NEWS - list of user-visible changes between releases of GNU Libtool New in 2.2.8 2009-??-??: git version 2.2.7a, Libtool team: * New features: - Libtool ships and installs man pages for libtool and libtoolize now. - New libtool command line flag --help-all. - New libtool command line flag --no-silent (with alternate spelling --no-quiet). This flag (re)enables the default informational messages, but has no effect on so-called "verbose" output messages. - New libtool command line flag --no-verbose, which disables only the extra "verbose" output messages and has no effect on the default informational messages. * Changes in supported systems or compilers: - Improved support for 64bit Windows (mingw64). - Improved support for cegcc (Windows CE/PocketPC). - Support for GNU/kOpenSolaris (kopensolaris*-gnu). - Initial support for compilers on BlueGene BG/L. - Improved support for Atari FreeMiNT. * Bug fixes: - Fix 2.2.6 regression that prevented using the libltdl macros together with Autoconf 2.59 (`possibly undefined macro: LT_LIBEXT'). - Fix 2.2.4 regression that caused arguments with special characters to be mangled by the compile wrapper for uninstalled programs on MinGW. - libtool command line flag --verbose now also enables explicit verbose output, in addition to its previous behavior of (re)enabling only the default informational output. See New Features, --no-silent. - Link tests are guarded by cache variables so they can be avoided for bootstrapping purposes (e.g., when link tests are not possible). - Argument mangling of execute mode has been improved (i.e., lessened). - Fix 2.1b regression that caused nm to not be the default name lister. The regression affected mainly (arguably broken) cross compiles. * Miscellaneous changes: - The manual is distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3 now. New in 2.2.6 2008-09-05: git version 2.2.5a, Libtool team: * New features: - New lt_dloadvise_preload() call to set a hint that only preloadeded modules can be opened. - libtoolize no longer removes config.guess and config.sub, even when --install is passed. * Changes in supported systems or compilers: - Fixes for ifort on Darwin, and newer Intel compilers (icc 10, ifort 9) on GNU/Linux. - Fixes for cwrapper (cygwin/mingw) under -stdc=c99. - Support cross compile of MinGW with Wine. - Initial support for cegcc (Windows CE/PocketPC) cross compilation. - Initial support for lf95 (Lahey Fortran 8.1) on GNU/Linux. * Bug fixes: - Several testsuite issues have been fixed, thanks to user feedback. - Fix 2.2 regression that caused argz symbols to be exported from libltdl unrenamed on systems that do not have working argz. - Revert "lt_dlopen(NULL) works on AIX again.". It was not the correct fix. - Diagnose '-L' arguments correctly. - Libtool no longer tries to open devices as files in execute mode. - Libtool no longer removes *.gcno profile information from GCC. New in 2.2.4: 2008-05-04: git version 2.2.3a, Libtool team: * New features: - New libtoolize option --no-warn, for users that want to continue to use old libtool style without being nagged. - Options --debug, --no-warn, --quiet and --verbose can be passed to libtoolize through the environment variable LIBTOOLIZE_OPTIONS, for cleaner interaction between the user and libtoolize when called by autoreconf. * Bug fixes: - The documentation for lt_dlopenadvise showed the wrong type for the lt_dladvise parameter. - The public declarations for lt_dlhandle and lt_dladvise are now incomplete struct types rather than void*, which means that nearly all casting is eliminated allowing the compiler to provide more type checking. - libtoolize no longer reports up-to-date files that it would have copied, unless --force is passed. - No longer reports that lt~obsolete.m4 needs to be added to aclocal.m4 when it is already there. - When `aclocal' copied the libtool macros directly into `aclocal.m4' (i.e. AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is not being used), libtoolize no longer reports that all macros need to be added to `aclocal.m4', and diagnoses only the macro files that are missing or not up-to-date. - libtoolize now advises use of AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR to keep matching libtool macros in-tree where appropriate. - libtoolize now advises use of `ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4' (or equivalent) where appropriate, and errors out when ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS names a different