The Linux binutils 2.21.53.0.1 is released

["H.J. Lu" <hongjiu dot lu at intel dot com>]

This is the beta release of binutils 2.21.53.0.1 for Linux, which is
based on binutils 2011 0716 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 2.21.51.0.3 release, you must remove .ctors/.dtors
section sentinels when building glibc or other C run-time libraries.
Otherwise, you will run into:

http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12343

Starting from the 2.21.51.0.2 release, BFD linker has the working LTO
plugin support. It can be used with GCC 4.5 and above. For GCC 4.5, you
need to configure GCC with --enable-gold to enable LTO plugin support.

Starting from the 2.21.51.0.2 release, binutils fully supports compressed
debug sections.  However, compressed debug section isn't turned on by
default in assembler. I am planning to turn it on for x86 assembler in
the future release, which may lead to the Linux kernel bug messages like

WARNING: lib/ts_kmp.o (.zdebug_aranges): unexpected non-allocatable section.

But the resulting kernel works fine.

Starting from the 2.20.51.0.4 release, no diffs against the previous
release will be provided.

You can enable both gold and bfd ld with --enable-gold=both.  Gold will
be installed as ld.gold and bfd ld will be installed as ld.bfd.  By
default, ld.bfd will be installed as ld.  You can use the configure
option, --enable-gold=both/gold to choose gold as the default linker,
ld.  IA-32 binary and X64_64 binary tar balls are configured with
--enable-gold=both/ld --enable-plugins --enable-threads.

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 2.21.53.0.1 to
hjl.tools@gmail.com

and

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

Changes from binutils 2.21.52.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0716.
2. Fix LTO linker bugs.  PRs 12982/12942.
3. Fix rorx support in x86 assembler/disassembler for AVX Programming
Reference (June, 2011).
4. Fix an x86-64 ELFOSABI linker regression.
5. Update ELFOSABI_GNU support.  PR 12913.
6. Fix a linker regression with prelink support.  PR 12921.
7. Add unwind info to x86 PLT section.  PR 12570.
8. Support x32 core files.
9. Support native x32 linker.
10. Fix linker --gc-sections on note sections.  PR 12851.
11. Avoid linker crash on bad input.  PR 12887.
12. Add section flags in linker script.
13. Improve elf linker -z option support.
14. Fix nm on compressed debug sections.  PR 12983.
15. Fix an ar bug.  PR 12558.
16. Fix an ia64 linker regression.  PR 12978.
17. Improve gold.
18. Improve VMS support.
19. Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
20. Improve alpha support.
21. Improve avr support.
22. Improve mips support.
23. Improve arm support.
24. Improve ppc support.
25. Improve sh support.
26. Improve TIC6X support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.52.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0610.
2. Support AVX Programming Reference (June, 2011)
3. Allow R_X86_64_64 relocations in SEC_DEBUGGING sections when building
x32 shared libraries.  Used to build kernel x32 vDSO.
4. Fix linker --gc-sections on note sections.  PR 12851.
5. Update readelf to handle binaries containing corrupt version
information.  PR 12855.
6. Improve gold.
7. Improve VMS support.
8. Improve mips support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.9:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0608.
2. Fix an x86 linker regression. PRs 12833/12837/12859.
3. Fix an x86-64 large model TLS linker bug.  PR 12809.
4. Fix LTO bugs.  PRs 12758/12760.
5. Add a new linker switch, -plugin-save-temps.
6. Fix an linker bug for warning on common symbol in archive.
7. Fix warning support when building shared library.  PR 12761.
8. Reduce linker memory usage when linking many small object files.
PR 12682.
9. Fix a thin archive bug.  PR 12710.
10. Fix a TLS linker bug.  PR 12763.
11. Improve gold.
12. Improve DWARF dump support.
13. Improve XCOFF support.
14. Improve arm support.
15. Improve cris support.
16. Improve ia64 ILP32 support.
17. Improve mips support.
18. Improve ppc support.
19. Improve rx support.
20. Improve s390 support.
21. Improve tic30 support.
22. Improve tic6x support.
23. Improve v850 support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.8:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0507.
2. Improve LTO bfd linker.  PRs 12365/12696/12672
3. Fix a linker regression with constructor attribute in C++.  PR 12730.
4. Warn relocation in readonly section when creating a shared object.
5. Remove empty output sections.  PR 12718.
6. Remove DT_TEXTREL with local IFUNC symbols.  PR 12694.
7. Properly set ELFOSABI_LINUX for STB_GNU_UNIQUE. PR 10549.
8. Fix objcopy on unusual input.  PR 12632.
9. Fix an ar regression.  PR 12720.
10  Avoid linker crash on bad linker input.
11. Fix a linker script regression.  PR 12726.
12. Support new GNU DWARF extensions.
13. Initial support for SystemTap note sections.
14. Add --dwarf-start and --dwarf-end to readelf and objdump. 
15. Disable 3dnow and 3dnowa for bdver1 in x86 assembler.
16. Improve gold.
17. Improve VMS support.
18. Improve arm support.
19. Improve mips support.
20. Improve ppc support.
21. Improve s390 support.
22. Improve tic6x support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.7:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0408.
2. Fix x32 TLS linker bug.
3. Enable .quad directive in x32 assembler.
4. Fix an assembler regression.  PRs 12569/12589.
5. Add --size-check= assembler option to issue a warning, instead of an
error, on bad ELF .size directive.
6. Fix an ia32 linker bug with TLS/PIE.  PR 12654.
7. Fix Intel L1OM linker library search path.
8. Fix a linker buffer overflow on malformed inputs.  PR 12613.
9. Check corrupted symtab in nm/readelf.  PR 12639.
10. Avoid objcopy crash on archive with unknown objects.  PR 12632.
11. Fix "ar -t".  PR 12590.
12. Fix many memory leaks.
13. Improve DWARF support.
14. Improve gold.
15. Improve VMS support.
16. Improve Windows support.
17. Improve alpha support.
18. Improve arm support.
19. Improve avr support.
20. Improve ppc support.
21. Improve sparc support.
22. Improve tic6x support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.6:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0306.
2. Supprt x32 TLS IE->LE transition.
3. Change x32 library directory from /lib32 to /libx32.
4. Improve LTO linker support.  Fix PRs 12439/12314/12248/12430.
5. Improve linker plugin support.
6. Fix an ar bug.  PR 12513.
7. Properly generate nops for ia32. PR 6957.
8. Improve readelf DT_GNU_HASH support.  PR 12523.
9. Improve readelf on invalid input.  PR 12467.
10. Update ELF assembler to issue an error on invalid  .size directive.
PR 12519,
11. Properly handle PT_DYNAMIC segment with zero size sections.  PR 12516.
12.  Add a new linker option, --verbose=2, to report plugin symbol
status.
13. Properly handle entry symbols in linker LTO support.  PR 12507.  
14. Improve gold.
15. Improve arm support.
16. Improve bfin support.
17. Improve mips support.
18. Improve ppc support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.5:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0118.
2. Fix x32 (ILP32) support.  Renamed assembler option to --x32.  It
can create working static and dynamic x32 executables.
3. Add BMI and TBM new instruction support.
4. Fix x86 disassembler to properly display sign-extended byte.
5. Improve IFUNC linker support.  PRs 12366/12371.
6. Fix readelf bug on archive. PR 12408.
7. Fix a assembler when compressing empty debug sections.  PR 12409.
8. Fix a warning symbol linker bug.  PR 12339.
9. Fix a duplicated assert message linker bug.  PR 12380.
10. Fix plugin linker build.  PR 12391.
11. Fix a plugin linker crash.  PR 12364.
12. Improve plugin linker.
13. Improve gold.
14. Improve arm support.
15. Improve mips support.
16. Improve rx support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.4:

