1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-4-20
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
11 * Stephen Moshier implemented expm1 for the 128-bit long double format.
15 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
16 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
17 in float, double, and long double format.
19 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
20 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
21 128-bit long double format.
23 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
24 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
25 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
26 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
28 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
29 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
30 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
32 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
33 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
35 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
36 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
38 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
39 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
40 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
42 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
43 family of functions for Linux/S390.
45 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
46 of functions for Linux/x86.
48 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
52 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
53 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
54 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
55 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
56 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
57 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
60 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
61 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
63 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
64 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
65 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
66 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
68 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
73 only lists the names of the supported locales
77 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
78 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
82 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
83 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
84 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
85 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
86 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
90 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
92 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
94 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
95 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
96 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
98 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
99 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
101 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
102 changed from the default "C" locale.
104 * The usual bug fixes.
108 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
109 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
112 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
114 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
116 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
117 obviously requires a database library being available.
119 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
121 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
123 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
124 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
126 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
128 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
129 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
132 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
133 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
134 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
136 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
137 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
139 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
140 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
141 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
143 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
144 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
145 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
146 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
148 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
149 structures for the wide character tables.
151 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
153 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
155 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
157 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
160 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
162 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
164 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
166 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
168 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
170 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
171 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
172 implemented for Linux.
174 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
175 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
176 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
179 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
182 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
184 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
185 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
186 ******************************************
188 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
189 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
192 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
193 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
196 Recommended Tools for Compilation
197 =================================
199 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
200 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
202 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
203 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
204 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
206 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
207 the recommended solution):
209 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
210 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
211 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
213 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
214 =================================================
216 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
217 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
218 is currently untested. Hence the following options
219 are required for configuring the library:
221 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
223 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
224 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
225 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
226 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
228 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
233 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
237 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
242 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
244 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
258 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
260 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
262 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
264 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
266 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
268 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
270 * Update timezone data files.
272 * lots of charmaps corrections
274 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
279 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
280 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
281 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
282 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
283 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
284 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
286 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
287 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
289 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
292 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
293 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
295 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
297 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
300 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
302 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
303 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
305 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
308 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
309 functions from ISO C 9X.
311 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
312 real valued functions.
314 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
316 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
318 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
320 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
322 * Optimized string functions have been added.
324 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
326 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
328 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
329 daemon for NSS (nscd).
331 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
332 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
336 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
338 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
340 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
342 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
344 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
346 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
348 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
349 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
352 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
353 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
355 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
357 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
359 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
360 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
362 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
364 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
367 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
368 latest draft standards.
370 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
372 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
373 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
374 addseverity NEW: Unix98
376 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
377 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
378 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
379 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
380 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
381 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
382 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
383 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
384 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
385 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
386 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
387 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
388 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
389 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
390 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
391 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
395 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
396 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
406 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
407 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
412 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
413 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
415 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
428 clearerr_locked REMOVED
429 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
432 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
433 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
464 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
465 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
466 endutxent NEW: Unix98
478 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
479 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
480 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
481 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
482 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
484 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
485 ferror_locked REMOVED
486 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
487 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
488 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
489 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
490 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
491 fflush_locked REMOVED
495 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
496 fileno_locked REMOVED
509 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
510 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
521 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
522 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
526 getchar_locked REMOVED
528 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
529 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
531 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
532 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
534 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
536 getutxent NEW: Unix98
538 getutxline NEW: Unix98
540 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
541 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
542 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
543 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
544 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
546 iconv_close NEW: iconv
547 iconv_open NEW: iconv
548 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
549 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
550 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
551 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
552 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
553 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
554 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
555 isastream NEW: STREAMS
556 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
557 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
558 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
559 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
560 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
561 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
562 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
563 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
564 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
565 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
567 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
568 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
569 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
570 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
571 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
579 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
580 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
582 makecontext NEW: Unix98
583 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
586 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
590 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
591 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
592 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
593 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
594 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
595 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
596 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
597 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
601 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
607 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
608 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
609 profil_counter REMOVED
610 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
611 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
612 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
613 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
615 putchar_locked REMOVED
616 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
619 pututxline NEW: Unix98
625 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
626 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
631 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
632 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
633 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
636 setcontext NEW: Unix98
638 setutxent NEW: Unix98
640 sigignore NEW: Unix98
641 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
644 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
645 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
647 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
648 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
652 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
653 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
654 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
655 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
656 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
657 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
658 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
659 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
660 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
661 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
663 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
664 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
671 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
673 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
674 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
675 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
676 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
678 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
679 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
680 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
681 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
682 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
683 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
684 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
687 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
688 write_profiling REMOVED
689 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
690 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
691 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
692 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
693 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
694 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
695 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
696 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
697 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
698 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
699 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
700 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
701 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
702 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
703 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
704 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
715 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
717 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
719 * rewrite of cbrt function
721 * update of timezone data
737 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
743 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
745 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
747 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
748 the ELF dynamic loader.
