1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-13
3 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
13 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
16 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
18 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
20 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
21 obviously requires a database library being available.
23 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
28 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
30 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
32 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
33 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
36 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
37 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
38 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
40 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
41 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
43 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
44 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
45 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
47 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
48 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
49 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
50 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
52 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
53 structures for the wide character tables.
55 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
57 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
59 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
61 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
64 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
66 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
68 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
70 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
72 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
74 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
75 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
76 implemented for Linux.
78 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
79 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
80 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
83 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
85 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
86 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
87 ******************************************
89 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
90 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
93 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
94 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
97 Recommended Tools for Compilation
98 =================================
100 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
101 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
103 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
104 including the provided set of patches.
106 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
107 the recommended solution):
109 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
110 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
111 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
113 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
114 =================================================
116 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
117 later to funtion properly. Besides that it currently does not have
118 support for debug and profiling libraries. Hence the following options
119 are required for configuring the library:
121 --disable-debug --disable-profile --enable-kernel=2.4.0
123 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
124 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
125 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
126 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
128 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
134 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
138 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
143 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
145 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
159 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
161 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
163 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
165 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
167 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
169 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
171 * Update timezone data files.
173 * lots of charmaps corrections
175 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
180 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
181 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
182 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
183 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
184 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
185 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
187 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
188 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
190 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
193 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
194 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
196 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
198 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
201 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
203 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
204 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
206 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
209 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
210 functions from ISO C 9X.
212 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
213 real valued functions.
215 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
217 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
219 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
221 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
223 * Optimized string functions have been added.
225 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
227 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
229 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
230 daemon for NSS (nscd).
232 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
233 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
237 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
239 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
241 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
243 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
245 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
247 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
249 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
250 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
253 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
254 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
256 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
258 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
260 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
261 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
263 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
265 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
268 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
269 latest draft standards.
271 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
273 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
274 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
275 addseverity NEW: Unix98
277 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
278 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
279 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
280 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
281 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
282 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
283 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
284 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
285 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
286 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
287 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
288 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
289 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
290 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
291 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
292 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
296 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
297 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
307 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
308 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
313 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
314 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
316 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
329 clearerr_locked REMOVED
330 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
333 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
334 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
365 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
366 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
367 endutxent NEW: Unix98
379 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
380 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
381 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
382 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
383 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
385 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
386 ferror_locked REMOVED
387 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
388 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
389 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
390 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
391 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
392 fflush_locked REMOVED
396 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
397 fileno_locked REMOVED
410 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
411 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
422 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
423 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
427 getchar_locked REMOVED
429 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
430 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
432 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
433 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
435 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
437 getutxent NEW: Unix98
439 getutxline NEW: Unix98
441 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
442 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
443 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
444 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
445 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
447 iconv_close NEW: iconv
448 iconv_open NEW: iconv
449 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
450 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
451 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
452 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
453 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
454 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
455 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
456 isastream NEW: STREAMS
457 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
458 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
459 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
460 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
461 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
462 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
463 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
464 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
465 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
466 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
468 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
469 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
470 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
471 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
472 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
480 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
481 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
483 makecontext NEW: Unix98
484 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
487 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
491 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
492 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
493 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
494 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
495 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
496 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
497 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
498 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
502 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
508 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
509 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
510 profil_counter REMOVED
511 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
512 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
513 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
514 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
516 putchar_locked REMOVED
517 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
520 pututxline NEW: Unix98
526 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
527 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
532 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
533 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
534 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
537 setcontext NEW: Unix98
539 setutxent NEW: Unix98
541 sigignore NEW: Unix98
542 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
545 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
546 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
548 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
549 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
553 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
554 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
555 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
556 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
557 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
558 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
559 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
560 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
561 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
562 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
564 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
565 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
572 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
574 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
575 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
576 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
577 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
579 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
580 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
581 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
582 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
583 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
584 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
585 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
588 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
589 write_profiling REMOVED
590 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
591 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
592 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
593 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
594 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
595 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
596 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
597 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
598 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
599 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
600 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
601 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
602 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
603 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
604 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
605 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
616 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
618 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
620 * rewrite of cbrt function
622 * update of timezone data
638 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
644 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
646 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
648 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
649 the ELF dynamic loader.