1. Update from binutils 2011 0104.
2. Add ILP32 support:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/ilp32/abi.pdf

to Linux/x86-64.
3. Prevent the Linux x86-64 kernel build failure and remove
__ld_compatibility support.  PR 12356.
4. Improve gold.
5. Improve Windows support.
6. Improve hppa support.
7. Improve mips support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.3:

1. Update from binutils 2010 1217.
2. Fix the Linux relocatable kernel build.  PR 12327.
3. Improve mips support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.2:

1. Update from binutils 2010 1215.
2. Add BFD linker support for placing input .ctors/.dtors sections in
output .init_array/.fini_array section.  Add SORT_BY_INIT_PRIORITY.  The
benefits are
   a. Avoid output .ctors/.dtors section in executables and shared
      libraries.
   b. Allow mixing input .ctors/.dtors sections with input
   .init_array/.fini_array sectiobs.  GCC PR 46770.
3. Add BFD linker support for "ld -r" on mixed IR/non-IR objects. Add
the new ELF section type SHT_GNU_OBJECT_ONLY (0x6ffffff8). See

http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12291

4. Update BFD linker to accept -flto and -flto-partition= for GCC LTO
option compatibility.
5. Fix BFD linker to avoid touching uncompressed section content when
relocating DWARF debug sections for errror reporting.
6. Mark .gnu.lto_* sections with SHF_EXCLUDE.
7. Add --target option to ar.
8. Improve gold.
9. Improve AIX support.
10. Improve Windows support.
11. Improve mips support.

Changes from binutils 2.21.51.0.1:

1. Update from binutils 2010 1206.
2. Fix BFD and GOLD linker for compressed debug section support.
3. Fix BFD linker plugin support.  PR ld/12246, ld/12247, ld/12248,
ld/12277, ld/12288 and ld/12289.
4. Update BFD linker to group .text.exit, text.startup and .text.hot
sections.
5. Fix linker for W_EH_PE_datarel handling.  PR ld/12253.
6. Fix array access bug in readelf/elfedit.  PR binutils/11742 and
binutils/12235.
7. Support dumping GDB .gdb_index section.
8. Install plugin-api.h.
9. Improve gold.
10. Improve Solaris support.
11. Improve VMS support.
12. Improve Windows support.
13. Improve arm support.
14. Improve bfin support.
15. Improve mips support.
16. Improve s390 support.
17. Improve z80 support.

Changes from binutils 2.20.51.0.12:

1. Update from binutils 2010 1110.
2. Fix ld plugin support.  PRs lto/46291 and lto/46319.
3. Fix x86 assembler to properly fold _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ in Intel
syntax.  PR 12186.
4. Update assembler to ensure that group signature symbols have the name
of the group.
5. Avoid unnecessary relaxation in assembler.  PR 12049.
6. Update linker NOLOAD processing.
7. Update linker not to include archive members when symbols therein have
already been defined.  PR 12001.
8. Change objdump to display compressed section names without 'z'.
9. Improve gold.
10. Improve Solaris support.
11. Improve VMS support.
12. Improve Windows support.
13. Improve arm support.
14. Improve cr16 support.
15. Improve mips support.
16. Improve ppc support.
17. Improve tic6x support.

The file list:

1. binutils-2.21.53.0.1.tar.bz2. Source code.
2. binutils-2.21.53.0.1.i686.tar.bz2. IA-32 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 5.
3. binutils-2.21.53.0.1.ia64.tar.bz2. IA-64 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 5.
4. binutils-2.21.53.0.1.x86_64.tar.bz2. X64_64 binary tar ball for RedHat
   EL 5.

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
07/17/2011