1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2002-2-26
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
6 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
11 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
14 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
15 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
17 * localedef now can transliterate characters in strings which are not in
18 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
20 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
21 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
23 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation but eliminating
24 copying and buffer underflows. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
26 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
27 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
29 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX conforming
30 implementation of regex.
34 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
35 128-bit long double format.
37 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
38 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
40 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
42 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
44 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
47 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. binaries created by recent binutils
48 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spend on relocations.
50 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
54 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
55 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
57 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
60 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
61 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
63 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
65 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
66 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
67 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
70 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
72 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
73 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
75 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
79 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
80 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
81 in float, double, and long double format.
83 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
84 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
85 128-bit long double format.
87 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
88 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
89 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
90 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
92 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
93 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
94 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
96 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
97 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
99 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
100 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
102 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
103 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
104 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
106 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
107 family of functions for Linux/S390.
109 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
110 of functions for Linux/x86.
112 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
116 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
117 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
118 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
119 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
120 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
121 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
124 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
125 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
127 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
128 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
129 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
130 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
132 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
137 only lists the names of the supported locales
141 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
142 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
146 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
147 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
148 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
149 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
150 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
154 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
156 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
158 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
159 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
160 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
162 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
163 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
165 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
166 changed from the default "C" locale.
168 * The usual bug fixes.
172 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
173 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
176 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
178 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
180 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
181 obviously requires a database library being available.
183 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
187 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
188 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
190 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
192 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
193 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
196 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
197 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
198 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
200 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
201 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
203 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
204 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
205 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
207 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
208 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
209 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
210 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
212 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
213 structures for the wide character tables.
215 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
217 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
219 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
221 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
224 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
226 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
228 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
230 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
232 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
234 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
235 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
236 implemented for Linux.
238 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
239 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
240 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
243 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
246 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
248 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
249 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
250 ******************************************
252 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
253 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
256 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
257 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
260 Recommended Tools for Compilation
261 =================================
263 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
264 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
266 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
267 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
268 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
270 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
271 the recommended solution):
273 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
274 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
275 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
277 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
278 =================================================
280 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
281 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
282 is currently untested. Hence the following options
283 are required for configuring the library:
285 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
287 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
288 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
289 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
290 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
292 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
297 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
301 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
306 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
308 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
322 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
324 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
326 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
328 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
330 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
332 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
334 * Update timezone data files.
336 * lots of charmaps corrections
338 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
343 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
344 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
345 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
346 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
347 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
348 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
350 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
351 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
353 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
356 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
357 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
359 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
361 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
364 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
366 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
367 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
369 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
372 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
373 functions from ISO C 9X.
375 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
376 real valued functions.
378 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
380 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
382 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
384 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
386 * Optimized string functions have been added.
388 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
390 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
392 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
393 daemon for NSS (nscd).
395 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
396 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
400 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
402 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
404 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
406 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
408 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
410 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
412 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
413 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
416 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
417 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
419 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
421 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
423 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
424 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
426 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
428 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
431 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
432 latest draft standards.
434 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
436 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
437 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
438 addseverity NEW: Unix98
440 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
441 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
442 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
443 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
444 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
445 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
446 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
447 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
448 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
449 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
450 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
451 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
452 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
453 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
454 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
455 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
459 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
460 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
470 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
471 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
476 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
477 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
479 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
492 clearerr_locked REMOVED
493 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
496 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
497 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
528 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
529 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
530 endutxent NEW: Unix98
542 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
543 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
544 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
545 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
546 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
548 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
549 ferror_locked REMOVED
550 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
551 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
552 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
553 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
554 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
555 fflush_locked REMOVED
559 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
560 fileno_locked REMOVED
573 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
574 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
585 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
586 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
590 getchar_locked REMOVED
592 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
593 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
595 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
596 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
598 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
600 getutxent NEW: Unix98
602 getutxline NEW: Unix98
604 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
605 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
606 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
607 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
608 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
610 iconv_close NEW: iconv
611 iconv_open NEW: iconv
612 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
613 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
614 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
615 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
616 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
617 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
618 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
619 isastream NEW: STREAMS
620 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
621 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
622 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
623 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
624 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
625 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
626 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
627 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
628 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
629 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
631 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
632 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
633 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
634 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
635 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
643 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
644 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
646 makecontext NEW: Unix98
647 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
650 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
654 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
655 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
656 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
657 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
658 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
659 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
660 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
661 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
665 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
671 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
672 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
673 profil_counter REMOVED
674 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
675 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
676 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
677 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
679 putchar_locked REMOVED
680 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
683 pututxline NEW: Unix98
689 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
690 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
695 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
696 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
697 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
700 setcontext NEW: Unix98
702 setutxent NEW: Unix98
704 sigignore NEW: Unix98
705 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
708 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
709 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
711 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
712 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
716 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
717 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
718 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
719 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
720 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
721 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
722 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
723 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
724 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
725 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
727 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
728 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
735 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
737 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
738 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
739 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
740 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
742 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
743 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
744 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
745 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
746 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
747 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
748 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
751 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
752 write_profiling REMOVED
753 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
754 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
755 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
756 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
757 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
758 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
759 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
760 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
761 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
762 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
763 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
764 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
765 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
766 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
767 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
768 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
779 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
781 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
783 * rewrite of cbrt function
785 * update of timezone data
801 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
807 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
809 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
811 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
812 the ELF dynamic loader.
