libtool/NEWS

NEWS - list of user-visible changes between releases of GNU Libtool

New in 1.2c - 1998-XX-XX:
* libtool will correctly link already-installed libraries into programs.
* New -module flag, to create loadable modules.
* New libltdl, a small library for portable dynamic loading of modules.
* Inter-library dependencies patch finally integrated, but there's
still much porting to do.  See PORTING for details (some plans for the 
future in mail/deplibs in the CVS tree).
* Initial support for portable dlopen()ing of modules (see mdemo).
* New option -export-symbols to control symbol exporting when possible.
* Fixed -export-dynamic problem with C++ programs in egcs 1.1.
* New dlpreopen structure.
* libtool now supports `-c -o' and subdirectories in sources and
target object names even in platforms whose compilers do not support
this.  In this case, file locking occurs to avoid problems with
parallel builds.
* New `echo' variant that should fix most problems with long command
lines and broken printf programs.
* Support for *-*-dgux*, and improved support for Microsoft Windows
* Various bugfixes
* We now have anonymous CVS access to GNU libtool.  CVSROOT is
:pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.gnu.org:/gd/gnu/anoncvsroot.  The password
is empty.  The directory is libtool.  Check our home-page at
www.gnu.org for details.
* Alexandre Oliva has taken over the maintenance of libtool, but Gord
agree to keep helping us, and many other developers have kind of
joined the team.  But your contributions are still necessary for
libtool to make progress.
* Arguments to ltconfig have been changed to allow creation of a
libtool C program.

New in 1.2b - 1998-07-01, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Libtool needs a new maintainer, since Gordon Matzigkeit has quit.
If you think you can do the job, send mail to bug-libtool@gnu.org.
* Bug fixes.
* Support for libtool convenience archives.

New in 1.2a - 1998-04-19, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Bug fixes.
* ltconfig accepts an `--output' option to specify the name of the
  generated libtool.
* New `--debug' flag to turn on shell script tracing for libtool,
  libtoolize, and ltconfig.
* Added `libtool --config' to print out all configuration variables.
* Support for *-*-hpux11*.

New in 1.2 - 1998-03-20, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Minor bug fixes to provide a stable public release.
* Libtool no longer causes Solaris printf to barf due to silly
  2110-byte static buffers.

New in 1.1 - 1998-03-08, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Bug fixes.
* http://www.profitpress.com/libtool/ is libtool's homepage.
* `AM_PROG_LIBTOOL' supports turning shared or static libraries off
  with the `--enable-shared=PKGS' and `--enable-static=PKGS' configure
  flags.  See (libtool)AM_PROG_LIBTOOL.
* Use the `AM_DISABLE_SHARED' or `AM_DISABLE_STATIC' macros if you
  wish to modify the default behaviour of `AM_PROG_LIBTOOL' for your
  package.
* New rules for `AM_PROG_LD' to use gcc's `-print-prog-name' flag in
  order to find ld, if possible.
* Suppress duplicate compiler output during `compile' mode.
* Deleted `dlname' mode.  Dlopen applications should only use the
  runtime search method described in (libtool)Finding the dlname.
* Experimental support for dynamically loaded modules, even on
  static-only platforms, via new `-dlopen' and `-dlpreopen' link
  flags.
* `compile' mode honours the `-static' flag to prevent libtool
  from building PIC objects.
* New `execute' mode to support debugging uninstalled libtool
  libraries and executables.
* `-allow-undefined' is now the default.  You can use `-no-undefined'
  to declare that a shared library is completely self-contained.
* Inter-library dependencies are automatically handled when linking
  against an uninstalled `.la' file.
* New `-all-static' flag to prevent any dynamic linking.  The regular
  `-static' flag now just prevents dynamic linking of libtool libraries.
* New `-release' flag to encode release numbers into libtool
  libraries.  This breaks binary compatibility, but is useful for
  libraries whose interfaces change very frequently.  See
  (libtool)Versioning.
* The `-rpath' flag can be used to hardcode absolute directories when
  linking executables using libtool.
* New robust quoting code to handle any metacharacters passed in
  arguments to libtool commands.
* Full support for broken collect2 on AIX 3.  Shared libraries
  can now be built with all working versions of GCC on AIX.
* Shell script speed optimizations for old and buggy /bin/sh systems,
  such as HP-UX 9 and SunOS 4.1.4.
* Maybe use `_libs' as a temporary libtool directory instead of `.libs'
  in order to cope with MS-DOS filenames.
* Portability fixes for Windows NT.
* Refuse to create libtool libraries that don't begin with `lib'.
  This allows us to correctly handle OSes that don't have the `lib'
  prefix by default, such as OS/2.
* Support for *-*-amigaos*, *-*-os2*, *-*-sysv4.2uw2*, and *-*-uts4*.