directory to AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR. New in 2.2.2: 2008-04-01: CVS version 2.2.1a, Libtool team: * New features: - In compile mode, compiler output occurs in the user locale. This feature has been present in 1.5.26 but not in 2.2. * Changes in supported systems or compilers: - Initial shared library support for AmigaOS4 on powerpc. * Bug fixes: - Fix 2.2 regression in libltdl that causes memory corruption upon repeated `lt_dlinit(); lt_dlexit()'. - Fix 2.2 regression in libltdl that skipped the dlopen loader if the system also supports other loaders (e.g., Cygwin, HP-UX). - Fix 2.2 regression in that `libtool --mode=execute CMD ARGS' does not transform ARGS that do not look like shell or C wrappers of libtool programs. - Fix 2.2 regression that kept cross-compiling to w32 from working. - Several testsuite issues have been fixed, thanks to user feedback. New in 2.2: 2008-03-01; CVS version 2.1c, Libtool team: * Bug fixes: - argz.c, lt__dirent.c and lt__strl.c are correctly distributed with parent projects using nonrecursive libltdl. - libtoolize no longer tries to install libtool files when libltdl is used in a non-autoconf parent package. - Don't add the CXX tag to libtool when there is no C++ compiler, even if AC_PROG_CXX sets a default g++ compiler where no such compiler actually exists. - make distcheck DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS=--disable-ltdl-install works again. New in 2.1b: 2008-02-01; CVS version 2.1a, Libtool team: * Important incompatible changes and obsoleted features: - Removed deprecated APIs from libltdl: lt_dlcaller_register, lt_dlhandle_next, lt_dlhandle_find, lt_dlforeach, lt_dlmutex_register, lt_dlmutex_lock, lt_dlmutex_unlock, lt_dlmutex_seterror, lt_dlmutex_geterror, lt_dlmalloc, lt_dlrealloc, lt_dlfree. - The Libtool and libltdl macros and the testsuite now assume a C89 environment, consequently do not test for headers such as string.h, strings.h, memory.h any more. - Fix regression in libltdl symbol exports on Cygwin. Side effect: LT_GLOBAL_DATA and LT_SCOPE are now explicitly defined as declspec(dllexport), bypassing auto-export logic on Cygwin. This tracks existing behavior on MinGW. - The libtool script has been optimized a bit for more modern shells. This breaks use of the stdin file descriptor in libtool, and can break if a different shell is used to execute the libtool script than the one it was configured for. - The macros AC_ENABLE_SHARED, AC_DISABLE_SHARED, AC_ENABLE_STATIC, and AC_DISABLE_STATIC have been un-deprecated after deprecation in 1.9b. - The macro LT_WITH_LTDL has been renamed to LTDL_INIT. - Fixed a branch-1-5/HEAD regression to only link uninstalled libraries statically with `-static'. In order to compensate for this, there is a new link flag `-static-libtool-libs' to provide the previous `-static' semantics. * New features: - Fix installation of libltdl so that it does not need Autoconf and Automake installed, in order to be usable in another package. This lifts the restrictions introduced in 1.9b. - Default convenience or installable libltdl builds can optionally be declared using new `convenience' or `installable' options to the LTDL_INIT macro (as an alternative to individual LTDL_CONVENIENCE or LTDL_INSTALLABLE invocations). - New configure-time options to allow libltdl parent project builder to choose between installed and shipped libltdl, when invoking LTDL_INIT: --with-included-ltdl, --with-ltdl-include, --with-ltdl-lib. - New LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR macro to specify a different directory name for a convenience libltdl. - libtoolize has been completely overhauled. - `libtoolize --install' now also installs `install-sh'. - New libtoolize options: --non-recursive, --recursive, --subproject. These options control the way libltdl is installed into a package by libtoolize. The new recursive and non-recursive build modes for libltdl don't require a subconfigure any more. The Libtool package itself builds libltdl nonrecursively. - The 'nonrecursive', 'recursive' and 'subproject' libltdl build modes are given as LTDL_INIT options. - New make variable LTDLDEPS for use in output_DEPENDENCIES. - New multi-module-loader safe libltdl handle iteration APIs: lt_dlhandle_iterate, lt_dlhandle_fetch, lt_dlhandle_map. - New lt_dlinterface_register to maintain separation of concerns between modules loaded by different libraries. - New lt_dlopenadvise takes a new lt_dladvise type