1For version 0.16.*.
2
3> Sorry forgot to flip this back: perror and strerror are back to using
4  the /lib/liberror.txt file for all 8086 Elks modes. Only i386 has the
5  file linked. Elksemu now traps accesses to this file and substitutes
6  a fake.
7
8> Added vararg macros to new preprocessor.
9
10> Builtin CPP removed for __BCC__ compile, bcc-cc1 fit in 16bit but
11  crashes. Thirty two bit works fine, gcc or bcc. (almost any 32bit.)
12
13> Added __BCC_VERSION__ macro, defined by bcc.c contains hex version no.
14
15> Bugfix for offsets generated by #asm when using -O option to bcc-cc1.
16  Extra compile option ASM_USES_CALLEE_REGS.
17
18> Extra checking and bugfix for mixing char values with long shifts.
19
20> WARNING to distributions: I've altered the install scripts and paths
21  you will want to check them.  Altered paths for bcc.c and normal
22  installs, defaults should now be good for distributions where bcc is a
23  cross compiler. If you set the PREFIX to / it'll install to suggested
24  Native paths. As86_encap moved to LIBDIR.
25
26> I've altered 'perror' and 'strerror' to be normal when compiled for
27  everything except libc_f.a. Only with that library will it look for the
28  liberror.txt file and it now looks in "/lib/liberror.txt" only.
29  This means there's no need to install it anywhere except ELKS itself.
30
31> Change -Mg option to use uclibc as glibc2 seems to have stopped working.
32
33> ar.c switch to using strerror.
34
35> Move elksemu, it's used like a shared library but is best treated like
36  an emulator so it's now installed in DISTBIN. Also on Linux-386 it's
37  compiled using the system compiler.
38
39> Use the POSIX -R argument to cp rather than the normal standard -r because
40  some new systems have decided to stop supporting their '-r' option.
41
42> Oops, the constant error strings in the assembler were char pointers not
43  char arrays, small waste of space.
44
45> Allow for Linux-2.6 32bit dev_t.
46
47> More changes so it compiles better on 'other' machines.
48  Removed some GNU-Make'isms in the top header file.
49
50> It seems that CYGWin's problem with _P is inherited from BSD. It also
51  seems most of my problems come from BSD recently, haven't they realised
52  that they down own the 'Unix Standard' anymore and haven't since SYSV
53  got popular.
54
55> Some changes for cygwin, it isn't quite as nasty as compiling for minix
56  but it doesn't miss by much!
57
58> Compiling for the 'tcc' complier, nice and easy.
59
60> Hitting bcc.c again, bcc-cpp now the default.
61
62> Some bugfixes for DEC Alpha -- 64 bit longs!
63  Constant folding still done with 64bit longs though.
64
65> The fopen function (and friends) is now a real function not a macro.
66
67> Ctype.h updated to ansi.
68
69> Libraries appear to compile properly with -O and -ansi now.
70
71> Copt's hash string table adjusted; should now have fewer pathological cases.
72
73> Order of copt's rule processing reversed; it now works from the top of a
74  rule file to the bottom. Also comment lines may be include in the match
75  lines. !BCC_EOS added to bcc-cc1 for 'end of statment'.
76
77> bcc-cc1's asm("") now works in declare mode too.
78
79> New independed cpp added, has both K&R and Ansi modes.
80  Changes made to the embedded cpp too to try and fix some bad bits.
81
82> Conditional assembler added around push and pop of 'si' and 'di' if the
83  optimiser (and as86's optimiser) are to be run.
84
85> Signed keyword added to bcc-cc1 for 'signed char' also works with other
86  int types but is usually just a noiseword.
87
88> As86 macro syntax altered, you now don't have to include any brackets.
89
90> Gcc warnings in ar86 cleaned up.
91
92> Mk_dist now makes incremental patch files too.
93
94> Update magic file.
95
96> Various updates to the bios libc, the vt52 and ansi emulations are
97  now seperated (and can be both included if needed) and don't have
98  to be linked. Conio functions work properly in bios and msdos.
99
100> Added -v (version)
101
102> as86 and ld86 now delete their binary outputs if there were errors.
