Release notes for
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GNU Tools for Arm Embedded Processors 9 - Q4 2019
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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 : ^/branches/ARM/arm-9-branch
    svn://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/branches/ARM/arm-9-branch revision 277439

  * binutils : binutils-2_33-branch
    git://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git commit 52f9b3adc0771944d2c988a91ba3a69820f3844a

  * newlib and newlib-nano : newlib-3.1.0
    git://sourceware.org/git/newlib-cygwin.git commit 572687310059534b2da9428ca19df992509c8a5d

  * gdb : gdb-8.3-branch
    git://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git commit e908e11a4f74ab6a06aef8c302a03b2a0dbc4d83

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 2.1.1 :
    https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/expat/expat/2.1.1/expat-2.1.1.tar.bz2

  * gmp 6.1.0 :
    https://gmplib.org/download/gmp/gmp-6.1.0.tar.bz2

  * isl 0.18 :
    http://isl.gforge.inria.fr/isl-0.18.tar.xz

  * libelf 0.8.13 :
    https://fossies.org/linux/misc/old/libelf-0.8.13.tar.gz

  * libiconv 1.15 :
    https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libiconv/libiconv-1.15.tar.gz

  * mpc 1.0.3 :
    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mpc/mpc-1.0.3.tar.gz

  * mpfr 3.1.4 :
    http://www.mpfr.org/mpfr-3.1.4/mpfr-3.1.4.tar.bz2

  * python 2.7.7 :
    https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.7/python-2.7.7.msi

  * zlib 1.2.8
    http://www.zlib.net/fossils/zlib-1.2.8.tar.gz

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.