NEWS revision 60484
133965Sjdp-*- text -*- 233965Sjdp 360484SobrienChanges in 2.10: 460484Sobrien 560484SobrienSupport for ATMEL AVR. 660484Sobrien 760484SobrienSupport for IBM 370 ELF. Somewhat experimental. 860484Sobrien 960484SobrienSupport for numbers with suffixes. 1060484Sobrien 1160484SobrienAdded support for breaking to the end of repeat loops. 1260484Sobrien 1360484SobrienAdded support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL). 1460484Sobrien 1560484SobrienNew .elseif pseudo-op added. 1660484Sobrien 1760484SobrienNew --fatal-warnings option. 1860484Sobrien 1960484SobrienpicoJava architecture support added. 2060484Sobrien 2160484SobrienMotorola MCore 210 processor support added. 2260484Sobrien 2360484SobrienA new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386 2460484Sobrienassembly programs with intel syntax. 2560484Sobrien 2660484SobrienNew pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code. 2760484Sobrien 2860484SobrienAdded -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information. 2960484Sobrien 3060484SobrienFull 16-bit mode support for i386. 3160484Sobrien 3260484SobrienGreatly improved instruction operand checking for i386. This change will 3360484Sobrienproduce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions of 3460484Sobriengas accepted. If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with older 3560484Sobrienversions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug. 3660484Sobrien 3760484SobrienWeak symbol support added for COFF targets. 3860484Sobrien 3960484SobrienMitsubishi D30V support added. 4060484Sobrien 4160484SobrienTexas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added. 4260484Sobrien 4360484Sobrieni960 ELF support added. 4460484Sobrien 4538889SjdpChanges in 2.9: 4638889Sjdp 4760484SobrienTexas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added. 4838889Sjdp 4938889SjdpThe assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs 5060484Sobrienand gcc 2.8. The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization. 5138889Sjdp 5238889SjdpAdded --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information. 5338889Sjdp 5438889SjdpThe -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a 5538889Sjdplisting. 5638889Sjdp 5738889SjdpAdded -MD option to print dependencies. 5838889Sjdp 5933965SjdpChanges in 2.8: 6033965Sjdp 6133965SjdpBeOS support added. 6233965Sjdp 6333965SjdpMIPS16 support added. 6433965Sjdp 6533965SjdpMotorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200). 6633965Sjdp 6733965SjdpAlpha/VMS support added. 6833965Sjdp 6933965Sjdpm68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32, 7033965Sjdp--disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added. 7133965Sjdp 7233965SjdpThe alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the 7333965Sjdpmaximum number of bytes to skip. If doing the alignment would require skipping 7433965Sjdpmore than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at all. 7533965Sjdp 7633965SjdpThe ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning. 7733965Sjdp 7833965SjdpThe -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false conditionals 7933965Sjdpin listings. 8033965Sjdp 8133965SjdpAdded new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if the 8233965Sjdpsymbol is already defined. 8333965Sjdp 8433965SjdpChanges in 2.7: 8533965Sjdp 8633965SjdpThe PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0, etc.) 8733965Sjdpif -mregnames is used. Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.) can be 8833965Sjdpused any time. PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been added. 8933965Sjdp 9033965SjdpAlpha Linux (ELF) support added. 9133965Sjdp 9233965SjdpPowerPC ELF support added. 9333965Sjdp 9433965Sjdpm68k Linux (ELF) support added. 9533965Sjdp 9633965Sjdpi960 Hx/Jx support added. 9733965Sjdp 9833965Sjdpi386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added. 9933965Sjdp 10033965SjdpSCO ELF support added. For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the 10133965Sjdpdefault is to build COFF-only support. To get a set of tools that generate ELF 10233965Sjdp(they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with 10333965Sjdptarget=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf. 10433965Sjdp 10538889Sjdpm88k-motorola-sysv3* support added. 10633965Sjdp 10733965SjdpChanges in 2.6: 10833965Sjdp 10933965SjdpGas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP. 11033965Sjdp 11133965SjdpGas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode. Use -M or --mri to select MRI 11233965Sjdpmode. The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the ``.mri 11333965Sjdp0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code. 11433965Sjdp 11533965SjdpAdded --defsym SYM=VALUE option. 