103
104> Added more 'set' commands generated by '#asm' lines. The new ones begin
105  with '.' rather than '_' an are based off the 'bp' register rather than
106  the 'sp' register.
107
108> Various unused, test and old document files removed.
109
110> as86 modified to use normal malloc routines - no longer has limited
111  input file size.
112
113> as6809 repaired, appears to work.
114
115> as86 error display adjusted, some errors demoted to warnings.
116
117> Complete re-write of bcc.c driver program. Should now be easier to
118  modify, does have more versatility so that things that were formerly
119  compile time options are all run time.
120
121> #asm and #endasm now interact with statment processing inside functions.
122  If statments and case labels no longer need special layout however #asm
123  must be placed between statments now.
124
125> The __heap_top virtual constant added, allows the -H option to be used
126  with the -d option in the linker.
127
128> Conio routines added, merged with bios_getc/bios_putc routines which
129  now no longer exist under those names.
130
131> monitor.out now copes with very old zimages, like the memtest86 program,
132  and has 'Retry' prompt for disk errors.
133
134> msdos.s and tarboot.s loading of non-a.out executables adjusted for
135  dos BIN like files.
136
137> Standalone library startup adjusted to allow execution of a '-d'
138  executable from DOS, if __argr.x.cflag is set this is running under
139  DOS.
140
141> Compile for DOS again, disable cpm86 headers under DOS.
142
143> Minor bugfix for as86 binary output re sizeof(int)/K&R problem.
144
145For version 0.16.0.
146
147> As major bugs seem to be absent 0.16.0 is escaping.
148
149> Seperated the multi-pass optimisation from the jump extension. We now have
150  the -j back to it's old meaning and -O added to help shorten instructions.
151
152> Fix for nested conditionals in the assembler.
153
154> Fix for listing to unusual locations; assembler tried to list non-existant
155  lines.
156
157> Removed lots of warning from the ar86 code. (__STDC__ flags too)
158
159> Stop trying to strip scripts on install.
160
161> Remove non-working versions of malloc and stdio from libc directories.
162
163> Lots of changes in the 'bootblocks' example code.
164
165> Updated 'make distribution' to be all in the distribution.
166
167> bin86 Makefile adjusted so that the as86 script isn't installed with -s.
168
169For version 0.15.0.
170
171> Added support for archives to nm86/objdump86 and size86.
172
173> ar86 added. Used for Linux because RedHat is broken.
174
175> Bugfixes on utmpent and friends.
176
177> A bit more in the manpages on how to use the assembler etc.
178
179> Bug fixes in stdio, fp->mode cached too much, buffer type mixup.
180
181> Altered initial make variables, you only need to modify 'PREFIX=' to allow
182  installs into /usr/local.
183
184> The BIOS library has a simple MSDOS fs file reader now, based on the code
185  from monitor.out.
186
187> Added bin86-0.... source distribution archive.
188
189> Fixed bug in -t option to as/bcc (for moving the text segment)
190
191> Lines that have a unexpected character are now listed by the assembler
192  not just ignored.
193
194> Added assembly externals in as86_encap generated code.
195
196> I appear to have bcc generating a consistant set of code fragments for
197  floating point operations. No floating libs though ...
198
199> Lots of bootblocks changes including
200   Added lsys.com to install the dosfs boot sector under dos.
201   monitor.out now (finally!) loads zImage files.
202   Monitor.out now works with a TAR "filesystem" on a floppy.
203   Added two compile time options (-DTARFLOPPY and -DDOSFLOPPY) for smaller
204     executables to only boot linux-386 from a floppy.
205   Makeboot can install the mbr.
206   Removed the ELKS specific code from the minixfs loader, added a helper
207     program to load and relocate ELKS.
208   One config file for booting a [b]zImage.
209   DOSFS boot can boot any named file.
210
211> Fixed/avoided some problems with the optimiser breaking hand optimised code.
212
213> I've made some alterations to the header files in an effort to merge the
214  ELKS kernel files with fewer problems.
215
216> Oops, Claudio says that qsort went the wrong way, hmm.
