Only 6 weeks since our last release, but the team still got a lot done! We've split changes into separate sections this time, so hopefully it's a bit easier to read.

🚀 Features

• Add handling of the .symver asm directives (#994)
• Allow absolute-value symbol to be used as an entry point
• Allow setting entry point for shared objects
• Reintroduce handling of tail-merged strings (#1117)
• Implement --retain-symbols-file (#1262)
• Allow mixing of argument files and regular arguments (#1148)
• Support VERSION command in linker script
• Ignore '-no-fatal-warnings' option (#1192)
• Increase maximal supported alignment to 2^16 (#1190)
• Include git commit in linker version (#1203)
• Add support for .note.stapsdt sections (#1202)
• Check for overflow on 32bit relocations (#1175)
• Support tokens enclosed in double quotes in linker scripts
• Support flag --no-mmap-output-file (#1215)

⚡ Performance

• Limit default parallelism in string merging
• Rewrite scheduling of string merging tasks (#1240)

🪲 Bug Fixes

• Fill some bytes with zeros (affects --update-in-place) (#1237)
• Improve handling of non-absolute paths in save-dir (#1244)
• Pad copy relocations according to alignment (#1251)
• Don't allow hidden/protected symbols to reference shared objects (#1258)
• Use local symbol interposability when processing relocations (#1259)
• Make --strip-debug suppress earlier --strip-all (#1261)
• Fix compilation on riscv (#1100)
• Distinguish default version (@@) from non-default (@). (#1129)
• Only emit PT_INTERP for shared executables
• Add RISCV_ATTRIBUTE program segment (#1166)
• Don't create GOT/PLT entries for ifuncs that aren't referenced (#1185)
• Improve handling of relocations in non-alloc sections (#1196)
• Fix lookup of the riscv-fix-hi-part (#1198)
• Make --warn-unresolved-symbols match GNU ld's behaviour (#1217)
• Handle missing GNU_PROPERTY .note.gnu.property values (#1222)
• Allow dynamic symbols to refer to merged strings (#1147)

🏗️ Builds

• Build for (aarch|x86_|riscv)64(|gc)-unknown-linux-(musl|gnu) (#1151)
• Link musl releases with Wild

📚 Documentation

• Move nix docs to a separate file and update supported features list (#1113)
• Remove archive_splitter.rs reference from DESIGN.md (#1145)
• Update benchmarks, this time with bar charts
• Add instructions for using Wild with Rust on Illumos. (#1171)
• Document crate dependency version policy (#1140)
• Customise git-cliff config and document commit message format (#1267)

🕹️ Porting

• Initial support for Illumos (#1197)

⚖️ Linker Diff

• Add support for RISC-V (#920)
• Ensure all columns in tables have same width (#1247)

🧪 Testing

• Use wild for build in CI (#1091)
• Verify build on riscv (#1101)
• Verify minimal versions in CI (#1142)
• Ignore some diffs in risc-v tests (#1236)
• Use test-config-ci.toml in CI (#1234)
• Report sections where --update-in-place misses writes (#1239)
• Set the TRIPLE environment variable if needed when running mold tests
• Fix potential template-injection in CI
• Fix a couple of tests that were failing on recent opensuse (#1241)
• Don't skip running dynamically linked executables (#1248)
• Apt-get update before installing for riscv build workflow (#1255)
• Prevent race between test cases re-creating the same .so file (#1107)
• Use depfile in integrationtests (#1123)
• Use correct exit syscall number on Illumos (#1138)
• Look for dynamic linker in /bin/less in integ test (#1159)
• Unignore symbol-versions3.sh Mold test
• Make integration test diffing an opt-in feature (#1158)
• Integration tests: Make symbol assertions more extensible (#1169)
• Better error message when test unexpectedly pasess (#1176)
• Print clang version when clang-format fails (#1183)
• Clarify clang-format version mismatch instructions (#1193)
• Increase test binary execution timeout (#1188)
• Add a test for handling of note sections (#1211)
• Integration tests: Make skipping tests on unsupported flags more generic (#1225)
• Integration tests: Make compilation errors easier to find (#1224)
• Add basic testing for update-in-place flag (#1230)
• Limit the conditions for executing update-nix-lockfile

