1 files changed, 156 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/appendixa/binutils-desc.sgml b/appendixa/binutils-desc.sgml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6211265cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appendixa/binutils-desc.sgml
@@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
+<sect2>
+<title>Description</title>
+
+<para>
+The Binutils package contains the ld, as, ar, nm, objcopy, objdump,
+ranlib, size, strings, strip, c++filt, addr2line and nlmconv programs
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2><title>Description</title>
+
+<sect3><title>ld</title>
+
+<para>
+ld combines a number of object and  archive  files,  relocates  their data 
+and ties up symbol references. Often the last step in building a new compiled 
+program to run  is  a call to ld.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>as</title>
+
+<para>
+as is primarily intended to assemble the output of the GNU C compiler gcc 
+for use by the linker ld.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>ar</title>
+
+<para>
+The ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An archive is 
+a single file holding a collection of other files in a structure that makes 
+it  possible to retrieve the original individual files (called members of 
+the archive).
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>nm</title>
+
+<para>
+nm lists the symbols from object files.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>objcopy</title>
+
+<para>
+objcopy utility copies the contents of an object file to another. objcopy 
+uses the GNU BFD Library to read and write the object files. It can write 
+the destination object file in a format different from that of the source
+object file.  
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>objdump</title>
+
+<para>
+objdump displays information about one or more object files. The options 
+control what particular information to display. This information is mostly 
+useful to programmers who are working on the compilation tools, as opposed to
+programmers who just want their program to compile and work.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>ranlib</title>
+
+<para>
+ranlib generates an index to the contents of an archive, and stores it in 
+the archive.  The index lists each symbol defined by a member of an archive 
+that is a relocatable object file.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>size</title>
+
+<para>
+size lists the section sizes --and the total size-- for each of the object 
+files objfile in its argument  list. By default, one line of output is 
+generated for each object file or each module in an archive.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>strings</title>
+
+<para>
+For each  file  given, strings prints the printable character sequences 
+that are at least  4  characters  long (or the number specified with an
+option to the program) and are followed by an unprintable character. By 
+default, it only prints the strings from the initialized and loaded 
+sections of object files; for other types of files, it prints the strings 
+from the whole file.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+strings  is  mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>strip</title>
+
+<para>
+strip discards all or specific symbols from object files. The list of 
+object files may include archives. At least one object file must be
+given. strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing 
+modified copies under different names.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>c++filt</title>
+
+<para>
+The C++ language provides function overloading, which means that you can 
+write many functions with the same name (providing each takes parameters 
+of different types).  All C++ function names are encoded into a low-level 
+assembly label (this process is known as mangling). The c++filt program 
+does the inverse mapping: it decodes (demangles) low-level names into 
+user-level names so that the linker can keep these overloaded functions 
+from clashing.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>addr2line</title>
+
+<para>
+addr2line translates program addresses into file names and line numbers. 
+Given an address and an executable, it uses the  debugging information in 
+the executable to figure out which file name and line number are associated 
+with a given address.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3><title>nlmconv</title>
+
+<para>
+nlmconv converts relocatable object files into the NetWare Loadable Module 
+files, optionally reading header files for NLM header information.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+</sect2>
+