Message-Id:	<200003031517.KAA01240@delorie.com>
From:	"Mark E." <snowball3 AT bigfoot DOT com>
To:	djgpp-announce AT delorie DOT com
Date:	Fri, 3 Mar 2000 10:15:38 -0500
Subject:	ANNOUNCE: Binutils 2.9.5 beta 1 released
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Binutils 2.9.5 beta 1 is now available from SimTel mirrors. There are three 
archives:

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/bnu2951.README
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/bnu2951b.zip
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/bnu2951s.zip
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/bnu2951x.zip
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/bnu2951a.zip

GNU Binutils provide the basic tools for assembling and linking files 
produced by the GCC compiler plus other tools that examine object and 
executable files.

This release is based on the February 27, 2000 contents of the Binutils CVS 
repository and so is not based on an official GNU release. The last release 
is now almost two years old and a new one is not yet in the works. Given this 
situation, releasing a newer version of Binutils for the DJGPP community for 
use seems approriate.

The file most will want is 'bnu2951b.zip' which contains the executables and 
documentation. Due to the number of files that are not needed when building 
for DJGPP, the source has been split into two files. 'bnu2951s.zip' contains 
just the files needed to build for DJGPP. 'bnu2951x.zip' contains the files 
needed to build for other targets along with the testsuite and requires the 
files in 'bnu2951s.zip'. 'bnu2951a.zip' contains the BFD library, include 
files, and supporting libraries. Use this library to create your own 
utilities for working with object and executable files.

New features from the last official release, 'bnu281b.zip', include 16-byte 
alignment of .data and .text sections, support for weak symbols, Intel's MMX 
& SSE instructions, AMD's 3dNOW! instructions, improved handling of DOS-style 
filenames, long section names (greater than 8 characters), and Intel mode 
syntax. The BFD version of GAS (not included in this release) now works much 
better with DJGPP.

If none of these features appeal to you and you're concerned about stability, 
you should consider sticking with the last official DJGPP release, 
bnu281.zip, until the stability of this release can be confirmed to your 
satisfaction. However, I've been using various Binutils snapshots for over a 
year and experienced no problems using them for compiling and linking with 
the GCC compiler.

See readme.dos in the binary and DJGPP source archives for more information. 
Check bnu2951.README for updates on known problems and bugs as they are 
discovered. One problem just added to bnu2951.README is that the '--enable-
targets=all' option for 'configure' is broken. The only solution is to 
download and use one of the later Binutils snapshots.

Enjoy,
Mark

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