Changelog:
Release Notes for Elftoolchain Software Version 0.7.1
=====================================================
About The Project
-----------------
The `Elftoolchain project`_ develops BSD-licensed implementations of
essential compilation tools and libraries for handling ELF based program
objects.
About The Release
-----------------
This is the first release on the v0.7 "stable" code line.
Since the prior v0.6.1 release, we have added support for a few more
machine architectures, improved our support of the DWARF4 debug format,
and have added experimental support for the Microsoft (TM) Portable
Executable format. A number of bugs have been fixed, and the project's
documentation has been improved. An implementation of a link editor
**ld** is in progress.
Libraries and Utilities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This release comprises the following libraries and utilities.
================= ==========================================
**Name** **Description**
================= ==========================================
**ar** Archive manager.
**addr2line** Debug tool.
**brandelf** Manage the ELF brand on executables.
**c++filt** Translate encoded symbols.
**elfcopy** Copy and translate between object formats.
**elfdump** Diagnostic tool.
**findtextrel** Find undesired text relocations.
**libdwarf** DWARF access library.
**libelf** ELF access library.
**mcs** Manage comment sections.
**nm** List symbols in an ELF object.
**ranlib** Add archive symbol tables to an archive.
**readelf** Display ELF information.
**size** List object sizes.
**strings** Extract printable strings.
**strip** Discard information from ELF objects.
================= ==========================================
This release also contains the following software that is under
development:
================= ==========================================
**Name** **Description**
================= ==========================================
**ld** Program linker.
**libpe** PE (Portable Executable) access library.
================= ==========================================
Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each public API and invocable utility has a reference manual entry.
We currently offer 355 manual entries, documented in 197 manual pages.
Additionally, this release contains the following documentation:
================= ==========================================
**Name** **Description**
================= ==========================================
libelf-by-example A tutorial introduction to **libelf**.
================= ==========================================
Test Suites
~~~~~~~~~~~
The release contains the following test suites:
================= ==========================================
**Name** **Description**
================= ==========================================
ar Test the **ar** utility.
elfcopy Test the **elfcopy** utility.
elfdump Test the **elfdump** utility.
libdwarf Test the **libdwarf** library.
libelf Test the **libelf** library.
libelftc Test the **libelftc** support library.
nm Test the **nm** utility.
================= ==========================================
System Requirements
-------------------
This software is designed to run on Unix(TM)-like operating systems
such as the BSD-family of operating systems and GNU/Linux.
This release has been built and tested on the following operating
systems:
==================== =========== ===========================
**Operating System** **Version** **Supported Architectures**
-------------------- ----------- ---------------------------
FreeBSD_ 10.2 amd64 & i386
NetBSD_ 7.0 i386
Ubuntu_ GNU/Linux 14.04LTS x86_64
==================== =========== ===========================
Installation and Upgrades
=========================
Installation
------------
Instructions for building and installing this software from source are
described in the file "INSTALL".
Upgrading
---------
* Consumers of the libdwarf API should note that the `Dwarf_Off` type
has changed to an unsigned type, so as to be compatible with other
open-source libdwarf implementations.
* Three functions in the libdwarf API have been deprecated and two
extension APIs have been added.
Release Information
===================
Changes in this release
-----------------------
Significant changes include:
* **addr2line**
- Support the ``DW_AT_ranges`` debug attribute.
- Improve DWARF4 compatibility.
- **addr2line** supports new options ``-a``, ``-i``, ``-p``.
- Compilation units lacking debug information are handled more robustly.
- Memory leaks were fixed.
* **ar/ranlib**
- The **ranlib** utility is now documented in its own manual page.
- The handling of corrupt archives has been improved.
- **ar** now supports a ``-U`` option that disables its
deterministic (``-D``) mode.
- **ar** no longer allows extraction of archive entries whose
pathnames contain ``..``, or whose target directory would be
altered by a symbolic link.
* **brandelf**
- The documentation for **brandelf** has been improved.
* **elfcopy/strip/mcs**
- **strip** no longer strips local debugging symbols when the ``-x``
option is specified.
- Compatibility with GNU binutils has been improved.
- The **elfcopy** and **strip** utilities will now preserve hard
links when modifying an object file.
- Support for new functionality controlled by options
``--localize-hidden``, ``--extract-dwo`` and ``--strip-dwo`` has
been added.
- Bugs in the behavior of the ``-N`` and ``-X`` options were fixed.
- Nameless global symbols are now handled correctly.
- ``SHT_GROUP`` handling has been fixed in **elfcopy** and
**strip**.
- **elfcopy** now supports the conversion of ELF objects to PE images.
* **elfdump**
- **elfdump** can now dump multiple GOT sections.
- **elfdump** now understands the ``EM_AARCH64``, ``EM_IAMCU``,
``EM_PPC64``, and ``EM_RISCV`` machine types and the
``STT_SPARC_REGISTER`` section type.
- Symbols with ``STB_GNU_UNIQUE`` are now supported.
* **findtextrel**
- The manual pages were improved.
* **ld**
- This utility is new in this release. This utility is currently under
development, and should be considered unstable.
* **libdwarf**
- The line number program generated by **libdwarf** has been improved.
- Support for the DWARF4 ``.debug_types`` section was added.
- Parsing of DWARF4 line sections was fixed.