814 * support for parallel builds is improved
818 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
819 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
822 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
823 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
824 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
825 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
826 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
827 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
828 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
829 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
830 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
831 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
832 files in the ELF format.
834 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
835 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
837 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
838 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
839 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
840 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
841 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
842 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
843 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
844 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
845 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
846 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
847 about dynamically linked binaries.
849 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
850 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
851 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
852 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
853 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
855 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
856 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
857 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
858 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
859 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
861 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
863 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
864 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
865 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
866 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
867 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
868 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
869 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
870 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
871 NSS services available.
873 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
874 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
875 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
877 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
878 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
879 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
881 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
882 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
883 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
884 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
886 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
887 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
888 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
890 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
891 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
892 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
894 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
895 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
897 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
898 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
899 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
900 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
902 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
903 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
904 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
906 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
907 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
908 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
909 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
910 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
911 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
912 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
913 the header file <printf.h> for details.
915 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
916 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
917 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
918 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
919 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
920 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
921 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
923 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
924 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
925 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
926 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
927 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
928 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
930 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
931 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
933 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
934 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
935 NSS scheme used in glibc.
937 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
939 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
940 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
941 their use is discouraged.
943 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
944 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
946 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
947 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
949 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
950 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
952 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
955 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
956 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
957 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
958 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
959 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
961 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
962 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
963 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
964 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
966 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
967 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
969 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
970 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
971 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
972 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
975 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
976 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
978 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
979 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
981 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
982 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
983 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
984 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
986 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
988 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
989 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
990 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
992 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
993 for arithmetic and string handling.
995 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
996 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
997 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
998 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1000 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1001 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1002 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1003 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1004 programs already written to use it.)
1006 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1009 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1012 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1013 a given effective group ID.
1015 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1016 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1017 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1018 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1020 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1021 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1022 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1023 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1024 doing the same thing.
1026 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1027 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1029 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1030 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1032 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1034 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1035 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1036 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1037 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1038 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1040 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1041 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1043 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1044 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1045 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1048 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1050 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1051 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1054 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1055 and writing the utmp file.
1057 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1060 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1061 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1062 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1064 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1065 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1067 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1068 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1071 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1072 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1073 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1074 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1076 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1077 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1078 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1080 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1081 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1082 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1085 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1088 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1091 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1093 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1094 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1095 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1099 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1101 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1102 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1104 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1105 want to put themselves in the background.
1107 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1108 run without an operating system.
1110 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1111 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1113 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1114 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1116 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1118 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1119 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1122 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1125 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1126 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1130 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1131 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1132 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1134 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1135 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1137 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1138 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1140 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1142 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1144 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1147 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1148 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1149 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1151 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1153 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1154 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1155 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1157 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1158 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1159 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1160 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1161 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1164 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1165 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1166 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1167 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1168 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1171 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1172 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1176 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1177 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1179 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1180 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1181 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1183 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1184 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1185 address of the last character written.
1187 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1188 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1190 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1191 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1193 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1194 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1195 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1196 you dereference this pointer.
1198 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1199 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1201 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1202 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1203 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1204 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1206 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1207 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1208 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1209 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1213 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1214 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1215 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1216 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1217 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1219 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1221 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1223 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1224 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1226 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1227 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1229 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1230 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1232 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1233 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1234 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1235 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1236 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1238 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1239 to the error code in `errno'.
1241 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1242 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1243 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1246 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1247 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1248 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1250 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1251 uniquely-named temporary file.
1255 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1256 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1257 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1259 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1262 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1263 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1265 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1269 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1270 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1271 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1272 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1274 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1275 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1276 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1278 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1279 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1281 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1282 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1283 made itself into a shared library.
1285 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1286 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1288 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1289 with limited length.
1291 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1293 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1295 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1297 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1298 function for traversing a directory tree.
1300 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1301 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1302 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1303 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1305 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1306 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1308 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1310 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1311 things to your strings.
1313 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1315 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1316 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1317 supporting those systems.
1319 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1320 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1321 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1322 configuration files.
1324 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1325 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1327 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1328 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1331 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1332 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1333 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1334 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1335 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1336 required storage is not available.
1338 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1339 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1341 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1342 latest files released from Berkeley.
1344 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1345 Copyright information:
1347 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1349 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1350 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1351 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1352 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1354 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1355 of this document, or of portions of it,
1356 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1357 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1360 version-control: never