5:

1. Update from binutils 2006 1020.
2. Don't make debug symbol dynamic. PR 3290.
3. Don't page align empty SHF_ALLOC sections, which leads to very large
executables. PR 3314.
4. Use a different section index for section relative symbols against
removed empty sections.
5. Fix a few ELF EH frame handling bugs.
6. Don't ignore relocation overflow on branches to undefweaks for
x86-64. PR 3283.
7. Rename MNI to SSSE3.
8. Properly append symbol list for --dynamic-list.
lists.
9. Various ARM ELF fixes.
10. Correct 64bit library search path for Linux/x86 linker with 64bit
support.
11. Fix ELF linker to copy OS/PROC specific flags from input section to
output section.
12. Fix DW_FORM_ref_addr handling in linker dwarf reader. PR 3191.
13. Fix ELF indirect symbol handling. PR 3351.
14. Fix PT_GNU_RELRO segment handling for SHF_TLS sections. Don't add
PT_GNU_RELRO segment when there are no relro sections. PR 3281.
15. Various MIPS ELF fixes.
16. Various Sparc ELF fixes.
17. Various Xtensa ELF fixes.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.4:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0927.
2. Fix linker regressions of section address and section relative symbol
with empty output section. PR 3223/3267.
3. Fix "strings -T". PR 3257.
4. Fix "objcopy --only-keep-debug". PR 3262.
5. Add Intell iwmmxt2 support.
6. Fix an x86 disassembler bug. PR 3100.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0924.
2. Speed up linker on .o files with debug info on linkonce sections.
PR 3111.
3. Added x86-64 PE support.
4. Fix objcopy/strip on .o files with section groups. PR 3181.
5. Fix "ld --hash-style=gnu" crash with gcc 3.4.6. PR 3197.
6. Fix "strip --strip-debug" on .o files generated with
"gcc -feliminate-dwarf2-dups". PR 3186.
7. Fix "ld -r" on .o files generated with "gcc -feliminate-dwarf2-dups".
PR 3249.
8. Add --dynamic-list to linker to make global symbols dynamic.
9. Fix magic number for EFI ia64. PR 3171.
10. Remove PT_NULL segment for "ld -z relro". PR 3015.
11. Make objcopy to perserve the file formats in archive elements.
PR 3110.
12. Optimize x86-64 assembler and fix disassembler for
"add32 mov xx,$eax". PR 3235.
13. Improve linker diagnostics. PR 3107.
14. Fix "ld --sort-section name". PR 3009.
15. Updated an x86 disassembler bug. PR 3000.
16. Various updates for PPC, ARM, MIPS, SH, Xtensa.
17. Added Score support.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0715.
2. Add --hash-style to ELF linker with DT_GNU_HASH and SHT_GNU_HASH.
3. Fix a visibility bug in ELF linker (PR 2884).
4. Properly fix the i386 TLS linker bug (PR 2513).
5. Add assembler and dissassembler support for Pentium Pro nops.
6. Optimize x86 nops for Pentium Pro and above.
7. Add -march=/-mtune= to x86 assembler.
8. Fix an ELF linker with TLS common symbols.
9. Improve program header allocation in ELF linker.
10. Improve MIPS, M68K and ARM support.
11. Fix an ELF linker crash when reporting alignment change (PR 2735).
12. Remove unused ELF section symbols (PR 2723).
13. Add --localize-hidden to objcopy.
14. Add AMD SSE4a and ABM new instruction support.
15. Properly handle illegal x86 instructions in group 11 (PR 2829).
16. Add "-z max-page-size=" and "-z common-page-size=" to ELF linker.
17. Fix objcopy for .tbss sections.

Changes from binutils 2.17.50.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0526.
2. Change the x86-64 maximum page size to 2MB.
3. Support --enable-targets=all for 64bit target and host (PR 1485).
4. Properly update CIE/FDE length and align section for .eh_frame
section (PR 2655/2657).
5. Properly handle removed ELF section symbols.
6. Fix an ELF linker regression introduced on 2006-04-21.
7. Fix an segfault in PPC ELF linker (PR 2658).
8. Speed up the ELF linker by caching the result of kept section check.
9. Properly create stabs section for ELF.
10. Preserve ELF program header when copying ELF files.
11. Properly handle ELF SHN_LOPROC/SHN_HIOS when checking section
index (PR 2607).
12. Misc mips updates.
13. Misc arm updates.
14. Misc xtensa updates.
15. Fix an alpha assembler warning (PR 2598).
16. Fix assembler buffer overflow.
17. Properly disassemble sgdt/sidt for x86-64.

