1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-11-28
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001 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
10 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
13 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
14 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
18 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
19 128-bit long double format.
21 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
22 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
24 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86_64/Linux.
26 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
28 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
31 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. binaries created by recent binutils
32 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spend on relocations.
36 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
37 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
39 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
42 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
43 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
45 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
47 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
48 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
49 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
51 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
52 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
54 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
55 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
57 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
61 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
62 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
63 in float, double, and long double format.
65 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
66 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
67 128-bit long double format.
69 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
70 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
71 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
72 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
74 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
75 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
76 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
78 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
79 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
81 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
82 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
84 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
85 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
86 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
88 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
89 family of functions for Linux/S390.
91 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
92 of functions for Linux/x86.
94 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
98 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
99 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
100 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
101 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
102 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
103 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
106 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
107 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
109 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
110 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
111 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
112 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
114 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
119 only lists the names of the supported locales
123 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
124 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
128 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
129 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
130 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
131 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
132 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
136 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
138 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
140 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
141 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
142 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
144 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
145 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
147 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
148 changed from the default "C" locale.
150 * The usual bug fixes.
154 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
155 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
158 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
160 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
162 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
163 obviously requires a database library being available.
165 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
167 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
169 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
170 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
172 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
174 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
175 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
178 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
179 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
180 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
182 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
183 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
185 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
186 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
187 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
189 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
190 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
191 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
192 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
194 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
195 structures for the wide character tables.
197 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
199 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
201 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
203 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
206 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
208 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
210 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
212 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
214 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
216 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
217 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
218 implemented for Linux.
220 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
221 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
222 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
225 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
228 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
230 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
231 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
232 ******************************************
234 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
235 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
238 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
239 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
242 Recommended Tools for Compilation
243 =================================
245 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
246 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
248 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
249 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
250 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
252 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
253 the recommended solution):
255 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
256 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
257 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
259 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
260 =================================================
262 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
263 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
264 is currently untested. Hence the following options
265 are required for configuring the library:
267 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
269 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
270 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
271 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
272 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
274 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
279 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
283 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
288 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
290 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
304 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
306 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
308 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
310 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
312 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
314 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
316 * Update timezone data files.
318 * lots of charmaps corrections
320 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
325 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
326 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
327 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
328 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
329 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
330 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
332 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
333 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
335 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
338 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
339 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
341 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
343 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
346 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
348 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
349 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
351 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
354 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
355 functions from ISO C 9X.
357 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
358 real valued functions.
360 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
362 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
364 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
366 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
368 * Optimized string functions have been added.
370 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
372 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
374 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
375 daemon for NSS (nscd).
377 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
378 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
382 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
384 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
386 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
388 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
390 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
392 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
394 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
395 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
398 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
399 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
401 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
403 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
405 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
406 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
408 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
410 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
413 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
414 latest draft standards.
416 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
418 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
419 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
420 addseverity NEW: Unix98
422 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
423 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
424 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
425 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
426 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
427 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
428 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
429 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
430 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
431 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
432 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
433 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
434 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
435 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
436 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
437 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
441 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
442 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
452 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
453 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
458 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
459 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
461 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
474 clearerr_locked REMOVED
475 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
478 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
479 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
510 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
511 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
512 endutxent NEW: Unix98
524 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
525 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
526 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
527 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
528 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
530 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
531 ferror_locked REMOVED
532 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
533 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
534 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
535 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
536 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
537 fflush_locked REMOVED
541 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
542 fileno_locked REMOVED
555 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
556 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
567 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
568 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
572 getchar_locked REMOVED
574 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
575 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
577 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
578 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
580 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
582 getutxent NEW: Unix98
584 getutxline NEW: Unix98
586 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
587 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
588 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
589 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
590 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
592 iconv_close NEW: iconv
593 iconv_open NEW: iconv
594 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
595 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
596 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
597 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
598 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
599 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
600 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
601 isastream NEW: STREAMS
602 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
603 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
604 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
605 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
606 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
607 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
608 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
609 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
610 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
611 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
613 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
614 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
615 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
616 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
617 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
625 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
626 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
628 makecontext NEW: Unix98
629 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
632 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
636 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
637 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
638 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
639 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
640 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
641 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
642 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
643 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
647 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
653 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
654 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
655 profil_counter REMOVED
656 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
657 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
658 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
659 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
661 putchar_locked REMOVED
662 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
665 pututxline NEW: Unix98
671 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
672 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
677 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
678 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
679 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
682 setcontext NEW: Unix98
684 setutxent NEW: Unix98
686 sigignore NEW: Unix98
687 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
690 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
691 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
693 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
694 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
698 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
699 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
700 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
701 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
702 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
703 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
704 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
705 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
706 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
707 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
709 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
710 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
717 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
719 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
720 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
721 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
722 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
724 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
725 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
726 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
727 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
728 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
729 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
730 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
733 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
734 write_profiling REMOVED
735 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
736 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
737 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
738 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
739 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
740 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
741 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
742 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
743 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
744 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
745 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
746 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
747 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
748 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
749 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
750 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
761 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
763 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
765 * rewrite of cbrt function
767 * update of timezone data
783 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
789 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
791 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
793 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
794 the ELF dynamic loader.