750 * support for parallel builds is improved
754 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
755 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
758 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
759 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
760 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
761 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
762 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
763 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
764 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
765 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
766 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
767 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
768 files in the ELF format.
770 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
771 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
773 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
774 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
775 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
776 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
777 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
778 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
779 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
780 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
781 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
782 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
783 about dynamically linked binaries.
785 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
786 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
787 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
788 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
789 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
791 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
792 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
793 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
794 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
795 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
797 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
799 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
800 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
801 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
802 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
803 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
804 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
805 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
806 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
807 NSS services available.
809 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
810 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
811 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
813 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
814 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
815 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
817 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
818 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
819 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
820 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
822 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
823 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
824 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
826 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
827 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
828 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
830 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
831 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
833 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
834 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
835 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
836 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
838 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
839 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
840 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
842 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
843 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
844 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
845 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
846 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
847 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
848 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
849 the header file <printf.h> for details.
851 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
852 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
853 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
854 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
855 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
856 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
857 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
859 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
860 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
861 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
862 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
863 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
864 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
866 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
867 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
869 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
870 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
871 NSS scheme used in glibc.
873 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
875 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
876 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
877 their use is discouraged.
879 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
880 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
882 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
883 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
885 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
886 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
888 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
891 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
892 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
893 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
894 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
895 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
897 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
898 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
899 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
900 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
902 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
903 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
905 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
906 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
907 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
908 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
911 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
912 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
914 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
915 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
917 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
918 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
919 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
920 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
922 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
924 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
925 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
926 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
928 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
929 for arithmetic and string handling.
931 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
932 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
933 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
934 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
936 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
937 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
938 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
939 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
940 programs already written to use it.)
942 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
945 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
948 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
949 a given effective group ID.
951 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
952 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
953 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
954 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
956 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
957 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
958 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
959 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
960 doing the same thing.
962 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
963 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
965 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
966 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
968 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
970 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
971 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
972 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
973 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
974 `-ldb' to get these functions.
976 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
977 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
979 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
980 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
981 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
984 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
986 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
987 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
990 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
991 and writing the utmp file.
993 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
996 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
997 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
998 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1000 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1001 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1003 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1004 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1007 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1008 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1009 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1010 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1012 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1013 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1014 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1016 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1017 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1018 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1021 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1024 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1027 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1029 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1030 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1031 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1035 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1037 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1038 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1040 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1041 want to put themselves in the background.
1043 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1044 run without an operating system.
1046 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1047 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1049 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1050 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1052 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1054 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1055 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1058 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1061 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1062 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1066 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1067 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1068 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1070 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1071 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1073 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1074 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1076 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1078 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1080 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1083 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1084 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1085 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1087 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1089 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1090 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1091 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1093 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1094 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1095 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1096 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1097 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1100 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1101 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1102 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1103 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1104 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1107 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1108 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1112 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1113 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1115 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1116 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1117 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1119 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1120 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1121 address of the last character written.
1123 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1124 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1126 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1127 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1129 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1130 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1131 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1132 you dereference this pointer.
1134 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1135 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1137 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1138 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1139 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1140 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1142 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1143 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1144 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1145 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1149 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1150 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1151 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1152 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1153 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1155 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1157 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1159 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1160 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1162 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1163 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1165 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1166 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1168 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1169 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1170 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1171 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1172 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1174 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1175 to the error code in `errno'.
1177 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1178 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1179 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1182 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1183 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1184 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1186 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1187 uniquely-named temporary file.
1191 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1192 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1193 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1195 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1198 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1199 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1201 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1205 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1206 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1207 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1208 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1210 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1211 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1212 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1214 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1215 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1217 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1218 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1219 made itself into a shared library.
1221 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1222 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1224 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1225 with limited length.
1227 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1229 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1231 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1233 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1234 function for traversing a directory tree.
1236 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1237 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1238 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1239 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1241 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1242 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1244 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1246 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1247 things to your strings.
1249 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1251 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1252 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1253 supporting those systems.
1255 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1256 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1257 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1258 configuration files.
1260 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1261 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1263 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1264 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1267 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1268 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1269 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1270 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1271 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1272 required storage is not available.
1274 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1275 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1277 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1278 latest files released from Berkeley.
1280 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1281 Copyright information:
1283 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1285 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1286 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1287 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1288 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1290 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1291 of this document, or of portions of it,
1292 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1293 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1296 version-control: never
projects / platform / upstream / glibc.git / blob