🔨 Refactor

• Use u32_from_slice (#1128)
• Introduce BitExtraction trait for u64 (#1157)
• Restructure code in symbol_db.rs a bit (#1252)
• Build only C++ and Rust demanglers
• Simplify get_host_architecture (#1164)
• Merge ResolutionFlags and ValueFlags (#1180)
• Move per-symbol-flags out of SymbolDb (#1186)
• Delete ValueFlags::ADDRESS (#1189)
• Replace all uses of bytemuck with zerocopy (#1210)
• Add readable Debug implementations for internal data structures (#1227)
• Macro to generate ELF newtypes and new SymbolType (#1228)

👥 Contributors

• davidlattimore
• marxin
• mati865
• daniel-levin
• lapla-cogito
• karolzwolak
• andrewdavidmackenzie
• el-yawd
• TechnoPorg
• jarjk
• jakobhellermann
• YamasouA

💲 Sponsors

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored davidlattimore, in particular the following people who have sponsored at least $30 since the last release:

• repi
• rrbutani
• Rafferty97
• CodeursenLiberte
• mati865
• ArthurBrussee
• wasmerio
• +50 others

274 commits since the last release.

• Installation changes
  • Now requires at least rust 1.89.0 to build #1065 (lapla-cogito)
  • We no longer have an installer script (sorry) #1093 (davidlattimore)
  • Wild's release builds are now linked with wild #1093 (davidlattimore)
• Mold's test suite is now run in CI #903 (lapla-cogito)
• Override -shared by (-no)-pie #1095 (mati865)
• Emit error if as-yet unsupported .symver directive is used #1089 (marxin)
• Discard sections with exclude bit set #1077 (lqd)
• Do not look up files from args in search paths #1058 (mati865)
• Support escaping in version scripts #1053 (lapla-cogito)
• Avoid adding input files multiple times #1057 (mati865)
• Fix R_X86_64_GOTPC32_TLSDESC relaxations #1051 (marxin)
• Improve error message when LTO objects cause undefined symbols #1050 (AadiWaghray)
• Support -z interpose #1048 (lapla-cogito)
• Obtain verdefnum from verdef section header #1041 (mati865)
• Added support for CREL #981 (marxin)
• Support --help #1029 (lapla-cogito)
• Support -z undefs #1030 (AadiWaghray)
• Support --time=cycles,instructions,cache-misses etc #1027 (davidlattimore)
• Don't error when there are multiple alias definitions pointing to the same symbol #1021
  (lapla-cogito)
• Autoformat C/C++ test code #1006 (mati865)
• Implement --allow-multiple-definition and -z muldefs #1015 (lapla-cogito)
• Implement more arguments for exporting symbols #974 (mati865)
• Add --unresolved-symbols= and --{warn, error}-unresolved-symbols options support #993
  (lapla-cogito)
• Discard empty string-merge sections. Fixes #932 (davidlattimore)
• Write dynsym in parallel. Fixes #1000 (davidlattimore)
• Compute dynamic symbols versions during layout. #1000 (davidlattimore)
• Fix infinite loop on string-merge errors. #1008 (davidlattimore)
• Implement --wrap. #998 (davidlattimore)
• Support extern "C" and extern "C++" in version scripts. #963 (marxin), #1004 (mati865)
• Allow parallelism when resolving symbols for an object. #1001 (davidlattimore)
• Implement proper symbol lookup in a collections of versions #972 (marxin)
• Fix handling of custom NOBITS TLS sections #966 (davidlattimore)
• Use segment rather than section layout for TLS addresses #975 (davidlattimore)
• Change behaviour of --no-allow-shlib-undefined to match lld #897 (davidlattimore)
• Put custom TLS section into TLS segment #965 (davidlattimore)
• Don't emit non-standard .phdr and .shdr section headers #957 (davidlattimore)
• Support -R option if it points to a directory #956 (marxin)
• Version script glob support #943 (marxin)
• Added jobserver support #923 (marxin)
• Improve symbol priority handling #826 (davidlattimore)
• Don't propagate retain bit to output sections #914 (davidlattimore)
• linker-diff: Handle empty .got #831 (Noratrieb)
• Allow undefined symbols in shared objects to trigger archive entries #930 (davidlattimore)
• Report errors as coming from wild and add some colour #896 (davidlattimore)
• Input shared objects now implies -shared #879 (mati865)
• Support --no-relax only for mandatory situations #885 (mati865)
• Don't report shlib undefined when writing an shlib #884 (davidlattimore)
• Add support for --[no-]allow-shlib-undefined #881 (davidlattimore)
• Use TLS end-offset for TLSLD GOT entry in executables #882 (davidlattimore)
• Allow R_X86_64_GOTPC32_TLSDESC for all executable outputs. Fixes #849 (marxin)
• Add Nix package, overlay, stdenv adapter, and flake. #847 (RossSmyth with help from dawnofmidnight
  and Noratrieb)
• Add support for -z defs #850 (AadiWaghray)
• Fix when TLSDESC and TLSDESC_CALL aren't adjacent. Fixes #842 (davidlattimore)
• Fix infinite loop when we have no input files. Fixes #835 (davidlattimore)
• Add flag non-standard flag --got-plt-syms #827 (lapla-cogito)
• Parallelise opening of input files. #816 (davidlattimore)
• Sort .eh_frame_hdr in parallel. #824 (davidlattimore)
• Add support for --exclude-libs ALL. #812 (davidlattimore)
• Don't apply -Bsymbolic* to undefined symbols (davidlattimore)
• Don't error if debug info references undefined / GCed symbol
• Alias -shared to -Bshareable (lapla-cogito)
• Support -Bsymbolic, -Bsymbolic-non-weak, -Bsymbolic-non-weak-functions and -Bno-symbolic
  #782 (lapla-cogito)
• RISC-V support #704 + other commits (marxin)
• save-dir:
  • Skip non-existent paths #829 (Noratrieb)
  • Handle @filename and thin archives #777 (davidlattimore)
  • Replicate original directory structure. #575 (davidlattimore)
• Improve handling of relative sysroots #772 (davidlattimore)
• Support -Bsymbolic-functions #770 (lapla-cogito)
• Use debug info to show where error came from #768 (davidlattimore)
• Update .preinit_array section locations and flags #761 (marxin)
• Set DT_PREINIT_ARRAY{,SZ} if .preinit_array is present #759 (marxin)