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.7:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0427.
2. Fix an objcopy regression (PR 2593).
3. Reduce ar memory usage (PR 2467).
4. Allow application specific ELF sections (PR 2537).
5. Fix an i386 TLS linker bug (PR 2513).
6. Speed up ia64 linker by 1300X in some cases (PR 2442).
7. Check illegal immediate register operand in i386 assembler (PR
2533).
8. Fix a strings bug (PR 2584).
9. Better handle corrupted ELF files (PR 2257).
10. Fix a MIPS linker bug (PR 2267).

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.6:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0317.
2. Support Intel Merom New Instructions in assembler/disassembler.
3. Support Intel new instructions in Montecito.
4. Fix linker "--as-needed" (PR 2434).
5. Fix linker "-s" regression (PR 2462).
6. Fix REP prefix for string instructions in x86 disassembler
(PR 2428).
7. Fix the weak undefined symbols in PIE (PR 2218).
8. Fix 2 DWARF reader bugs (PRs 2443, 2338).
9. Improve ELF linker error message (PR 2322).
10. Avoid abort with dynamic symbols in >64K sections (PR 2411).
11. Handle mismatched symbol types for executables (PR 2404).
12. Avoid a linker linkonce regression (PR 2342).

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.5:

1. Update from binutils 2006 0212.
2. Correct Linux linker search order for DT_NEEDED entries (PR 2290).
3. Fix the x86-64 disassembler for control/debug register moves.
4. Properly handle ELF strip/objcopy with unmodified program header
(PR 2258).
5. Improve ELF linker error handling when there are not enough room for
program headers (PR 2322).
6. Properly handle weak undefined symbols in PIE (PR 2218).
7. Support new i386/x86-64 TLS relocations.
8. Fix addr2line for linux kernel (PR 2096).
9. Fix an assembler memory leak with --statistics.
10. Avoid an ia64 assembler regression (PR 2117).

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.4:

1. Update from binutils 2005 1219.
2. Fix a MIPS linker regression (PR 1932).
3. Fix an objcopy bug for ia64 (PR 1991).
4. Fix a linker crash on bad input (PR 2008).
5. Fix 64bit monitor and mwait (PR 1874).

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2005 1111.
2. Fix ELF orphan section handling (PR 1467)
3. Fix ELF section attribute handleing (PR 1487).
4. Fix IA64 unwind info dump for relocatable files. (PR 1436).
5. Add DWARF info dump to objdump.
6. Fix SHF_LINK_ORDER handling (PR 1321).
7. Don't allow "ld --just-symbols" on DSO (PR 1263).
8. Fix a "ld -u" crash on TLS symbol (PR 1301).
9. Fix an IA64 linker crash (PR 1247).
10. Fix a MIPS linker bug (PR 1150).
11. Fix a M68K linker bug (PR 1775).
12. Fix an ELF symbol versioning linker bug (PR 1540).
13. Improve linker error handling (PR 1208).
14. Add new SPARC processors to SunOS for objcopy (PR 1472).
15. Add "@file" to read options from a file.
16. Add assembler weakref support.

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0821.
2. Support x86-64 medium model.
3. Fix "objdump -S --adjust-vma=xxx" (PR 1179).
4. Reduce R_IA64_NONE relocations from R_IA64_LDXMOV relaxation.
5. Fix x86 linker regression for dosemu.
6. Add "readelf -t/--section-details" to display section details.
7. Fix "as -al=file" regression (PR 1118).

Changes from binutils 2.16.91.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0720.
2. Add Intel VMX support.
3. Add AMD SVME support.
4. Add x86-64 new relocations for medium model.
5. Fix a PIE regression (PR 975).
6. Fix an x86_64 signed 32bit displacement regression.
7. Fix PPC PLT (PR 1004). 
8. Improve empty section removal.

Changes from binutils 2.16.90.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0622.
2. Fix a linker versioning bug exposed by gcc 4 (PR 1022/1023/1025).
3. Optimize ia64 br->brl relaxation (PR 834).
4. Improve linker empty section removal.
5. Fix DWARF 2 line number reporting (PR 990).
6. Fix DWARF 2 line number reporting regression on assembly file (PR
1000).