217
218> Added some more library code for MSDOS programs, there's still more to go.
219
220> Removed the 'libc-8086' distribution tgz file.
221
222For version 0.14.0.
223
224> Objdump86 utility added, also includes nm86 and size86 that work on
225  as86's object files and elks executables.
226
227> Added ability to put ELKSSRC=/././. on initial make command line.
228
229> Some bug fixes and buffering improvements for stdio2.
230
231> Changed output of linker -m option to be more verbose (useful).
232
233> Linker errors are now directed to STDERR on unix/elks.
234
235> Alterations to elksemu and the C library to be closer to elks, 0.13.1+
236  should not need a patch to work with 0.0.60+ ELKS.
237
238> Link symbol dump now flags local variables differently to exported.
239
240> Fixes for libc/misc/crypt.c, they do change the values of the encrypted
241  password so beware.
242
243> as86_encap now uses a static array and #defines.
244
245> Added -t <digit> flag to as86 and bcc to move the text segment
246  for this object into another one.
247
248> Moved segments 4..14 so that instead of being attached above the
249  data segment they now sit between the text and data segments in
250  the final a.out, this is where they'd be needed for medium model.
251
252> Added -x option to bcc to prevent it linking in crt0.o.
253
254> Added various improvemnts to the optimiser, I don't think it'll generate
255  illegal code now for "-O", "-O1", or "-Oi". The last inlines the functions
256  __get_es(), __seg_es(), __poke_es(), __peek_es() etc.
257
258> Code generator improvement for integer multiply and shifts. (Including
259  making it far less keen to do multiple shifts instead of a multiply.
260
261> Code generator fix to remove incorrect (but accepted by the assembler)
262  addressing modes like:  mov ax,#_ar[bx]
263
264> Been messing with boot block stuff again, still can't get it to load
265  zImages (bzImages ok tho). Minix.c can't load an ELKS kernel either,
266  it's looking like there isn't actually enough room :-(
267
268> Fix to elksemu for breakages caused by glibc.
269
270> Other fixes to elksemu for execve(), dup(), readdir() etc functions.
271
272For version 0.13.0.
273
274> Removed too eager 'typeconv.c' warning.
275
276> Well, I just broken everything! To be exact if Dev86 sees a directory
277  called ${ELKSSRC:-/usr/src/elks}/include it'll assume that is the
278  equlivent of libc/kinclude and use that in preference. I've sent off
279  a patch so that elks-0.0.* should be compatible but meantime there
280  are bound to be lots of problems caused by shuffling of include files.
281  (Later: Actually doesn't seem too bad)
282
283> Added '-g' to gcc options, make sure install has '-s' to strip symbols.
284
285> Grrrr, missing files in bootblocks directory, I didn't have them all.
286  OK, as part of the dist script I'll have to do a 'make other' ...
287  Some other bits there too ...
288
289> Minor alteration to opening files in ld to fix problem when share.exe
290  loaded under dos.
291
292> Added Config.dflt for default libc configuration flags. I can now
293  re-introduce Joel's standard I/O functions ... but they haven't
294  been updated in a while ...
295
296> Addition to minix.c to use allow BB to determine the track size by
297  trial and error (not intuit from superblock) to allow mis-sized
298  filesystems on a floppy. Also add some error retries to the floppy
299  version.
300
301> Squeeze the minix BB a bit more, DOTS is now working again.
302
303> Can now do 'use16 8086' in assembler instead of 'use16 86' also
304  'use16 80386'
305
306> Add 'make install-ln', this installs _symbolic_links_ to the dev
307  directory in the normal directories. This means you don't have
308  to do a make install after re-compiling. But it also means the
309  'install' is dependent on the dev dirs.
310
311> Add ability to use overrides on the command line of the initial make,
312  and have them saved, for CC, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, PREFIX, BINDIR and LIBDIR.
313  Includes minor alteration to bcc.c and as86_encap.
314
315> Added in 'objchop' as an option in the ld directory.
316
317> The cpu type warnings were worrying some people so I've set the
318  initial value of the '-w' flag to off, use -w- to turn them back on.