11633965Sjdp 11733965SjdpAdded -mips4 support to MIPS assembler. 11833965Sjdp 11933965SjdpAdded PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler. 12033965Sjdp 12133965SjdpChanges in 2.4: 12233965Sjdp 12333965SjdpConverted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script. 12433965Sjdp 12533965SjdpARM support, from Richard Earnshaw. 12633965Sjdp 12733965SjdpUpdated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved debugging 12833965Sjdpsupport. 12933965Sjdp 13033965SjdpSupport for the control registers in the 68060. 13133965Sjdp 13233965SjdpHandles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to 13333965Sjdpprovide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some 13433965Sjdpfeatures not available in the native assembler. If the native assembler is 13533965Sjdpused, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is. 13633965Sjdp 13733965SjdpUsage message is available with "--help". 13833965Sjdp 13933965SjdpThe GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included. (Actually, it was in 2.3 14033965Sjdpalso, but didn't get into the NEWS file.) 14133965Sjdp 14233965SjdpWeak symbol support for a.out. 14333965Sjdp 14433965SjdpA bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed. 14533965SjdpBugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed. 14633965Sjdp 14733965SjdpInitial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by Paul 14833965SjdpKranenburg. 14933965Sjdp 15033965SjdpImproved Alpha support. Immediate constants can have a much larger range now. 15133965SjdpSupport for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital. 15233965Sjdp 15333965SjdpUpdated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall. 15433965Sjdp 15533965SjdpChanges in 2.3: 15633965Sjdp 15733965SjdpMach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn. 15833965Sjdp 15933965SjdpRS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor. 16033965Sjdp 16133965SjdpVMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit, 16233965Sjdpbased on mail received from various people. The `-h#' option should work again 16333965Sjdptoo. 16433965Sjdp 16533965SjdpHP-PA work, by Jeff Law. Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work 16633965Sjdpwith gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6. As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special 16733965Sjdpversion of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3. You can retrieve 16833965Sjdpthis special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu 16933965Sjdpin the "dist" directory. 17033965Sjdp 17133965SjdpVax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple simple 17233965Sjdptests okay. I haven't put it through extensive testing. (GNU make is 17333965Sjdpcurrently required for BSD 4.3 builds.) 17433965Sjdp 17533965SjdpSupport for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format). The gas support is 17633965Sjdpbased on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format. I'm afraid the 17733965Sjdpalpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed; making it 17833965Sjdpwork will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways. 17933965Sjdp 18033965SjdpIrix 5 support. 18133965Sjdp 18233965SjdpThe test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a 18333965Sjdpcouple different versions of expect and dejagnu. 18433965Sjdp 18533965SjdpSymbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more 18633965Sjdpflexibility in evaluating them in some cases. Some details of relocation 18733965Sjdphandling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been added, 18833965Sjdpto make the Alpha port easier. 18933965Sjdp 19033965SjdpNew option "--statistics" for printing out program run times. This is intended 19133965Sjdpto be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in various 19233965Sjdpphases of compilation. (You should be able to get all of them printed out with 19333965Sjdp"gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.) 19433965Sjdp 19533965Sjdp---------------------------------------------------------------- 19633965Sjdp 19733965SjdpChanges in 2.2: 19833965Sjdp 19933965SjdpRS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added. 20033965Sjdp 20133965SjdpConfigurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to 20233965Sjdphave listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to 20333965Sjdpgas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the 20433965Sjdpimpression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be 20533965Sjdpreliable. 20633965Sjdp 20733965SjdpThe program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is 20833965Sjdpdisplayed. This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional 20933965Sjdpmessages about "internal errors". 21033965Sjdp 21133965SjdpELF support is falling into place. Support for the 386 should be working. 