Changes from binutils 2.16.90.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0510.
2. Update ia64 assembler to support comdat group section generated by
gcc 4 (PR 940).
3. Fix a linker crash on bad input (PR 939).
4. Fix a sh64 assembler regression (PR 936).
5. Support linker script on executable (PR 882).
6. Fix the linker -pie regression (PR 878).
7. Fix an x86_64 disassembler bug (PR 843).
8. Fix a PPC linker regression.
9. Misc speed up.

Changes from binutils 2.16.90.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0429.
2. Fix an ELF linker regression (PR 815).
3. Fix an empty section removal related bug.
4. Fix an ia64 linker regression (PR 855).
5. Don't allow local symbol to be equated common/undefined symbols (PR
857).
6. Fix the ia64 linker to handle local dynamic symbol error reporting.
7. Make non-debugging reference to discarded section an error (PR 858).
8. Support Sparc/TLS.
9. Support rpm build with newer rpm.
10. Fix an alpha linker regression.
11. Fix the non-gcc build regression.

Changes from binutils 2.15.94.0.2.2:

1. Update from binutils 2005 0408.
2. The i386/x86_64 assemblers no longer accept instructions for moving
between a segment register and a 32bit memory location.
3. The x86_64 assembler now allows movq between a segment register and
a 64bit general purpose register.
4. 20x Speed up linker for input files with >64K sections.
5. Properly report ia64 linker relaxation failures.
6. Support tuning ia64 assembler for Itanium 2 processors.
7. Linker will remove empty unused output sections.
8. Add -N to readelf to display full section names.
9. Fix the ia64 linker to support linkonce text sections without unwind
sections.
10. More unwind directive checkings in the ia64 assembler.
11. Speed up linker with wildcard handling.
12. Fix readelf to properly dump .debug_ranges and .debug_loc sections.

Changes from binutils 2.15.94.0.2:

1. Fix greater than 64K section support in linker.
2. Properly handle i386 and x86_64 protected symbols in linker.
3. Fix readelf for LEB128 on 64bit hosts.
4. Speed up readelf for section group process.
5. Include ia64 texinfo pages.
6. Change ia64 assembler to check hint.b for Montecito.
7. Improve relaxation failure report in ia64 linker.
8. Fix ia64 linker to allow relax backward branch in the same section.

Changes from binutils 2.15.94.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2004 1220.
2. Fix strip for TLS symbol references.

Changes from binutils 2.15.92.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2004 1121.
2. Put ia64 .ctors/.dtors sections next to small data section for
Intel ia64 compiler.
3. Fix -Bdynamic/-Bstatic handling for linker script.
4. Provide more information on relocation overflow.
5. Add --sort-section to linker.
6. Support icc 8.1 unwind info in readelf.
7. Fix the infinite loop bug on bad input in the ia64 assembler.
8. Fix ia64 SECREL relocation in linker.
9. Fix a section group memory leak in readelf.

Changes from binutils 2.15.91.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0927.
2. Work around a section header bug in Intel ia64 compiler.
3. Fix an unwind directive bug in the ia64 assembler.
4. Fix various PPC bugs.
5. Update ARM support.
6. Fix an x86-64 linker warning while building Linux kernel.

Changes from binutils 2.15.91.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0727.
2. Fix the x86_64 linker to prevent non-PIC code in shared library.
3. Fix the ia64 linker to warn the relotable files which can't be
relaxed.
4. Fix the comdat group support. Allow mix single-member comdat group
with linkonce section.
5. Added --add-needed/--no-add-needed options to linker.
6. Fix the SHF_LINK_ORDER support.
7. Fix the ia64 assembler for multiple sections with the same name and
SHT_IA_64_UNWIND sections.
8. Fix the ia64 assembler for merge section and relaxation.

Changes from binutils 2.15.90.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0527.
2. Fix -x auto option in the ia64 assembler.
3. Add the AR check in the ia64 assembler.
4. Fix the section group support.
5. Add a new -z relro linker option.
6. Fix an exception section placement bug in linker.
7. Add .serialize.data and .serialize.instruction to the ia64
assembler.

Changes from binutils 2.15.90.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0415.
2. Fix the linker for weak undefined symbol handling.
3. Fix the ELF/Sparc and ELF/Sparc64 linker for statically linking PIC
code.