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored davidlattimore, in particular the following people who have sponsored at least $30 since the last release:

• CodeursenLiberte
• pmarks
• mati865
• repi
• Urgau
• teburd
• flba-eb
• tommythorn
• binarybana
• bcmyers
• Kobzol
• HadrienG2
• bes
• twilco
• mstange
• marxin
• joshtriplett
• jonhoo

Release Notes

A lot of fixes and new features since 0.4.0. We had 200 commits.

• Improve error message for LTO objects in archives (mati865)
• Fix setting of STATIC_TLS on non-x86-64 arch (marxin)
• linker-diff: Diff program segments (lapla-cogito)
• Fix alignment of stack segment (lapla-cogito)
• Basic linker script support #44 (davidlattimore)
  • Defining custom output sections
  • Mapping input sections to output sections
  • Defining symbols relative to sections
  • Setting the address of output sections
  • Setting alignment
  • KEEP command
  • ENTRY command
• Support for --entry flag (davidlattimore)
• Ignore some flags that we don't yet support (mati865)
• Don't error if multiple COMDAT groups define the same symbol (davidlattimore)
• Output section attributes now inherit from corresponding input section attributes (davidlattimore)
• Fix linking against protected symbols in shared objects (davidlattimore)
• Integration tests now support a test configuration file (lapla-cogito)
• Added support for -z norelro (davidlattimore)
• Fix misalignment of TLS when TDATA is absent #614 (davidlattimore)
• TLSDESC handling improvements (marxin)
• Set DF_ORIGIN and DF_1_ORIGIN when -z origin is passed (davidlattimore)
• Don't error if _start is undefined #613 (davidlattimore)
• Fix direct references to ifuncs in relocatable executables #580 (davidlattimore)
• Support -l:<name.ext> args (mati865)
• Make sure that we don't export hidden symbols #604 (davidlattimore)
• Don't emit duplicate symbol error on STB_GNU_UNIQUE #598 (davidlattimore)
• Fix dynamic relocations with non-zero addends on recent glibc #576 (davidlattimore)
• Better error reporting for duplicate symbols (lapla-cogito)
• Fix sysroot handling when sysroot indicators are not followed by a slash #590 (mati865)
• Handle symbol aliases when doing copy relocations #576 (davidlattimore)
• Fix error message if an empty linker script is provided (marxin)
• A few performance improvements (davidlattimore, mati865, marxin)
• Support outputting versioned symbols in shared objects #41 (mati865)
• Support for --start-lib and --end-lib (davidlattimore)
• Verify that input files didn't change while we were running (davidlattimore)
• Added support for thin archives (GlowingScrewdriver)
• Don't delete old output file if it's not a regular file #546 (davidlattimore)
• Added support for --undefined #528 (davidlattimore)
• More aarch64 relaxations (marxin)