796 * support for parallel builds is improved
800 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
801 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
804 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
805 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
806 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
807 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
808 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
809 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
810 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
811 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
812 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
813 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
814 files in the ELF format.
816 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
817 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
819 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
820 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
821 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
822 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
823 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
824 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
825 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
826 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
827 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
828 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
829 about dynamically linked binaries.
831 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
832 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
833 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
834 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
835 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
837 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
838 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
839 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
840 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
841 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
843 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
845 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
846 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
847 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
848 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
849 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
850 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
851 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
852 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
853 NSS services available.
855 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
856 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
857 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
859 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
860 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
861 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
863 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
864 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
865 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
866 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
868 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
869 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
870 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
872 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
873 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
874 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
876 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
877 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
879 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
880 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
881 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
882 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
884 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
885 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
886 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
888 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
889 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
890 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
891 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
892 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
893 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
894 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
895 the header file <printf.h> for details.
897 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
898 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
899 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
900 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
901 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
902 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
903 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
905 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
906 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
907 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
908 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
909 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
910 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
912 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
913 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
915 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
916 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
917 NSS scheme used in glibc.
919 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
921 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
922 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
923 their use is discouraged.
925 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
926 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
928 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
929 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
931 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
932 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
934 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
937 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
938 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
939 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
940 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
941 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
943 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
944 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
945 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
946 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
948 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
949 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
951 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
952 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
953 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
954 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
957 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
958 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
960 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
961 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
963 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
964 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
965 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
966 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
968 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
970 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
971 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
972 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
974 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
975 for arithmetic and string handling.
977 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
978 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
979 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
980 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
982 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
983 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
984 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
985 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
986 programs already written to use it.)
988 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
991 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
994 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
995 a given effective group ID.
997 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
998 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
999 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1000 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1002 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1003 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1004 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1005 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1006 doing the same thing.
1008 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1009 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1011 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1012 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1014 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1016 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1017 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1018 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1019 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1020 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1022 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1023 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1025 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1026 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1027 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1030 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1032 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1033 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1036 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1037 and writing the utmp file.
1039 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1042 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1043 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1044 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1046 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1047 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1049 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1050 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1053 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1054 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1055 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1056 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1058 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1059 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1060 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1062 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1063 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1064 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1067 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1070 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1073 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1075 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1076 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1077 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1081 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1083 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1084 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1086 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1087 want to put themselves in the background.
1089 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1090 run without an operating system.
1092 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1093 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1095 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1096 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1098 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1100 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1101 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1104 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1107 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1108 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1112 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1113 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1114 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1116 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1117 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1119 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1120 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1122 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1124 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1126 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1129 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1130 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1131 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1133 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1135 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1136 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1137 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1139 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1140 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1141 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1142 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1143 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1146 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1147 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1148 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1149 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1150 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1153 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1154 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1158 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1159 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1161 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1162 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1163 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1165 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1166 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1167 address of the last character written.
1169 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1170 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1172 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1173 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1175 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1176 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1177 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1178 you dereference this pointer.
1180 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1181 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1183 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1184 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1185 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1186 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1188 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1189 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1190 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1191 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1195 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1196 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1197 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1198 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1199 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1201 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1203 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1205 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1206 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1208 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1209 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1211 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1212 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1214 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1215 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1216 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1217 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1218 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1220 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1221 to the error code in `errno'.
1223 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1224 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1225 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1228 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1229 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1230 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1232 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1233 uniquely-named temporary file.
1237 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1238 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1239 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1241 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1244 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1245 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1247 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1251 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1252 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1253 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1254 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1256 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1257 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1258 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1260 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1261 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1263 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1264 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1265 made itself into a shared library.
1267 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1268 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1270 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1271 with limited length.
1273 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1275 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1277 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1279 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1280 function for traversing a directory tree.
1282 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1283 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1284 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1285 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1287 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1288 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1290 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1292 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1293 things to your strings.
1295 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1297 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1298 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1299 supporting those systems.
1301 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1302 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1303 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1304 configuration files.
1306 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1307 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1309 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1310 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1313 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1314 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1315 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1316 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1317 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1318 required storage is not available.
1320 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1321 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1323 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1324 latest files released from Berkeley.
1326 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1327 Copyright information:
1329 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1331 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1332 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1333 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1334 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1336 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1337 of this document, or of portions of it,
1338 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1339 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1342 version-control: never