release.txt

Release notes for
*************************************************
GNU Tools for Arm Embedded Processors 9
                               - Q4 2019
*************************************************

This release includes bare metal pre-built binaries for AArch32 EABI targets,
which can be hosted on:
* Windows 10 32/64 bits or later (with installer and alternative zip package)
* Linux
  - Ubuntu 14.04 or later AArch64 (tarball)
  - Ubuntu 14.04 or later x86_64 (tarball)
  - RHEL 7 64 bits (tarball)
* Mac OS X 10.13 and newer 64 bits (tarball)

It also contains source code package (together with build scripts and
instructions to setup build environment), which is composed of:

  * gcc : %GCC_BRANCH%
    %GCC_URL% revision %GCC_REV%

  * binutils : %BINUTILS_BRANCH%
    %BINUTILS_URL% commit %BINUTILS_SHA1%

  * newlib and newlib-nano : %NEWLIB_BRANCH%
    %NEWLIB_URL% commit %NEWLIB_SHA1%

  * gdb : %GDB_BRANCH%
    %GDB_URL% commit %GDB_SHA1%

Note that some or all of the following prerequisites are downloaded when
building from source:

  * EnvVarUpdate NSIS script :
    http://nsis.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/images/a/ad/EnvVarUpdate.7z

  * expat %EXPAT_VER% :
    %EXPAT_URL%

  * gmp %GMP_VER% :
    %GMP_URL%

  * isl %ISL_VER% :
    %ISL_URL%

  * libelf %LIBELF_VER% :
    %LIBELF_URL%

  * libiconv %LIBICONV_VER% :
    %LIBICONV_URL%

  * mpc %MPC_VER% :
    %MPC_URL%

  * mpfr %MPFR_VER% :
    %MPFR_URL%

  * python %PYTHON_WIN_VER% :
    %PYTHON_WIN_URL%

  * zlib %ZLIB_VER%
    %ZLIB_URL%

Features:
* All GCC 9.2 features, plus latest mainline features

Tests:
* Targets
  + variety of Cortex-M0/M0+/M3/M4/M7/A9 boards
  + Qemu
  + Arm Fast Models

Important changes in 9-2019Q4 major release:
* Windows package only tested on Windows 10.

* Fixed https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24289
  MEMORY regions can no longer use LENGTH and ORIGIN.

* Fixed https://community.arm.com/developer/tools-software/oss-platforms/f/gnu-toolchain-forum/13503/gcc-g-version-8-very-slow-to-compile
  GCC 8 very slow to compile

* Fixed https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=25081
  Discrepancy between VMA and LMA after ALIGN

* Additional armv7-r multilib directory: thumb/v7-r+fp.sp

* Added AArch64 Linux host package

* Windows installer now accepts the following options when running in silent mode:
  - /P Adds the installation bin directory to the system PATH
  - /R Adds an InstallFolder registry entry for the install.

Known issues:
* Doing IPA on CMSE generates a linker error:
The linker will error out when resulting object file contains a symbol for
the clone function with the __acle_se prefix that has a non-local binding.
  Issue occurs when compiling binaries for M-profile Secure Extensions where
the compiler may decide to clone a function with the cmse_nonsecure_entry
attribute.
  Although cloning nonsecure entry functions is legal, as long as the clone
is only used inside the secure application, the clone function itself should
not be seen as a secure entry point and so it should not have the __acle_se
prefix.
  A possible work around for this is to add a 'noclone' attribute to
functions with the 'cmse_nonsecure_entry'. This will prevent GCC from cloning
such functions.