Changes from binutils 2.15.90.0.1.1:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0412.
2. Add --as-needed/--no-as-needed to linker.
3. Fix -z defs in linker.
4. Always reserve the memory for ia64 dynamic linker.
5. Fix a race condition in ia64 lazy binding.

Changes from binutils 2.15.90.0.1:

1. Fixed an ia64 assembler bug.
2. Install the assembler man page.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.8:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0303.
2. Fixed linker for undefined symbols with non-default visibility.
3. Sped up linker weakdef symbol handling.
4. Fixed mixing ELF32 and ELF64 object files in archive.
5. Added ia64 linker brl optimization.
6. Fixed ia64 linker to disallow invalid dynamic relocations.
7. Fixed DT_TEXTREL handling in ia64 linker.
8. Fixed alignment handling in ia64 assembler.
9. Improved ia64 assembler unwind table handling. 

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.7:

1. Update from binutils 2004 0114.
2. Fixed an ia64 assembler unwind table bug. 
3. Better handle IPF linker relaxation overflow.
4. Fixed misc PPC bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.6:

1. Update from binutils 2003 1029.
2. Allow type changes for undefined symbols.
3. Fix EH frame optimization.
4. Fix the check for undefined versioned symbol with wildcard.
5. Support generating code for Itanium.
6. Detect and warn bad symbol index.
7. Update IPF assemebler DV check.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.5:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0820.
2. No longer use section names for ELF section types nor flags.
3. Fix some ELF/IA64 linker bugs.
4. Fix some ELF/ppc bugs.
5. Add archive support to readelf.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.4.1:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0722.
2. Fix an ELF/mips linker bug.
3. Fix an ELF/hpppa linker bug.
4. Fix an ELF/ia64 assembler bug.
5. Fix a linkonce support with C++ debug.
6. A new working C++ demangler.
7. Various alpha, mips, ia64, ... bug fixes.
8. Support for the current gcc and glibc.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.4:
 
1. Fix an ia64 assembler hint@pause bug.
2. Support Intel Prescott New Instructions.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.3:

1. Work around the brain dead libtool.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0523.
2. Fix 2 ELF visibility bugs.
3. Fix ELF/ppc linker bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.14.90.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0515.
2. Fix various ELF visibility bugs.
3. Fix some ia64 linker bugs.
4. Add more IAS compatibilities to ia64 assembler.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.20:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0505.
2. Fix various ELF visibility bugs.
3. Fix some ia64 linker bugs.
4. Fix some ia64 assembler bugs.
5. Add some IAS compatibilities to ia64 assembler.
6. Fix ELF common symbol alignment.
7. Fix ELF weak symbol handling.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.18:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0319.
2. Fix an ia64 linker brl relaxation bug.
3. Fix some ELF/ppc linker bugs.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.16:

1. Update from binutils 2003 0121.
2. Fix an ia64 gas bug.
3. Fix some TLS bugs.
4. Fix some ELF/ppc bugs.
5. Fix an ELF/m68k bug.

2. Include /usr/bin/c++filt.
Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.14:

1. Update from binutils 2002 1126.
2. Include /usr/bin/c++filt.
3. Fix "ld -r" with execption handling.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.10:

1. Update from binutils 2002 1114.
2. Fix ELF/alpha bugs.
3. Fix an ELF/i386 assembler bug.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.4:

1. Update from binutils 2002 1010.
2. More ELF/PPC linker bug fixes.
3. Fix an ELF/alpha linker bug.
4. Fix an ELF/sparc linker bug to support Solaris.
5. More TLS updates.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2002 0814.
2. Fix symbol versioning bugs for gcc 3.2.
3. Fix mips gas.

Changes from binutils 2.13.90.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2002 0809.
2. Fix a mips gas compatibility bug.
3. Fix an x86 TLS bfd bug.
4. Fix an x86 PIC gas bug.
5. Improve symbol versioning support.

The file list:

1. binutils-2.18.50.0.8.tar.bz2. Source code.
2. binutils-2.18.50.0.7-2.18.50.0.8.diff.bz2. Patch against the
   previous beta source code.
3. binutils-2.18.50.0.8.i686.tar.bz2. IA-32 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 4.
4. binutils-2.18.50.0.8.ia64.tar.bz2. IA-64 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 4.
5. binutils-2.18.50.0.8.x86_64.tar.bz2. X64_64 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 4.

The primary sites for the beta Linux binutils are:

1. http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/

Thanks.


H.J. Lu
hjl.tools@gmail.com
07/09/2008