argument, which lets the caller request local or global symbol visibility from the module loader with lt_dladvise_local and lt_dladvise_global respectively. If neither is given, or if lt_dlopen (or lt_dlopenext) are called, then the system default module symbol visibility is used. - The new lt_dladvise_init/lt_dladvise_destroy based APIs also allow caller requests for a filename extension search with lt_dladvise_ext, and for marking a module unloadable with lt_dladvise_resident. - Allow shell special characters like `$' in source file names, but not in object names, to enhance GCJ support. - An entire new Autotest-based testsuite in addition to the old one. Both testsuites have been made more useful for testing cross-compilers. The new testsuite exposes many more issues, but may also be a little rocky on exotic systems. - In 1.9b, a new variable inherited_linker_flags has been added to the libtool library files. This variable takes flags that should be used by dependent libraries and programs, but that do not fit into `dependency_libs' for both clarity and backward-compatibility. * Changes in supported systems or compilers: - Removed bitrotted support for xlc on Mac OS X. - Detection of compiler wrappers distcc/ccache and $host_alias prefix. - Basic support for PIE (position-independent executables). - Support for DragonFly BSD, improved support for FreeBSD. - Improved support for GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/NetBSD. - Support for Interix 3 (Windows SFU) and newer versions. - Support for AIX 6.1. - Improved support for UnixWare. - Initial support for RDOS. - Initial Support for FC (modern Fortran). - Support for Portland Group compiler, the Sun compiler suite on GNU/Linux, and initial support for the IBM compiler suite on GNU/Linux/ppc. - Support for linux-dietlibc (`diet' as well as `diet-dyn', separately). - Building libltdl with a C++ compiler has been undusted. - On (AIX?,) HP-UX, and OpenBSD, hardcoding has been changed to prefer rpath over absolute dependent library names. This fixes DESTDIR installs, among others, on the non-HP-UX/PA systems. - Use of C++ templates together with shared libraries has been improved on some systems and with some compilers, but is still ongoing work. Feedback is desirable here. * Bug fixes: - Fix libltdl on static platforms. - Search paths with GCC on multilib systems like x86_64 have been fixed. - Fixed a regression that prevented use of libltdl without autotools. - Fix error with -version-info on systems with version_type=none, such as BeOS. - Fix symbol exporting for cases where command line length limits are exceeded. - Improve linking with C++ libraries on Solaris with Sun compiler. - Fix installation of libraries that are required by installation commands such as `ln' or `rm'. - More robust parsing of mangled `.la' files inside libltdl, fixing a possible overrun and a crash due to memory exhaustion. - Fix compile command line for gcj on MinGW. - Some configure variables have been renamed to fix caching: lt_prog_compiler_pic_works to lt_cv_prog_compiler_pic_works lt_prog_compiler_static_works to lt_cv_prog_compiler_static_works. - Fix 1.9b regression: lt_dlopen(NULL) works on AIX again. - Loads of smaller bug fixes. New in 1.9f: 2004-10-23; CVS version 1.9e, Libtool team: * Fix a regression in 1.9d, where ECHO was always set to 'echo' and the backslash quoting tests were never run. * Fix a regression in 1.9d, where progpath was used for --no-reexec before it was set. * Fix a regression in 1.9d, which required an installed automake to build the bootstrapped tarball. * Fix hanging bug on MinGW. New in 1.9d: 2004-10-03; CVS version 1.9c, Libtool team: * If non-pic objects were not compiled, and libtool is called in link mode, libtool no longer silently creates an empty archive, but rather falls back to pic objects. * When compiling C glue code with $LTCC, libtool now saves the setting of $compiler_flags from the C tag, and passes those flags to $LTCC. * libtool no longer dies when concurrently creating directories with `make -j' on multi-processor hosts. * Return type, and name parameter of lt_dlloader_remove are no longer `const'. * Name parameter of lt_dlloader_find is no longer 'const'. * The API for the slist ADT has been updated: slist_new has been replaced by slist_box; slist_unbox and slist_sort are new; the footprint of slist_remove and slist_fnid have changed; SListCallback and SListCompare types have been exchanged. See libltdl/slist.c for