1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 1999-08-25
3 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
14 * Update from Berkeley db 2.7.5.
16 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
18 * functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
20 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
21 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
23 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
25 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.2-5 which supports
26 threads. No changes should be necessary for user programs. The
27 integration was done by Andreas Jaeger and Adam D. Bradley.
29 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
30 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
31 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
41 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
43 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
45 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
47 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
49 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
51 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
53 * Update timezone data files.
55 * lots of charmaps corrections
57 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
62 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
63 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
64 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
65 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
66 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
67 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
69 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
70 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
72 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
75 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
76 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
78 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
80 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
83 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
85 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
86 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
88 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
91 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
92 functions from ISO C 9X.
94 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
95 real valued functions.
97 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
99 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
101 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
103 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
105 * Optimized string functions have been added.
107 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
109 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
111 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
112 daemon for NSS (nscd).
114 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
115 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
119 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
121 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
123 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
125 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
127 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
129 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
131 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
132 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
135 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
136 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
138 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
140 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
142 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
143 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
145 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
147 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
150 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
151 latest draft standards.
153 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
155 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
156 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
157 addseverity NEW: Unix98
159 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
160 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
161 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
162 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
163 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
164 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
165 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
166 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
167 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
168 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
169 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
170 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
171 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
172 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
173 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
174 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
178 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
179 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
189 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
190 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
195 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
196 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
198 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
211 clearerr_locked REMOVED
212 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
215 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
216 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
247 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
248 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
249 endutxent NEW: Unix98
261 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
262 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
263 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
264 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
265 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
267 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
268 ferror_locked REMOVED
269 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
270 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
271 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
272 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
273 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
274 fflush_locked REMOVED
278 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
279 fileno_locked REMOVED
292 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
293 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
304 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
305 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
309 getchar_locked REMOVED
311 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
312 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
314 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
315 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
317 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
319 getutxent NEW: Unix98
321 getutxline NEW: Unix98
323 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
324 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
325 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
326 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
327 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
329 iconv_close NEW: iconv
330 iconv_open NEW: iconv
331 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
332 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
333 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
334 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
335 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
336 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
337 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
338 isastream NEW: STREAMS
339 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
340 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
341 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
342 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
343 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
344 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
345 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
346 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
347 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
348 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
350 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
351 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
352 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
353 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
354 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
362 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
363 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
365 makecontext NEW: Unix98
366 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
369 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
373 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
374 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
375 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
376 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
377 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
378 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
379 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
380 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
384 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
390 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
391 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
392 profil_counter REMOVED
393 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
394 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
395 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
396 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
398 putchar_locked REMOVED
399 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
402 pututxline NEW: Unix98
408 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
409 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
414 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
415 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
416 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
419 setcontext NEW: Unix98
421 setutxent NEW: Unix98
423 sigignore NEW: Unix98
424 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
427 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
428 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
430 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
431 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
435 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
436 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
437 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
438 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
439 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
440 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
441 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
442 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
443 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
444 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
446 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
447 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
454 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
456 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
457 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
458 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
459 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
461 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
462 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
463 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
464 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
465 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
466 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
467 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
470 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
471 write_profiling REMOVED
472 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
473 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
474 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
475 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
476 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
477 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
478 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
479 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
480 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
481 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
482 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
483 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
484 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
485 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
486 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
487 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
498 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
500 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
502 * rewrite of cbrt function
504 * update of timezone data
520 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
526 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
528 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
530 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
531 the ELF dynamic loader.
533 * support for parallel builds is improved
537 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
538 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
541 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
542 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
543 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
544 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
545 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
546 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
547 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
548 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
549 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
550 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
551 files in the ELF format.
553 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
554 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
556 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
557 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
558 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
559 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
560 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
561 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
562 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
563 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
564 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
565 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
566 about dynamically linked binaries.
568 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
569 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
570 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
571 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
572 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
574 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
575 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
576 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
577 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
578 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
580 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
582 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
583 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
584 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
585 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
586 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
587 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
588 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
589 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
590 NSS services available.
592 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
593 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
594 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
596 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
597 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
598 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
600 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
601 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
602 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
603 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
605 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
606 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
607 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
609 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
610 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
611 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
613 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
614 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
616 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
617 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
618 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
619 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
621 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
622 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
623 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
625 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
626 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
627 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
628 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
629 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
630 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
631 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
632 the header file <printf.h> for details.