651 * support for parallel builds is improved
655 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
656 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
659 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
660 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
661 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
662 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
663 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
664 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
665 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
666 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
667 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
668 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
669 files in the ELF format.
671 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
672 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
674 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
675 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
676 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
677 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
678 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
679 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
680 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
681 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
682 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
683 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
684 about dynamically linked binaries.
686 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
687 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
688 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
689 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
690 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
692 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
693 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
694 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
695 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
696 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
698 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
700 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
701 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
702 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
703 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
704 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
705 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
706 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
707 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
708 NSS services available.
710 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
711 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
712 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
714 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
715 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
716 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
718 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
719 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
720 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
721 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
723 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
724 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
725 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
727 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
728 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
729 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
731 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
732 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
734 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
735 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
736 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
737 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
739 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
740 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
741 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
743 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
744 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
745 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
746 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
747 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
748 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
749 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
750 the header file <printf.h> for details.
752 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
753 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
754 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
755 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
756 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
757 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
758 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
760 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
761 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
762 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
763 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
764 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
765 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
767 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
768 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
770 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
771 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
772 NSS scheme used in glibc.
774 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
776 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
777 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
778 their use is discouraged.
780 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
781 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
783 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
784 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
786 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
787 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
789 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
792 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
793 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
794 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
795 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
796 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
798 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
799 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
800 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
801 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
803 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
804 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
806 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
807 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
808 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
809 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
812 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
813 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
815 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
816 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
818 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
819 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
820 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
821 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
823 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
825 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
826 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
827 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
829 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
830 for arithmetic and string handling.
832 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
833 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
834 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
835 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
837 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
838 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
839 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
840 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
841 programs already written to use it.)
843 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
846 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
849 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
850 a given effective group ID.
852 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
853 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
854 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
855 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
857 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
858 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
859 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
860 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
861 doing the same thing.
863 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
864 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
866 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
867 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
869 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
871 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
872 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
873 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
874 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
875 `-ldb' to get these functions.
877 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
878 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
880 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
881 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
882 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
885 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
887 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
888 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
891 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
892 and writing the utmp file.
894 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
897 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
898 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
899 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
901 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
902 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
904 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
905 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
908 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
909 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
910 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
911 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
913 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
914 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
915 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
917 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
918 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
919 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
922 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
925 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
928 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
930 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
931 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
932 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
936 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
938 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
939 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
941 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
942 want to put themselves in the background.
944 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
945 run without an operating system.
947 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
948 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
950 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
951 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
953 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
955 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
956 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
959 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
962 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
963 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
967 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
968 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
969 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
971 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
972 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
974 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
975 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
977 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
979 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
981 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
984 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
985 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
986 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
988 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
990 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
991 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
992 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
994 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
995 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
996 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
997 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
998 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1001 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1002 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1003 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1004 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1005 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1008 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1009 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1013 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1014 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1016 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1017 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1018 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1020 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1021 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1022 address of the last character written.
1024 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1025 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1027 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1028 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1030 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1031 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1032 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1033 you dereference this pointer.
1035 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1036 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1038 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1039 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1040 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1041 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1043 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1044 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1045 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1046 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1050 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1051 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1052 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1053 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1054 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1056 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1058 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1060 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1061 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1063 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1064 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1066 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1067 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1069 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1070 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1071 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1072 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1073 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1075 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1076 to the error code in `errno'.
1078 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1079 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1080 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1083 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1084 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1085 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1087 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1088 uniquely-named temporary file.
1092 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1093 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1094 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1096 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1099 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1100 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1102 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1106 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1107 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1108 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1109 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1111 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1112 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1113 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1115 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1116 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1118 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1119 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1120 made itself into a shared library.
1122 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1123 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1125 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1126 with limited length.
1128 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1130 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1132 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1134 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1135 function for traversing a directory tree.
1137 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1138 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1139 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1140 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1142 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1143 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1145 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1147 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1148 things to your strings.
1150 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1152 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1153 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1154 supporting those systems.
1156 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1157 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1158 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1159 configuration files.
1161 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1162 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1164 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1165 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1168 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1169 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1170 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1171 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1172 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1173 required storage is not available.
1175 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1176 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1178 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1179 latest files released from Berkeley.
1181 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1182 Copyright information:
1184 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1186 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1187 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1188 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1189 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1191 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1192 of this document, or of portions of it,
1193 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1194 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1197 version-control: never
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