21233965SjdpSupport for SPARC Solaris is in. HPPA support from Utah is being integrated. 21333965Sjdp 21433965SjdpSymbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately boiled 21533965Sjdpdown to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant. This permits slightly more 21633965Sjdpcomplex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey known. 21733965Sjdp 21833965SjdpDBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats. 21933965SjdpIf any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new 22033965Sjdpsections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section. The format of the .stab 22133965Sjdpsection is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is 22233965Sjdpits string table. For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC 22333965Sjdpto generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB 22433965Sjdpthat can use the stab sections (4.11 or later). 22533965Sjdp 22633965SjdpLynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported. SPARC LynxOS 22733965Sjdpsupport is in progress. 22833965Sjdp 22933965Sjdp---------------------------------------------------------------- 23033965Sjdp 23133965SjdpChanges in 2.1: 23233965Sjdp 23333965SjdpSeveral small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been 23433965Sjdpincorporated, but not well tested yet. 23533965Sjdp 23633965SjdpAltered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile 23733965Sjdpwith gcc now. 23833965Sjdp 23933965SjdpSome minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support, 24033965Sjdpsuggested by Ronald Cole. 24133965Sjdp 24233965SjdpHPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah. This 24333965Sjdpincludes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris 24433965Sjdp2.x. Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work. 24533965Sjdp 24633965SjdpHP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in. 24733965Sjdp 24833965SjdpIan Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support. 24933965Sjdp 25033965SjdpBetter error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux). 25133965Sjdp 25233965SjdpTest suite framework is starting to become reasonable. 25333965Sjdp 25433965Sjdp---------------------------------------------------------------- 25533965Sjdp 25633965SjdpChanges in 2.0: 25733965Sjdp 25833965SjdpMostly bug fixes. 25933965Sjdp 26033965SjdpSome more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work. 26133965Sjdp 26233965Sjdp---------------------------------------------------------------- 26333965Sjdp 26433965SjdpChanges in 1.94: 26533965Sjdp 26633965SjdpBFD merge is partly done. Adventurous souls may try giving configure the 26733965Sjdp"--with-bfd-assembler" option. Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out format 26833965Sjdpaccepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it. It's the default only for OS "elf" or 26933965Sjdp"solaris". (ELF isn't really supported yet. It needs work. I've got some 27033965Sjdpcode from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not fully 27133965Sjdpmerged yet.) 27233965Sjdp 27333965SjdpThe 68K opcode table has been split in half. It should now compile under gcc 27433965Sjdpwithout consuming ridiculous amounts of memory. 27533965Sjdp 27633965SjdpA couple data structures have been reduced in size. This should result in 27733965Sjdpsaving a little bit of space at runtime. 27833965Sjdp 27933965SjdpSupport for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in. The OSF 28033965Sjdpcode provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet. (I can make 28133965Sjdpit available, if anyone wants to try it out.) Ralph's code, for BSD 4.4, 28233965Sjdpsupports a.out format. We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's coming. 28333965Sjdp 28433965SjdpSupport for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added. 28533965Sjdp 28633965SjdpVMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric 28733965SjdpYoungdale. 28833965Sjdp 28933965Sjdp---------------------------------------------------------------- 29033965Sjdp 29133965SjdpChanges in 1.93.01: 29233965Sjdp 29333965SjdpFor m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851. 29433965Sjdp 29533965SjdpFor i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes. 29633965Sjdp 29733965SjdpFor m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names. For COFF format, which 29833965Sjdpdoesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0" 29933965Sjdpcan be distinguished from the register. 30033965Sjdp 30133965SjdpLast public release was 1.38. Lots of configuration changes since then, lots 30233965Sjdpof new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed. 30333965Sjdp 30433965Sjdp 30533965SjdpLocal variables: 30633965Sjdpfill-column: 79 30733965SjdpEnd: 308