634 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
635 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
636 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
637 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
638 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
639 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
640 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
642 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
643 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
644 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
645 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
646 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
647 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
649 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
650 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
652 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
653 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
654 NSS scheme used in glibc.
656 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
658 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
659 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
660 their use is discouraged.
662 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
663 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
665 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
666 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
668 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
669 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
671 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
674 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
675 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
676 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
677 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
678 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
680 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
681 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
682 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
683 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
685 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
686 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
688 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
689 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
690 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
691 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
694 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
695 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
697 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
698 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
700 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
701 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
702 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
703 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
705 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
707 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
708 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
709 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
711 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
712 for arithmetic and string handling.
714 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
715 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
716 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
717 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
719 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
720 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
721 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
722 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
723 programs already written to use it.)
725 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
728 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
731 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
732 a given effective group ID.
734 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
735 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
736 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
737 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
739 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
740 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
741 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
742 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
743 doing the same thing.
745 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
746 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
748 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
749 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
751 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
753 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
754 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
755 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
756 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
757 `-ldb' to get these functions.
759 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
760 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
762 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
763 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
764 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
767 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
769 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
770 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
773 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
774 and writing the utmp file.
776 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
779 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
780 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
781 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
783 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
784 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
786 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
787 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
790 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
791 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
792 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
793 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
795 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
796 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
797 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
799 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
800 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
801 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
804 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
807 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
810 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
812 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
813 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
814 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
818 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
820 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
821 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
823 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
824 want to put themselves in the background.
826 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
827 run without an operating system.
829 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
830 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
832 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
833 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
835 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
837 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
838 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
841 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
844 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
845 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
849 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
850 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
851 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
853 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
854 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
856 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
857 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
859 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
861 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
863 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
866 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
867 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
868 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
870 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
872 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
873 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
874 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
876 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
877 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
878 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
879 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
880 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
883 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
884 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
885 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
886 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
887 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
890 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
891 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
895 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
896 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
898 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
899 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
900 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
902 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
903 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
904 address of the last character written.
906 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
907 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
909 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
910 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
912 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
913 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
914 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
915 you dereference this pointer.
917 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
918 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
920 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
921 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
922 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
923 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
925 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
926 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
927 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
928 EAGAIN in every system call function.
932 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
933 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
934 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
935 in Emacs or the `info' program.
936 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
938 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
940 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
942 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
943 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
945 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
946 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
948 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
949 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
951 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
952 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
953 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
954 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
955 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
957 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
958 to the error code in `errno'.
960 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
961 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
962 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
965 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
966 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
967 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
969 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
970 uniquely-named temporary file.
974 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
975 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
976 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
978 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
981 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
982 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
984 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
988 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
989 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
990 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
991 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
993 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
994 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
995 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
997 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
998 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1000 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1001 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1002 made itself into a shared library.
1004 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1005 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1007 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1008 with limited length.
1010 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1012 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1014 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1016 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1017 function for traversing a directory tree.
1019 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1020 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1021 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1022 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1024 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1025 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1027 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1029 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1030 things to your strings.
1032 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1034 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1035 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1036 supporting those systems.
1038 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1039 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1040 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1041 configuration files.
1043 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1044 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1046 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1047 bcmp, bzero, and ffs.
1049 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1050 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1051 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1052 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1053 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1054 required storage is not available.
1056 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1057 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1058 Because of the United States export restriction on DES implementations,
1059 we are distributing this code separately from the rest of the C library.
1060 There is an extra distribution tar file just for crypt; it is called
1061 `glibc-VERSION-crypt.tar.Z', e.g. `glibc-1.04-crypt.tar.Z'. You can just
1062 unpack the crypt distribution along with the rest of the C library and
1063 build; you can also build the library without getting crypt. Users
1064 outside the USA can get the crypt distribution via anonymous FTP from
1065 ftp.uni-c.dk [129.142.6.74], or another archive site outside the U.S.
1067 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1068 latest files released from Berkeley.
1070 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1071 Copyright information:
1073 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1075 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1076 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1077 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1078 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1080 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1081 of this document, or of portions of it,
1082 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1083 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1086 version-control: never
projects / platform / upstream / glibc.git / blob