4.20. binutils

Bug Fixes

BZ#664640

Prior to this update, the readelf utility added 0x40 into a character in order to display a non-printing character but did not do so when processing a multibyte character. As a result, the readelf utility did not display a multibyte character in the ELF header correctly. The code has been corrected and readelf no longer displays garbled characters when processing multibyte, or non-ASCII, characters.

BZ#674925

An unneeded patch to bineutils caused a large link time degradation when using the binutils --build-id command. This update removes that patch.

BZ#689829

An Operating System (OS) Application Binary Interface (ABI) describes the low-level interface between a program and the operating system (OS/ABI). The indirect meta-function, ifunc(), whose value can be determined at load time, allows for architecture dependent optimization. Prior to this update, the OS/ABI preprocessor macro was erroneously set to UNIX - Linux instead of UNIX - System V in an ELF header by a dynamic executable which used ifunc(). This update applies a backported patch which corrects the code and the error no longer occurs.

BZ#698005

Prior to this update, the binutils' strip command, which is run as part of the RPM build process, did not copy the EI_OSABI value in the ELF file header properly, it set the value to zero. Consequently, if the EI_OSABI field of the debug file had a value of 3 (ABI tag for GNU/Linux), in the stripped file it was erroneously set to 0 (UNIX - System V). This update corrects the problem and strip now leaves the field intact.

BZ#701586

On 64-bit PowerPC platforms, the position of -ldl in the list compiler options caused unexpected behavior when compiling C++ code. If -ldl was not placed at the end of parameter list, the GNU C Compiler (GCC) failed with an error in the format:

libtest.a(some_object_file.o): undefined reference to `.dlerror'

With this update, the code has been corrected and the GCC compiler functions as expected.

BZ#707387

When compiling C source code using the GNU C Compiler (GCC), a Table Of Contents (TOC), is created for every executable file. Prior to this update, compiling C++ code using GCC for 64-bit PowerPC, using -mcmodel=small -mno-minimal-toc as options, GNU linker, (ld), erroneously decided that if a section did not make use of the TOC it could belong to any TOC group. Consequently, when a local function call was made from one section of code to another section in the same object file, due to the two sections being assigned to different TOC groups, a failure occurred and an error message in the following format was logged.

libbackend.a(cse.o)(.text.unlikely+0x60): sibling call optimization to `.opd' does not allow automatic multiple TOCs; recompile with -mminimal-toc or -fno-optimize-sibling-calls, or make `.opd' extern

This update applies an upstream patch to improve the partitioning of sections of code, which make local function calls, into multiple TOC groups. As a result the error no longer occurs in the scenario described.

Note

It is necessary to relink executables and shared libraries containing objects which were compiled with -mcmodel=small -mno-minimal-toc. Therefore code should be recompiled by running these commands again after applying the update.

BZ#714824

Prior to this update, after compiling a kernel from source code with debugging information, some debug information was missing. Consequently, when using the GNU Project's debugger (GDB) utility, if a user issued the command l setup_arch to determine the target architecture, the following error was displayed.

No line number known for setup_arch

This update corrects the code and the GDB utility now correctly displays the architecture for which the code was compiled.

BZ#721079

Compilers used for producing code optimized for 64-bit PowerPC platforms use the default Red Hat Enterprise Linux system linker, ld, provided with the operating system to produce executables and libraries. Some object code generated by the IBM XL compiler caused ld to terminate unexpectedly with a segmentation fault. Consequently, users were not able to produce optimized executables or libraries. With this update, a backported patch has been applied to correct the problem and ld no longer crashes in the scenario described.

BZ#733122

When linking FORTRAN programs with the IBM XL compiler and the default Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 system linker, ld sometimes terminated unexpectedly with a segmentation fault. This updates applies an upstream patch to correct the problem and ld no longer crashes in the scenario described.

BZ#747695

The assembler, as, when generating a memory reference to a local symbol plus or minus an offset, did not include the constant offset when generating 32-bit x86 code. Consequently, when the local symbol being referenced was defined before the instruction using the symbol with an offset, an error would occur. This update corrects the code and the problem no longer occurs.

Enhancements

BZ#696368

With this update, backported patches have been included to support new AMD processors.

BZ#696494

Certain Intel processors support a new RdRand instruction to generate a true random number in a short time. This update includes support for this new instruction.