- New APIs ``dwarf_attroffset()``,
``dwarf_get_cu_die_offset_given_cu_header_offset_b()``,
``dwarf_get_die_infotypes_flag()``,
``dwarf_get_section_max_offsets()``,
``dwarf_get_section_max_offsets_b()``, ``dwarf_highpc_b()``,
``dwarf_loclist_from_expr_b()``, ``dwarf_next_types_section()``,
``dwarf_offdie_b()``, and ``dwarf_siblingof_b()`` have been added.
Of these, ``dwarf_attroffset()`` and ``dwarf_next_types_section()``
are extensions to the SGI libdwarf API.
- Support for operators ``DW_OP_GNU_addr_index``,
``DW_OP_GNU_const_index``, ``DW_OP_GNU_const_type``,
``DW_OP_GNU_convert``, ``DW_OP_GNU_deref_type``,
``DW_OP_GNU_encoded_addr``, ``DW_OP_GNU_entry_value``,
``DW_OP_GNU_implicit_pointer``, ``DW_OP_GNU_parameter_ref``,
``DW_OP_GNU_regval_type``, ``DW_OP_GNU_reinterpret``,
``DW_OP_GNU_uninit`` and ``DW_OP_push_object_address`` have been
added.
- APIs ``dwarf_get_cu_die_offset_given_cu_header_offset()``,
``dwarf_offdie()``, ``dwarf_siblingof()`` have been deprecated.
- **libdwarf** now supports relocation for the ``aarch64``
architecture.
- **libdwarf** now handles architectures that use ".rel" relocations
for debug data correctly.
- The ``EM_IAMCU`` architecture is now recognized.
- Documentation has been improved, memory leaks and other bugs have
been fixed.
* **libelf**
- Reference documentation has been improved.
- Support building on the AARCH64 architecture has added.
- Bug fixes have been applied.
* **libelf-by-example**
- No changes since the prior release.
* **libelftc**
- Support for the Portable Executable format has been added.
- Overview documentation for this support library has been added.
- New APIs ``elftc_string_table_from_section()``.
``elftc_string_table_image()``, ``elftc_string_table_insert()``,
``elftc_string_table_lookup()``, ``elftc_string_table_remove()``
and ``elftc_string_table_to_string()`` have been added.
- The demangling support functions now support IEEE floating point
types, TLS special names and various GNU extensions.
- Other bugs have fixed.
* **libpe**
- This library is new in this release. This library is currently
under development, and should be considered unstable.
* **nm**
- A new alias ``--extern-only`` for option ``-g`` is now supported.
- Bugs have been fixed.
* **readelf**
- The handling of objects with missing symbol names was improved.
- **readelf** now supports dumping ``.debug_types`` sections.
- The ``DW_AT_language``, ``DW_FORM_exprloc``,
``DW_FORM_flag_present``, ``DW_FORM_ref_sig8`` and
``DW_FORM_sec_offset`` types are now supported.
- GNU DWARF operator extensions are now recognized by **readelf**.
- **readelf** can now display architecture specific register names on
some architectures.
- **readelf** now handles AArch64 types and relocations and
recognizes the ``RISC-V`` and ``IAMCU`` architectures.
- Support has been added for printing binary notes for FreeBSD, Xen
and Linux, and for printing core notes for FreeBSD and Linux.
- Support for dumping symbols with the ``STB_GNU_UNIQUE`` binding
has been added.
- Support for dumping symbols with the ``STT_SPARC_REGISTER``
register type has been added.
* **size**
- The manual page for **size** has been improved.
* **strings**
- The manual page for **strings** has been improved.
Outstanding Issues
------------------
There were no outstanding issues at the time of the release.
Known Limitations
-----------------
This release has the following limitations:
:Test coverage:
Our test suites are being developed; test coverage is still
partial.
:Performance and Memory Use:
Our tools have not been fully analyzed for their memory use or for
their performance characteristics.
Test Statistics
---------------
The test summary for this release is presented below:
========= ========== =============== ================ ===================
**Suite** **Tests** **FreeBSD** **NetBSD** **Ubuntu 10.04LTS**
(32&64bit) (i386 & amd64) (i386) (x86_64)
========= ========== =============== ================ ===================
ar 235 & 230 P:235 & 230 P:235 P:230
elfcopy 160 P:160 P:160 P:160
elfdump 155 P:155 P:155 P:155
libdwarf 153 P:153 P:153 P:153
libelf 1030 P:1026, U:4 P:1026, U:4 P:1026, U:4
libelftc 16 P:16 P:16 P:16
nm 183 P:183 P:183 P:183
========= ========== =============== ================ ===================
Key:
:P:
Test successes.
:F:
Test failures.
:U:
Unresolved tests.
Notes
~~~~~
More Information
================
The project's website is at http://elftoolchain.sourceforge.net/.
Developer Community
-------------------
The project's developers may be contacted using the mailing list:
``<elftoolchain-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>``.
Reporting Bugs
--------------
Please use our `bug tracker`_ for viewing existing bug reports and
for submitting new bug reports.
Copyright and License
=====================
This software is copyright its authors, and is distributed under the
`BSD License`_.
.. _BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
.. _`bug tracker`: https://sourceforge.net/p/elftoolchain/tickets/
.. _Elftoolchain project: http://elftoolchain.sourceforge.net/
.. _FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/
.. _NetBSD: http://www.netbsd.org/
.. _Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/
.. Local Variables:
.. mode: rst
.. End:
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