319  The -W flag to bcc now does this too.
320
321> Added the ELKS_SETUP from Ken Yap to minix.c.
322
323> Added __ELKS__, __8086__ and __i386__ #defines for relevent bcc configs.
324
325> Clarified some of the copyrights, esp for Bruce's stuff.
326
327> Added a few changes to clean up compiles on an AIX/RS6000. It still
328  needs gnu-make installed and is only tested with gcc though.
329  (Because of IBM's recent contribution to increasing the popularity of GCC)
330
331For version 0.12.0.
332
333> Notice the change in the version numbers, as long as I'm releasing the
334  upto the minute patches I thought I'd better give everyone a way of
335  keeping track. So now the 0.X.0 are the main releases, the 0.X.Y are
336  interim patches.
337
338> I've added a new output binary for ld86, it can now do the broken
339  relocatable a.out that bin86 produces. I don't like this but it
340  does let me move ld86 back to /usr/bin without breaking DOSEMU.
341  Note! If you've installed vsn 0.0.11 or earlier you will need to
342  uninstall it before installing this one.
343
344> Altered makefiles for GNU-make 3.74, GNU-make no longer generates
345  automatic 'rm' commands so I have to do it manually.
346
347> Altered makefiles again, starting to get non GNU makefile working.
348
349> Added some cleanups to ifdef.c. (voids etc)
350
351> Assembler now understands monadic '-' and '+' operations (for copt).
352
353> Improved the type conversion functions, they should now work on most
354  machines. There may still be some problems with sizeof(long) == 8 tho,
355  added some warnings/traps.
356
357> Improved the auto-detection and auto-rejection of <a.out.h> ld is more
358  likely to compile even if a.out.h is completely incompatible (leaving
359  out native support).
360
361> Fix for stdio, there was a problem if the OS only did a partial write.
362
363> Alter align() macros to use ssize_t iff both __STDC__ and _POSIX_SOURCE
364  are defined.
365
366> Add some changes for compiling under AIX. Assember and BCC appear to work,
367  ld has problems with AIX's 'ar' command - problem: AIX's make and gmake
368  won't like the smell of a standard following ar86 command ... hmmm.
369
370> Changes in bootblocks, minix.c can now be compiled for a hard disk (works
371  on dosemu, dunno about the real thing tho), fixes for mbr.s re preboot
372  facility. Addition to minix.c to fix number of sectors in bpb for floppy.
373
374For version 0.0.11.
375
376> New, most recent, version of unproto inserted.
377
378> AAARG! First_arg_in_ax breaks stdarg.h! As a consequence printf wasn't
379  working, now why didn't _you_ notice! OK. printf now uses varargs, that
380  is more likely to work and does for printf & scanf.
381
382> Added -Mc for 'caller saves' _without_ first_arg_in_ax. As this uses the
383  normal libc there are likely to be problems with library -> user callbacks.
384
385> Added -Ml for 386 'Large linux' compile.
386
387> Added -Mn for 'normal' elks compiles so the default for dos can be -Md
388
389> Brand new, an optimiser has been added, it's in its early stages yet
390  the 8086 (plain -O) version seems ok. The 386 generator (-O3) is definitly
391  missing some requirements. It's probably not a good idea to use -Ml and -O.
392  (Later: The 8086 can generate bad code it seems, oh well)
393
394> Some changes to the makefile, minix make will now _try_ to compile bcc,
395  it doesn't seem to succeed yet though. Also because of this I've gone
396  back over the headers, should be better on non-ansi or non-posix systems
397  now.  BTW: minix make has no chance with compiling libc so I've added
398  another zip archive containing just the compiled libcs.
399
400> Add the -a-, -j-, -g-, -u- and -w- flags to as86; specifically for -w-
401  to allow easy enabling of assembler warnings while using bcc.
402
403> Bugfix for assembler 'ifc' pseudo op.
404
405> Bugfix for preprocessor and unterminated last line of included file.
406
407> Add minix syscall detector to elksemu, I may make it into an emulator ...
408
409> I've split of the 8086 ELKS and i386 Linux libc stuff into seperate
410  directories. I expect Chad will want to take over the 8086 one for a while.
