This is the second public release of binutils 2.6.0.9 for Linux, which
is based on the binutils snapshot, gas-960228. It is a Linux only
release.  and the binary release is only intended for an ELF based
system. You also need libc 5.2.18 and gcc 2.7.2 or above.

The first public release of binutils 2.6.0.9 has a wrong source code
tar file. But the binary tar file is ok. A patch for 2.6.0.9 is
provided as binutils-2.6.0.9-2.6.0.9.good.diff.gz. I think I have
a good excuse. My computer made me do it :-(.

This linker won't search libxxxx.so.x.y.z for -lxxxx. Please make
a symbolic link from libxxxx.so to libxxxx.so.x.y.z. Otherwise, you
cannot link your binaries with libxxxx.so.x.y.z or your linker will
die if there is no libxxxx.a.

Due to the bug in modules 1.2.8/1.3.57, modules created by ld in this
binutils may not work. Please get the current modules from:

http://www.pi.se/blox/modules/

which should work with this version of binutils.

The major changes from 2.6.0.2 are:

1. One serious bss bug is fixed in this release.

2. The linker will try to check conflicts in shared libraries caused
   by DT_NEEDED. Please check it out.

3. The linker no longer checks /etc/ld.so.cache for shared libraries
   included by DT_NEEDED. Please use -Wl,-rpath-link for any
   directories other than /lib, /usr/lib and /usr/local/lib where a
   shared library may be found. XFree86 needs to be fixed for it. For
   XFree86 3.1.2D or above, please add

	#define BinUtilsVersion         2608

   to your /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config/site.def or xc/cofig/cf/site.def.

4. If the static a.out library, libfoo.a, is compiled with the same
   header files, you can convert libfoo.a into the one compatible with
   ELF. You just need to use the shell script enclosed here to make
   libfoo.a compatible with ELF by removing the leading underscore
   in the global symbol names. After converting libfoo.a, you should
   install it in a directory which will be searched by the ELF linker.
   You can finnaly link static a.out libraries with ELF after the
   conversion.

5. A weak alias bug is fixed for libc 5.3.5.

6. The shared library support from Alan Modra lan@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au
   is finally in. If

	# configure --enable-shared

   is used, libbfd and libopcodes will be built as shared libraries.

7. The -Bsymbolic option is finally working right. Thanks, Ian.

8. I also include the cross assembler and cross linker binaries for
   SunOS and Solaris under Sparc as well as for m68k/ELF and
   m68k/linuxaout. But you have to configure your cross compiler with

	# configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \
		--gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++  \
		--with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \
		--host=i486-linux --target=sparc-sun-sunos4.1

  for Sparc/SunOS, or

	# configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \
		--gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++  \
		--with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \
		--host=i486-linux --target=sparc-sun-solaris2

  for Sparc/Solaris, or

	# configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \
		--gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++  \
		--with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \
		--host=i486-linux --target=m68k-linux

   for m68k/ELF, or

	# configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \
		--gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++  \
		--with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \
		--host=i486-linux --target=m68k-linuxaout

   for m68k/a.out

   to use the cross assembler and linker binaries without any changes.

9. The .plt section bug fix from pirker@eiunix.tuwien.ac.at.
10. Adding the support for linking ELF .o files against the static
    a.out libraries. If a static a.out library, libfoo.a, was compiled
    with the same header files, you can convert libfoo.a into the one
    compatible with ELF. You just need to use the shell script enclosed
    here to make libfoo.a compatible with ELF by removing the leading
    underscore in the global symbol names. After converting libfoo.a,
    you should install it in a directory which will be searched by the
    ELF linker.
11. Fix the writable text section bug for executables when shared
    libraries are used.

This release contains "encaps" and a modified "objdump" by Ross. They
are used to compile the Linux kernel in ELF.

The primary ftp sites for the compiler, assembler, linker and C/C++
libraries are tsx-11.mit.edu under pub/linux/packages/GCC and
sunsite.unc.edu under pub/Linux/GCC.

To install this package, please follow the procedure very closely.
Please backup/save all the files you are instructed to delete and you
should do

	gzip -dc binutils-2.6.0.9.bin.tar.gz | tar tvvf -

to see what is in there.

The binary file is binutils-2.6.0.9.bin.tar.gz. The source code is
binutils-2.6.0.9.good.tar.gz. A diff against 2.6/2.6.0.2 is too big to
be included.

Please do back up before you remove things.

To install, PLEASE DO

1. su root
2. cd /
3. gzip -dc binutils-2.6.0.9.bin.tar.gz | tar xvvf -

Now you have the new gas/binutils under /usr/bin and
/usr/i486-linuxaout/bin. You have to do

/usr/i486-linuxaout/bin/as

and

/usr/i486-linuxaout/bin/ld -m i386linux

if you want to use a.out as and ld directly.

Thanks.


H.J. Lu
hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu
03/02/96
-----
#! /bin/sh
#
# This is the shell script used to convert a static a.out library
# into the one compatible with ELF by removing the leading underscore
# in the global symbol names.
#
# Usage: convert libfoo.a [libbar.a ...]
#
# H.J. Lu
# hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu

cwd=`pwd`
prog=$0

usage ()
{
  echo Usage: $prog libfoo.a [libbar.a ...]
}

remove_underscore ()
{
  lib=$1

  case $lib in
  lib*.a|*/lib*.a)
    if [ ! -f $lib ];
    then
      echo $lib does not exist.
      usage
      exit -1
    fi
    ;;

  *)
    echo $lib is not a static library.
    usage
    exit -1
    ;;
  esac

  case $lib in
    /*)
    wd=
    ;;
  
  *)
    wd=$cwd
    ;;
  esac
  
  
  tmpdir=$$$$
  
  cd /tmp
  rm -rf $tmpdir
  mkdir $tmpdir
  cd $tmpdir
  ar -x $wd/$lib
  for f in *.o
  do
    objcopy --remove-leading-char $f
  done
  ar -ucr ../`basename $lib` *.o
  cd ..
  rm -rf $tmpdir
  mv /tmp/$lib $cwd
}

for l in $*
do
  cd $cwd
  remove_underscore $l
done