New in 1.0 - 1997-07-08, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Bug fixes.
* Better configuration test to find the system linker.  The old test
  was failing because people frequently install GNU ld, but don't
  necessarily configure GCC to use it.
* Automake support for Libtool now uses the LTLIBRARIES primary.  See
  the Automake documentation for more information.
* Added new `--disable-static' flag to disable building static
  libraries on platforms that have shared libs.
* New `-allow-undefined' link flag to build shared libs that contain
  references to unresolved symbols.
* Removed all support for creating static-only libraries.
* Basic support for dynamically loaded modules: new `-export-dynamic'
  linking flag and corresponding `dlname' mode.
* New `--features' flag to display configured libtool attributes.
* Added support for installing libtool objects, both in absolute and
  relative directories.
* Support *-*-linux-gnu* as an alias for *-*-linux*.
* Support for *-*-openbsd* and *-*-freebsd3*.

New in 0.9 - 1997-02-03, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Bug fixes.
* The libtool demo now uses the libm cos(3) function, to demonstrate
  inter-library dependencies.
* The PLATFORMS file has been moved to doc/platforms.texi.

New in 0.8 - 1997-01-26, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Bug fixes, and more documentation.
* Basic support for other language compilers (C++, Fortran, and
  preprocessed assembler).
* Libtool is now more persistent when linking with the `-static'
  flag fails.
* New test for hardcoding system linkers, to verify that libtool
  neither creates incorrect binaries, nor takes unnecessary
  precautions while linking against uninstalled shared libraries.
* For clarity, the demo subdirectory no longer uses ansi2knr, and has
  been rewritten to avoid ANSI-only constructs.
* Support for *-*-irix5, *-*-irix6*, and *-*-sco3.2v5*.

New in 0.7 - 1996-12-08, Gordon Matzigkeit:
* Total rewrite of libtool, along with a new model for library building.
* Completely rewritten documentation for the new paradigm.
* Sane handling of broken system linkers, such as the ones on AIX
  and HP-UX.
* configure mode is now a separate program, `ltconfig'
* The libinfo helper script has been incorporated into the main
  libtool program.
* Automatic mode guessing, based on the command line.
* Full support for Automake 1.2 (including ansi2knr features).
* Support to create reloadable objects using link mode.
* Support for new `-static' linking flag.
* Support for stripping libraries during installation.
* Library version information is now passed on the command line, not
  through a version file.

Version 0.6 was never released.

New in 0.5:
* Disabled install-progs until next version, when it will be correctly
  implemented.
* Clearer library versioning documentation.  See (libtool)Versioning.
* Renamed gm_PROG_LIBTOOL to AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
* Libtool now creates pseudo-objects named foo.lo and pseudo-archives named
  libfoo.la instead of foo.o and libfoo.a.  See the documentation.
* libtool compile doesn't interfere with user CFLAGS if they don't
  conflict with the current objtype.  From Karl Berry.
* Created new libinfo helper script.
* libversion.in files are obsolete -- libtool uses libinfo to read the
  new LIBINFO files.
* Libtool is better at finding its config file and helper scripts.
* Support for *-*-gnu*

New in 0.4:
* Bug fixes and new regression tests
* On unsupported configurations, ``libtool configure'' demotes OBJTYPES to
  `standard' instead of aborting
* Added new object type, `t', for tcov(1) support
* Support for *-*-aix3*, *-*-aix4*, *-*-hpux10*, *-*-osf3*, and *-*-solaris2*

New in 0.3:
* Bug fixes and new regression tests
* Added new uninstall-libs mode
* Added a host argument to configure mode
* Fixed debugging/hyper-optimizing flags conflict (from Karl Berry)
* Support for --no-whole-archive when needed by GNU ld (from Ulrich Drepper)
* Implementation of --enable-linktype, --enable-profile, --enable-shared,
  --enable-static in gm_PROG_LIBTOOL macro
* New `libtoolize' program (modeled after GNU gettext's `gettextize') to help
  conversion to libtool
* New ABOUT-LIBS document for inclusion with libtool-supported packages

New in 0.2:
* Support for *-*-linux
* Better checking for GNU ld
* Reimplemented the config file so that it corresponds more closely to the
  variables listed in (libtool)Porting Libtool.
* Reimplemented the shared library version scheme.  See (libtool)Versioning.
* Replaced `--config-file' and `--version-file' options with `--confdir'
* Added new install-libs and install-progs modes

New in 0.1:
* First release of libtool
* Support for: *-*-freebsd*, *-*-netbsd*, *-*-sunos4*, *-*-ultrix4*