411  Plus some other files moved around to help new users.
412
413For version 0.0.10.
414
415> Some serious changes to the makefiles, practically a rewrite of them.
416  'make', 'make all', 'make install', 'make clean' and 'make realclean'
417  do the expected things. 'make distribution' should let you create the
418  partial and binary dirtributions from the full source.
419
420> The makefiles now allow multiple libc binaries to co-exist.
421
422> The makefiles now allow a _full_ compile without installing anything.
423
424> In part because of the makefile changes a lot of files in the library
425  have been moved, this is a large portion of the patch size.
426
427> ifdef.c added as part of makefile changes, I'm not quite sure if I like
428  this way of doing things but it's ok for the mo.
429
430> MSDOS, in the output of *.bin files from as86 skipped areas have zeros
431  written not semi-random bytes.
432
433> MSDOS (+ other machines where sizeof(char*) != sizeof(int)) problem with
434  macros resolved, they appear to work correctly now.
435
436> NCC added, this is a different version of bcc with libs and include dirs
437  in the same format as the MSDOS driver.
438  This is used for 'uninstalled' compiling and also if you do:
439      $ ln -s `pwd`/bcc/ncc $HOME/bin/bcc
440  The bcc will use the 'uninstalled' include and library files for when you
441  don't have root access.
442
443> -H option added to ld86, this controls the size of the heap or 'chmem'
444  field in the executable.
445
446> BOOT-Blocks, makeboot can be compiled as a DOS COM, bootblock for msdos
447  filesystem completed, this will allow lilo, monitor.out or any Linux-86
448  standalone executable to be executed from an msdos floppy. Makeboot
449  can also install several other types of bootblock.
450
451> Monitor.out now includes 'bzimage' command, which will boot a Linux-i386
452  bzImage with command line and initrd.
453
454> 'skip.s' bootblock fixed.
455
456> A few more functions now work in 'standalone' mode, malloc() especially.
457
458-Rob
459
460For version 0.0.9.
461
462> The debian stuff has been removed again, Christoph want's to keep contol
463  of the debian specific files.
464
465> I've done some changes to the makefiles, it'll now honour CC=XXX on the
466  make command line.
467
468> The assembler now works again compiled under bcc, it tried to allocate
469  too much memory.
470
471> Major change to the assembler, '-j' not auto-sizes jumps this requires
472  a change to at least 3 passes. Sometimes it'll say it needs another -j
473  because lengthing jumps cause others to fail, two -j's will give it lots
474  of passes :-)
475
476> The second large change is an effort to identify when instructions are
477  not right for a specific processor and generate a warning. The use16
478  and use32 instructions now have an optional argument of a processor
479  type (86,186..686). Also bcc has a '-W' to remove the -w it passes to
480  the assembler.
481
482> Altered the way bcc deals with LOCALPREFIX, now under DOS it picks this
483  up based on the path to the executable.
484
485> Fixed a bug introduced by the 'cpp in asm' change in 0.0.8, bcc-cc1
486  wasn't compiling under bcc.
487
488> Two new bootblocks in the 'examples' mbr.s is an MBR (no really :-))
489  msdos.s is unfinished but even this far allows lilo to be used on an
490  MSDOS filesystem floppy.
491
492> Changed ld to _check_ the magic on files inside an archive, this cures
493  the problem caused by long names inserted by gnu-ar. Also it notices
494  if an archive has been included in an archive and will link that too.
495
496> Changed ld to do a final check that it knows what sort of a.out.h file
497  it's got, if this fails '-N' is disabled.
498
499> Ld changed so for 16 bit exes the heap is limited to 32k.
500
501> getcwd and execvp added, sash should now work. Also added to the 386-lib
502  except execvp won't run scripts without '#!'
503
504> Nasty bug with syscalls of > 3 args in 386 code fixed, none of them would
505  have been working correctly.
506
507For version 0.0.8.
508
509> Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org> has provided a patch for
510  installation using the debian packaging, I've probably broken it :-)
511
512> Doselks has been added in, it's not that big really.