wild-linker 0.5.0

Install wild-linker 0.5.0

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.5.0/wild-linker-installer.sh | sh

Download wild-linker 0.5.0

linker-diff 0.5.0

Install linker-diff 0.5.0

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.5.0/linker-diff-installer.sh | sh

Download linker-diff 0.5.0

Release Notes

A huge release with more than 250 commits since 0.3.0. We've also had several new contributors,
which is awesome.

• Wild now supports aarch64 on Linux (marxin)
• Support for TLSDESC (marxin)
• Linker diff mostly rewritten. Now gives much less false positives and diffs more stuff.
  (davidlattimore)
• Added support for --sysroot (mati865)
• Added support for --whole-archive (riverbl)
• Added support for -z nocopyreloc (davidlattimore)
• Added support for references to versioned symbols (davidlattimore)
• Added support declaring default symbol versions via '@@' in symbol names (davidlattimore)
• Added support for RELRO (inflation)
• Report errors on undefined symbols (mati865)
• Allow --version to be specified with regular linker arguments (inflation)
• Detect objects built for wrong architecture and report proper error (inflation)
• Keep sections if __start_/__stop_{SEC} is referenced. Fixes linkme crate (davidlattimore)
• Improved performance of string merging, which affects debug info link time (davidlattimore,
  marxin)
• Remove unnecessary and unwanted copy relocations (davidlattimore)
• Emit debug symbols for copy relocations (davidlattimore)
• Demangle symbol names in various error messages (davidlattimore, marxin)
• Improve error message when an absolute relocation is used against a read-only section with a
  relocatable output (davidlattimore)
• Handle initialisers / destructors in .ctors.* / .dtors.* (davidlattimore)
• Added flag --update-in-place (davidlattimore)
• Fixed referenced to merged strings in relocatable binaries (davidlattimore)
• Optimise x86-64 jmp instructions to bypass GOT (mati865)
• Ignore or warn on various flags that we don't yet support (marxin)
• Don't strip .debug_ sections if they have the alloc flag set (davidlattimore)
• Lots of improvements to testing (marxin, mati865, davidlattimore)
• Fixed link error if a shared object had a strong reference to a symbol defined by a discarded
  archive entry (davidlattimore)
• We should now be publishing to crates.io, so tools like cargo-binstall should work.
• Numerous bugfixes

wild-linker 0.4.0

Install wild-linker 0.4.0

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curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.4.0/wild-linker-installer.sh | sh

Download wild-linker 0.4.0

linker-diff 0.4.0

Install linker-diff 0.4.0

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curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.4.0/linker-diff-installer.sh | sh

Download linker-diff 0.4.0

wild 0.3.0

Install wild 0.3.0

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.3.0/wild-installer.sh | sh

Download wild 0.3.0

linker-diff 0.3.0

Install linker-diff 0.3.0

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/davidlattimore/wild/releases/download/0.3.0/linker-diff-installer.sh | sh

Download linker-diff 0.3.0