documentation. * libltdl is C89 compatible again. lt_dlsymbol type removed, and lt_dlsymlist structure changed to avoid using C99 flexible arrays. * Support self dlopening for executables on cygwin and mingw. * Improved support for linux-gnu/ia64. * Initial support for s390x-ibm-tpf. * Fixed some memory leaks in libltdl. * Improved support for OpenBSD (use rpath instead of hardcoding absolute file names). New in 1.9b: 2004-08-29; CVS version 1.5a, Libtool team: * The /^_?LT_[A-Z_]+$/ namespace is now reserved for Libtool's own macros. If you have any shell variables in this namespace they will need to be renamed. If you have any macros in this namespace please rename them to prevent any possible future clash with libtool supplied macros. * New LT_PREREQ macro for specifying minimum libtool requirement. * New LT_INIT interface replaces AC_PROG_LIBTOOL, AC_ENABLE_SHARED, AC_DISABLE_SHARED, AC_ENABLE_STATIC, AC_DISABLE_STATIC, AC_ENABLE_FAST_INSTALL, AC_DISABLE_FAST_INSTALL, AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN, AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL and AC_LIBTOOL_PIC_MODE. Use autoupdate to modernise your configure.ac files after installing this release. * New LT_LANG interface to enable libtool support for a specific language. * Language support is now only included if your configure.ac enables it, either through a call to AC_PROG_CXX etc. or LT_LANG. * The libtool script will complain if it was built from mismatched ltmain.sh and libtool m4 macro versions. * Like automake, libtoolize no longer installs config.guess and config.sub by default. Use new --install option to get the old behaviour. * libtoolize no longer supports the --ltdl-tar option. * libtool script is now created by config.status. Instead of interrogating `./libtool' from configure.ac after calling AC_PROG_LIBTOOL, use the variable names directly. * libltdl is no longer a self-contained package, and shares configury with the top level directory now. * Shared objects (.lo) are no longer created when `-static' is passed in compile mode. * New compile mode option `-shared' prevents creation of static objects (.o). * New link mode option `-shared' creates only shared libraries at link time. * If you configure libtool with --disable-shared (or if libtool does not support shared libraries on your platform) trying to build a library using `-shared' is a fatal error. * New link mode option `-weak' tells libtool when not to propogate dependency libraries from dlpreopened modules. * libtoolize installs libtool.m4, (ltdl.m4 if used,) and various supporting m4 definitions to AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR. * Mode inferrence removed, shorthand for choosing modes added. * Specifying -allow-undefined is now an error. * Speed up max_cmd_len check. * libltdl can now preopen modules from within a library, and libtool will accept -dlpreopen options when linking either a shared library or a convenience library. * New function in libltdl: lt_dlhandle_find provides access to module handles by module name. * New function in libltdl: lt_dlpreload_open opens all preloaded modules. * libltdl no longer loads shared libraries with global symbol resolution, this caused problems when the symbols were intended to be overriden further up the stack; it is also not recommended practice. * New function in libltdl: lt_dlhandle_first, primes handle iterations (using lt_dlhandle_next) to filter by module interface. * libltdl no longer tries to support multi-threaded programming with lt_dlmutex_register(), which was unusable with POSIX threads anyway. The symbols are deprecated but exported for backwards compatibility. * libltdl no longer uses lt_dlmalloc, lt_dlrealloc and lt_dlfree. The symbols are still exported for backwards compatibility. * The lt_dlinfo struct has a new module field that can be used by dlloaders. * libltdl no longer supports pre-c89 compilers. Some of the pre89 portability functions had compile time bugs in them anyway, so you guys can't have been using it :-) * make install now deletes preexisting $prefix/share/libtool before installing latest files. * Extracting symbols from an import library on cygwin and win32 now works. * Initial support for amigaos-ppc. * Improved support for OpenBSD. * Support for Intel C++ version 8.0. * New support for IBM's xlc and xlc++ on Mac OS X. * Finished support for QNX RTOS. * Bug fixes. New in 1.5.8: 2004-08-07; CVS version 1.5.7a, Libtool team: * Support for Intel C++ version 8.0. * Improved support for OpenBSD. * Support for xlc on Mac OS X. * Better support for zsh as /bin/sh. * Much faster check for command line length on all BSD systems. * Better Mac OS X/darwin support. * Bug Fixes. New in 1.5.6: 2004-04-11; CVS version 1.5.5a, Libtool team: * Installs libltdl files properly in $prefix/share/libtool/libltdl. 