513
514> Triggered by the debian stuff the makefiles can now create a pure
515  binary installation tree, nothing needed in /usr/src. If kinclude is
516  configured out the include directory will reference /usr/src/linuxmt
517
518> Some good changes to the linker today, it will generate a Linux-386
519  (That's right, growed up linux) executable. It's still very fragile
520  but it does work. The '-r' option now works, but unlike bin86-0.3
521  it creates a _Linux_ OMAGIC file. This means that bcc -G works, the
522  names are mangled by ld86 such that if it was compiled with ELF the
523  OMAGIC will successfully link in an ELF environment.  Beware older
524  versions of GCC-binutils can segfault in this situation.
525
526> Bit of sneakyness for the assembler, org will accept negative values ...
527
528> Made a few changes to idcc, I think I'll translate it to C soon.
529
530> Fixed a couple of problems with the preprocessor WRT hashes not at the
531  start of a line and quotes in ifdef'd out code.
532
533> Missed a bet in the kernel patch and module, the old one wouldn't
534  execute impure executables it will now.
535
536> Fixed matching bug in elksemu, A piece of code was commented out for
537  some reason ... oops.
538
539> Some of the error reporting in the linker has improved, if it can't
540  open libc it now says so!
541
542> Some 386 specific stuff has been added to libc, mainly the syscall
543  generator, startup stuff and BCC's 386 floating point code.
544
545> Change in malloc, Linux-386 limits +ve brk() changes to 32Mb, the malloc
546  will now allow for this ...  Phew! grab.c will grab about 3Gb of virtual
547  memory, with 1Gb chunks, when compiled in 386 mode! One oddity, glibc
548  (quite an old one) hangs when trying to free if grab.c is compiled static.
549
550> Hunted down the most important 16 bit dependancies in dis88, it seems to
551  generate a reasonable output file now. Plus a couple of fiddles in the
552  disassembler, personally I prefer Hex and I've added a couple of markers
553  for 386 code (use opr32, use adr32, seg fs/gs) and the -f flag to force
554  disassembly of any file.
555
556> The i386 compile uncovered a bug in alloca, In fact the move to 386 has
557  been amazingly painless, practically everything so far has worked first
558  time or nearly so ... Wow!
559
560> Added minimal dirent to i386-lib, elksemu now compiles under BCC-386
561  AND WORKS!
562
563> Trying to compile bash, it does some hackish stuff with the preprocessor
564  and uncovered a couple of problems, fixed. Now I need more float stuff.
565
566> Added for bcc-cc1, code between #asm and #endasm _is_ scanned for #defined
567  words and functions, it didn't effect the libc at all. Of course we now
568  need some way to put multiple instructions in one #define, I've nominated
569  '^' as the statement terminator, I didn't have many choices :-(
570
571> Added '-t' for bcc-cc1 when bcc gets -S
572
573-Rob
574
575For version 0.0.7.
576
577I've been making quite a few changes to the assembler:
578   The 'include' or 'get' command now works.
579   The '-b' and '-s' options are now quite useful for bootblocks
580      or encapsulated code.
581   The standard input is now a valid source for the assemble
582      (but only on 'big' machines).
583   Various other functions now work, macros, 'jmp near',
584      'jmpi qword $100000,$1000', and other bug fixes.
585   As86_encap script added.
586   Some of the 256 char line limits have been removed for non-bcc compiles.
587
588The linker will now fail more gracefully for reversed 'org's and complain
589about too large segments.
590
591Bcc-cc1 will now compile under itself, with some limitations, and appears
592to generate correct output.  There are problems tho in that I think the
593heap<->stack saftey margin is too short and I've disconnected all code for
594floating point features.
595
596The components will all compile and seem to work quite well using MSC 5.1
597under dos and will probably compile using other dos compilers. BCC cannot
598compile itself under dos because the libs to fake the unix syscalls under
599dos are currently too large.
600
601A number of fixes have been added that were apperently in another version
602of the tools to aid operation on other machines, there's now a better chance
603of these programs working on 'big-endian' machines.
604
605Various bits and pieces have been added to the libs, including some time
606functions (but these need a _small_ way of dealing with "DST").
607
608-Rob
609