Merge pull request BinaryAnalysisPlatform#187 from ivg/system-plugins

Plugins can now be loaded with findlib.

CHANGES.md

@@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
+0.9.6
+=====
+
+1. New loader backed with LLVM
+   BAP now have another loader (image reader), that
+   supports MACH-O, ELF, COFF, PE. This loader is
+   backed with LLVM library.
+
+2. Online plugin system
+
+   New extension point is added - "bap.project". Plugins marked with
+   this plugin system will not be loaded automatically when
+   `Plugins.load` is called, instead, they can be loaded dynamically
+   (or online, hence the title), by using `-l` option to the `bap`
+   utility. After being loaded the plugin is applied to a `project`
+   data structure that contains all information about disassembled
+   binary. Plugin can functionally update this data structure, to
+   push information to other plugins or back to the `bap` utility.
+
+   In addition to a common way of creating plugins with `oasis`, we
+   extended `bapbuild` utility with a new rule the will product a
+   `plugin` file. This is just a shared library underneath the hood,
+   and you can load a plugin, created with this method directly,
+   without installing it anywhere. `bap` utility will try to find the
+   plugin, specified with `-l` option in a current folder, then in all
+   folders specified in `BAP_PLUGIN_PATH` environment variable, and,
+   finally in the system, using `ocamlfind`.
+
+   In order to provide a typesafe way of interacting between plugins,
+   we added extensible variants to BAP. But instead of using one from
+   the 4.02, we're using universal types, based on that one, that Core
+   library provides. First of all this is more portable, second it is
+   more explicit and a little bit more safe.
+
+3. New ABI and CPU interfaces
+
+   Modules that implements `CPU` interface are used to describe
+   particular CPU in BIL terminology, e.g., it tells which variable
+   corresponds to which register, flag, etc. To obtain such module,
+   one should use `target_of_cpu` function.
+
+   ABI is used to capture the procedure abstraction, starting from
+   calling convetions and stack frame structure and ending with special
+   function handling and support for different data-types.
+
+   See d5cab1a5e122719b4a3b1ece2b1bc44f3f93095a for more information
+   and examples.
+
+4. Bap-objdump renamed to bap
+
+   bap-objdump has outgrown its name. Actually it was never really a
+   bap-objdump at all. From now, it is just an entry point to the `bap` as
+   platform. We will later unite `bap` with other utilities, to make them
+   subcommands, e.g. `bap byteweight`.
+
+5. Cleanup of BIL modules
+
+   Now there is a separation between BIL fur uns, and BIL fur
+   OCaml. For writing BIL programs (as EDSL in OCaml) one should use
+   `Bil` module, e.g. `Bil.(x = y)` will evaluate to a BIL
+   expression. For using BIL entities as OCaml values, one should use
+   corresponding module, e.g. `Exp.(x = y)` will compare to expressions
+   and evaluate to a value of type `bool`.
+
+6. Enhanced IDA integration
+
+   IDA intergation is now more robust. We switched to `IDA-32` by default,
+   since 64-bit version doesn't support decompiler. Also `bap` utility
+   can now output IDA python scripts. And `bap` plugins can annotate project
+   with `python` commands, that later will be dumped into the script.
+
+7. In ARM switched to ARMv7 by default
+8. Introduce LNF algorithm and Sema library
+
+   A new layer of BAP is started in this release. This would be a third pass
+   of decompilation, where the semantic model of program will be built. Currently,
+   there is nothing really interesting here, e.g., an implementation of the
+   Loop nesting forest, that is not very usable right now. But the next release,
+   will be dedicated to this layer. So, stay tuned.
+
+9. Add support for OCamlGraph
+
+   Now we provide a helper utilities for those who would like to use
+   ocamlgraph library for analysis.
+
+10. Extended bap-mc utility
+
+   `bap-mc` utility now prints results in plethora of formats,
+   including protocol buffers, from the piqi library, that was revived
+   by Kenneth Miller.
+
+11. Interval trees, aka memory maps
+
+   For working with arbitrary overlapping memory regions we now have a
+   memory map data structure, aka interval trees, segment trees, etc. It
+   is based on AVL trees, and performs logarithmic searches.
+
+12. Simplified CI
+
+   We put Travis on a diet. Now only 4 machines with 20 ETA for all test
+   suites to pass. (Instead of 8 * 40).
+
+
+0.9.5
+=====
+
+1. removed tag warnings from the ocamlbuild
+2. fixed #114
+3. moved Bap_plugins out of Bap library
+4. plugin library can now load arbitrary files
+5. bap-objdump is now pluggable
+6. added new extension point in the plugin system
+7. updated BAP LICENSE, baptop is now QPLed
+8. IDA can now work in a headless mode
+9. enhanced symbol resolution algorithm
+10. cleaned up image backend interface
+11. constraint OPAM file
+
+
+0.9.4
+=====
+
+1. x86 and x86_64 lifter #106
+2. New byteweight implementation #99
+3. Intra-procedure CFG reconstruction #102
+4. IDA integration #103
+5. Binary release #108
+6. Man pages and documentation #107
+7. Unconstraint opam file and extended it with system dependents #109
+
+0.9.3
+=====
+
+1. Bitvector (aka Word, aka Addr) now provides all Integer
+interface without any monads right at the toplevel of the module.
+In other words, now you can write: Word.(x + y).
+
+2. Bitvector.Int is renamed to Bitvector.Int_exn so that it don't
+clobber the real Int module
+
+3. All BIL is now consolidated in one module named Bil. This module
+contains everything, including constructors for statements, expressions
+casts, binary and unary operations. It also includes functional
+constructors, that are now written by hand and, thus, don't suffer from
+syntactic clashes with keywords. There're also a plenty of other
+functions and new operators, available from the new Bap_helpers
+module, see later. Old modules, like Expr, Stmt, etc are still
+available, they implement Regular interface for corresponding types.
+
+4. New feature: visitor classes to traverse and transform the AST.
+Writing a pattern matching code every time you need to traverse or map
+the BIL AST is error prone and time-consuming. This visitors, do all the
+traversing for you, allowing you to override default behavior. Some
+handy algorithms, that use visitors are provided in an internal
+Bap_helpers module, that is included into resulting Bil
+module. Several optimizations were added to bap-objdump utility, like
+constant propogation, inlining, pruning unused variables and resolving
+addresses to symbols.
+
+5. Insn interface now provides predicates to query insn classes, this
+predicates use BIL if available.
+
+6. Disam interface now provides linear_sweep function.
+
+
+0.9.2
+=====
+
+1. Recursive descent disassembler
+2. High-level simple to use interface to BAP
+3. New utility `bap-objdump`
+4. Enhanced pretty-printing
+5. Lots of small fixes and new handy functions
+6. Automatically generated documentation.
+
+
+0.9.1
+=====
+
+First release of a new BAP.