1.5.4 did not install them at all. * libltdl correctly guesses the extension for loadable modules again. New in 1.5.4: 2004-04-03; CVS version 1.5.3a, Libtool team: * Bug fixes. New in 1.5.2: 2004-01-25; CVS version 1.5.0a, Libtool team: * lt_dlrealloc is an official part of the libltdl API. * --tag, --silent and --debug options are preserved and reused when libtool calls itself for relinking etc. * `-pthread' and similar options are honoured when linking shared libraries. * -no-suppress in compile mode shows compiler output for both PIC and non-PIC object compilation. * New link mode option `-precious-files-regex' to prevent accidental removal of files you want to keep, such as test coverage data, from the temporary output directory. * Directories specified in /etc/ld.so.conf are no longer hardcoded on GNU/Linux. * Recognises the 'R' symbol type on Solaris so read-only symbols can be exported. * Bug fixes. New in 1.5.1: 2003-??-??; CVS version 1.5.0a, Libtool team: * lt_dlrealloc is an official part of the libltdl API. * Bug fixes. New in 1.5: 2003-04-14; CVS version 1.4e, Libtool team: * First stable release of multi-language architecture. * libtool and libltdl support for Mac OS/X. * libltdl will now use cygwins dlopen API instead of always forcing LoadLibrary. * Support auto-import patch to binutils on cygwin for much improved dll support. * Bug fixes. New in 1.4.3: 2002-10-13; CVS version 1.4.2a, Robert Boehne: * The libltdl subdirectory now bootstraps correctly with Automake 1.5. * srcdir != builddir builds with Automake 1.5 work correctly. * Support for mips-compaq-nonstopux. * New command line argument, --preserve-dup-deps prevents removal of duplicate dependent libraries. New in 1.4d: 2002-01-07; CVS version 1.4c, Libtool team: * Help strings display correctly again. * Better error messages when library linking fails. * Better error messages from libltdl when loading fails. * Better search path management in libltdl with `lt_dlinsertsearchdir' call. * Support /lib/w32api in recent cygwin releases. * Support cross compilation to mingw. * Support for .rc files (Windows resource compiler). * Improved handling of mingw gcc. * Improved handling of $PATH with entries containing spaces. * Improved support for linking with gcc on aix4* and aix5*. * Improved support for GCC 3.0. * Initial support for QNX RTOS, UnixWare 7 and OpenUNIX 8. * Bug fixes to the OpenBSD port. * Bug fixes. New in 1.4.2: 2001-09-11; CVS version 1.4.1a, Gary V. Vaughan: * libltdl now builds on solaris again * diagnose and warn about not-quite-working combinations of gcc and ld on solaris. * Improved OpenBSD support. * Improved cygwin support. * Bugfixes. New in 1.4.1: 2001-09-03; CVS version 1.4.0a, Libtool team: * Better error messages from libltdl when loading fails. * Don't leave here-doc files behind. * Improved support for OpenBSD. * Libtool will build with autoconf-2.50 and higher. * Plug memory management bugs in libltdl. * Prefer shl_load to dlopen for better operation on HP-UX. New in 1.4b: 2001-07-09; CVS version 1.4a, Libtool team: * Now bootstraps with autoconf-2.50 and automake-1.4-p4. * Always try to build at least a static lib, even if both static and shared libs were disabled. * Full support for C++ compiler. * Support for GNU gcj compiler. * libltdl can now load all modules in a given path according to user supplied criteria with `lt_dlforeachfile' call. * Improved support for AIX ia64, djgpp, HPUX, hurd, OpenBSD, sco3.2*. * Internal mutex handling no longer has namespace clashes on NCR MP-RAS. * New pdemo and tagdemo tests. * Bug fixes. New in 1.4: 2001-04-25; CVS version 1.3e, Libtool team: * Support for aix5*. * Bugfixes. New in 1.3d: 2001-04-02; CVS version 1.3c, Libtool team: * ltconfig is no more. Generation of libtool happens directly from the configure file. * Multithread safe with lt_dlmutex_register callback registration. * New -no-install flag to avoid the use of executable wrapper scripts. * New --with-pic, -prefer-pic and -prefer-non-pic flags to control the generation of PIC/non-PIC code. * Support for hardcoding run-time paths (-R) into libraries. * Support -dlopen and -dlpreopen for libraries. * Libtool now allows you to link shared libraries against static code. * New functions in libltdl: lt_dlgetinfo, lt_dlhandle_next and lt_dlforeach provide access to module specific data in handles. lt_dlcaller_register, lt_dlcaller_set_data and lt_dlcaller_get_data provide management for user storage of per module data. lt_dlloader_next, lt_dlloader_name, lt_dlloader_find, lt_dlloader_add and lt_dlloader_remove can be used for adding new types of module loaders. lt_dladderror, lt_dlseterror integrate user module loaders with lt_dlerror. * "-Xcompiler" and "-Wc," does now work in compile mode, too. * Support recent dlltool formats. * Start of support code for cross-compiling to win32. * libltdl can now be built as a dll with win32. * m4 macros needed to configure libltdl split out into libltdl/ltdl.m4. * New port to NEWS-OS Release 6. * Improved support for darwin (rhapsody), mingw32, NetBSD, Compaq Tru64 V5.0 and Digital Unix V4.*. * Initial support for ia64 linux. * Initial support for a.out freebsd shared libs. * Initial support for Paul Sokolovsky's pw32 POSIX over win32 layer. * Many bugfixes (especially in libltdl) New in 1.3b: 1999-07-02; CVS version 1.3a, Libtool team: * Complete inter-library dependencies support. It's now possible to link libtool libraries against other libtool libraries. * Libtool is able to find already-installed libtool libraries, even if they were moved out of their installation directory. * New "-Wc,flag" and "-Xcompiler flag" flags to pass flags directly to the compiler * New "-Wl,flag" and "-Xlinker flag" flags to pass flags directly to the linker * New "-no-fast-install" flag to selectively disable fast-install mode. * Support for installing stripped libraries using GNU strip (install -s). Automake >= 1.5 will install stripped libraries with "make install-strip". * Allow linking shared libraries against static ones on FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, GNU Hurd and Solaris * Support for linking DLLs on Win32 * New `clean' mode to delete uninstalled files. * New demos and tests * Various bugfixes New in 1.3.5: 2000-05-27, CVS version 1.3.4a, Libtool team: * Support for mac OS X (rhapsody). * Support for *-sequent-sysv4. * Support for Cygwin-1.1.0. * Support recent dlltool formats. * Bugfixes. New in 1.3.4: 1999-12-08, CVS version 1.3.3a, Libtool team: * Support for Compaq Tru64 V5.0. * Improved support for Digital Unix V4.*. * Improved support for NetBSD, FreeBSD and Unixware. * Many fine bugfixes. New in 1.3.3: 1999-07-02, CVS version 1.3.2a, Libtool team: * New `-dlpreopen force' flag to ensure that lt_preloaded_symbols is always defined. * Work around self-dlclose bug in FreeBSD 3.1. * Expand convenience libraries when creating reloadable objects. * Do not forget to import -L flags of convenience libraries. * Do not pass -whole-archive or equivalent to symbol extractor. * Create directory to expand convenience libraries only when needed. * Improved support for Cygwin, DJGPP and NetBSD * Various bugfixes New in 1.3.2: 1999-05-26, CVS version 1.3.1a, Libtool team: * Avoid circular links of objects and libraries. * Look for dlerror when dlopen was found in -ldl (typo). * Disable shared libraries with broken GNU ld on Solaris. New in 1.3.1: 1999-05-21, CVS version 1.3.0a, Libtool team: * Documentation improvements; recommend automake users to insert libtool.m4 in acinclude.m4 * AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE and AC_LIBLTDL_INSTALLABLE now set INCLTDL. * New port to NEC UX/4800. * cygwin-b20.1 passes all tests. * Slightly improved BeOS support. * Many AIX 4.3.2 test failures have gone. * Pass unknown -L arguments through to the linker (for -LANG:* support). * Close a security hole with mode 777 directory during libltdl installation. * Fixed the infamous ``ifelse'' bug in libtool.m4 New in 1.3: 1999-04-29, Libtool team: * This is just a summary of the changes since 1.2. See the news of intermediate alpha releases below for details. * Support for convenience archives. * New maintainers. Anonymous CVS and home page at gnu.org. * Portable dlopening interface with libltdl, new -module flag. * Correctly link installed libtool libraries into programs and other libtool libraries. Linking of uninstalled libtool libraries into libraries is under development for 1.4. * Do not drop library dependencies on platforms that allow them. * Linking with uninstalled libraries no longer picks installed ones by mistake. * Use libraries from the build tree when running uninstalled executables (may require double linking). * Allow developers to optimize for build-tree executions. * Support -export-symbols-regex for controlled symbol exporting. * Support -R to hardcode directories in library search paths. * New ports, demos and tests. Lots of improvements and bug fixes. New in CVS version 1.2g, Libtool team: * AM_PROG_LIBTOOL is smaller and faster * AC_LIBTL_L_WIN32_DLL is required in configure.in for libtool to attempt to build dlls on win32 hosts * Shared libraries on AmigaOS up to version 4 are now disabled since they don't meet libtool's requirements for shared libraries * -L supports now relative directories * Libltdl has a new license: LGPL with a special exception * Libltdl can be used as stand-alone package * dlopen support for BeOS * Partial support for Motorola System V 4 * Improved support for AIX, BeOS, Cygwin, DJGPP, DU, IRIX and HP/UX * Documentation updates * New tests * Bugfixes New in 1.2f: 1999-03-15; CVS version 1.2e, Libtool team: * libtool will correctly link uninstalled libraries into programs and prefer uninstalled libraries to installed ones * Library paths that are in the system default run-time search path are no longer hardcoded into executables. * New fast installation mode, which links the final executable in order to avoid relinking during installation. Programs in the build-tree are relinked when executed. * New AC_DISABLE_FAST_INSTALL macro to set the default for the fast-install mode to disabled * New -export-symbols-regex flag, to export symbols selectively by a regular expression * Support -R for specifying run-time path of programs and library dependencies * New -avoid-version option to avoid versioning for libraries * libtool module names no longer need to have a "lib" prefix (requires automake 1.4). * New -thread-safe flag, to build thread-safe libraries * Major improvements in libltdl: API documentation, installable version, support for module search paths, support for lt_dlopen(0), can be embedded into packages as a tar file (libltdl.tar.gz), dynamic buffer allocation and buffer overflow checks, new macro LTDL_SET_PRELOADED_SYMBOLS() which must be used in the main program, dynamic memory allocation functions are user-defineable * New AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE and AC_LIBLTDL_INSTALLABLE macros, to select convenience and/or installable versions of libltdl. * libltdl is now built and installed unless --disable-ltdl-install * New "-dlopen self" flag for dlopening the executable itself * New AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN macro to check for dlopen support, required if you use -dlopen or -dlpreopen * If libtool could not satisfy all dependencies of a module it will only build a static version of it * dld_preloaded_symbols was renamed to lt_preloaded_symbols * Support for BeOS * Improved support for FreeBSD, AIX, IRIX, OSF, SysV 4.3, HP/UX, DJGPP BSD/OS 4.x and NetBSD * In order for libtool to attempt to link a shared library (dll) on win32 platforms, you must pass the -no-undefined flag to libtool in link mode. * The path to GNU ld now works on cygwin-b18 to cygwin-b20.2 at least. * Support for IRIX library versioning. * New demos and tests * Various bugfixes New in 1.2d: 1998-12-16; CVS version 1.2c, Libtool team: * libtool will correctly link already-installed libraries into programs. * New -module flag, to create loadable modules. * New libltdl, a small library for portable dlopening of modules. It is still undocumented, but you can already find some examples in: * New mdemo directory, with tests of -module and dlopening examples. Be aware that libltdl is only known to work on a few platforms such as GNU/Linux and Solaris2. Some mdemo tests are known to FAIL on several other platforms; please ignore these failures by now (or work to fix them :-). * 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). * 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 DG/UX, UnixWare 7.x and FreeBSD 3.0, 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 http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html for details. * Alexandre Oliva, Thomas Tanner and Gary V. Vaughan have taken over the maintenance of libtool. * Arguments to ltconfig have been changed to allow creation of a libtool C program, totally unusable as of this release. 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 cseses 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*