1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-3-2
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2002, 2003 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>. Please send questions and suggestions to <bug-glibc@gnu.org>.
10 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
11 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
15 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
16 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
17 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
18 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
19 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
20 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
21 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
22 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
23 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
25 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
26 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
27 and are now also available on the Hurd.
29 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
31 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
32 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
34 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
35 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
37 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
39 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
40 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
42 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
43 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
44 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
45 of weak definition in ld.so.
47 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
48 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
50 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
51 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
55 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
58 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
59 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
61 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
62 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
64 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
65 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
67 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
68 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
69 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
72 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
74 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
75 implementation of regex.
77 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
80 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
81 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
83 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
84 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
85 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
87 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
88 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
90 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
91 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
92 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
94 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
95 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
97 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
98 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
101 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
105 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
106 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
108 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
109 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
113 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
114 128-bit long double format.
116 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
117 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
119 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
121 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
123 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
126 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
127 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
129 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
133 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
134 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
136 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
139 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
140 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
142 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
144 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
145 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
146 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
148 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
149 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
151 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
152 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
154 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
158 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
159 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
160 in float, double, and long double format.
162 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
163 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
164 128-bit long double format.
166 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
167 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
168 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
169 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
171 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
172 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
173 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
175 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
176 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
178 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
179 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
181 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
182 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
183 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
186 family of functions for Linux/S390.
188 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
189 of functions for Linux/x86.
191 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
195 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
196 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
197 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
198 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
199 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
200 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
203 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
204 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
206 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
207 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
208 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
209 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
211 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
216 only lists the names of the supported locales
220 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
221 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
225 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
226 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
227 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
228 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
229 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
233 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
235 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
237 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
238 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
239 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
241 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
242 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
244 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
245 changed from the default "C" locale.
247 * The usual bug fixes.
251 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
252 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
255 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
257 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
259 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
260 obviously requires a database library being available.
262 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
264 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
266 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
267 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
269 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
271 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
272 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
275 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
276 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
277 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
279 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
280 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
282 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
283 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
284 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
286 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
287 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
288 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
289 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
291 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
292 structures for the wide character tables.
294 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
296 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
298 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
300 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
303 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
305 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
307 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
309 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
311 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
313 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
314 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
315 implemented for Linux.
317 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
318 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
319 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
322 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
325 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
327 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
328 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
329 ******************************************
331 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
332 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
335 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
336 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
339 Recommended Tools for Compilation
340 =================================
342 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
343 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
345 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
346 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
347 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
349 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
350 the recommended solution):
352 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
353 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
354 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
356 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
357 =================================================
359 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
360 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
361 is currently untested. Hence the following options
362 are required for configuring the library:
364 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
366 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
367 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
368 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
369 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
371 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
376 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
380 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
385 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
387 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
401 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
403 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
405 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
407 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
409 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
411 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
413 * Update timezone data files.
415 * lots of charmaps corrections
417 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
422 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
423 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
424 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
425 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
426 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
427 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
429 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
430 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
432 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
435 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
436 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
438 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
440 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
443 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
445 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
446 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
448 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
451 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
452 functions from ISO C 9X.
454 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
455 real valued functions.
457 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
459 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
461 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
463 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
465 * Optimized string functions have been added.
467 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
469 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
471 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
472 daemon for NSS (nscd).
474 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
475 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
479 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
481 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
483 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
485 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
487 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
489 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
491 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
492 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
495 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
496 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
498 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
500 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
502 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
503 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
505 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
507 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
510 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
511 latest draft standards.
513 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
515 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
516 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
517 addseverity NEW: Unix98
519 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
520 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
521 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
522 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
523 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
524 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
525 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
526 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
527 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
528 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
529 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
530 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
531 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
532 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
533 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
534 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
538 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
539 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
549 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
550 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
555 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
556 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
558 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
571 clearerr_locked REMOVED
572 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
575 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
576 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
607 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
608 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
609 endutxent NEW: Unix98
621 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
622 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
623 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
624 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
625 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
627 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
628 ferror_locked REMOVED
629 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
630 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
631 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
632 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
633 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
634 fflush_locked REMOVED
638 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
639 fileno_locked REMOVED
652 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
653 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
664 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
665 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
669 getchar_locked REMOVED
671 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
672 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
674 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
675 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
677 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
679 getutxent NEW: Unix98
681 getutxline NEW: Unix98
683 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
684 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
685 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
686 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
687 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
689 iconv_close NEW: iconv
690 iconv_open NEW: iconv
691 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
692 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
693 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
694 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
695 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
696 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
697 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
698 isastream NEW: STREAMS
699 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
700 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
701 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
702 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
703 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
704 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
705 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
706 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
707 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
708 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
710 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
711 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
712 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
713 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
714 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
722 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
723 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
725 makecontext NEW: Unix98
726 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
729 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
733 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
734 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
735 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
736 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
737 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
738 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
739 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
740 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
744 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
750 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
751 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
752 profil_counter REMOVED
753 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
754 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
755 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
756 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
758 putchar_locked REMOVED
759 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
762 pututxline NEW: Unix98
768 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
769 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
774 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
775 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
776 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
779 setcontext NEW: Unix98
781 setutxent NEW: Unix98
783 sigignore NEW: Unix98
784 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
787 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
788 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
790 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
791 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
795 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
796 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
797 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
798 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
799 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
800 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
801 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
802 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
803 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
804 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
806 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
807 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
814 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
816 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
817 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
818 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
819 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
821 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
822 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
823 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
824 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
825 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
826 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
827 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
830 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
831 write_profiling REMOVED
832 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
833 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
834 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
835 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
836 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
837 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
838 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
839 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
840 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
841 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
842 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
843 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
844 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
845 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
846 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
847 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
858 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
860 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
862 * rewrite of cbrt function
864 * update of timezone data
880 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
886 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
888 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
890 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
891 the ELF dynamic loader.
893 * support for parallel builds is improved
897 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
898 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
901 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
902 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
903 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
904 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
905 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
906 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
907 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
908 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
909 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
910 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
911 files in the ELF format.
913 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
914 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
916 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
917 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
918 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
919 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
920 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
921 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
922 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
923 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
924 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
925 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
926 about dynamically linked binaries.
928 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
929 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
930 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
931 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
932 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
934 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
935 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
936 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
937 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
938 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
940 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
942 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
943 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
944 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
945 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
946 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
947 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
948 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
949 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
950 NSS services available.
952 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
953 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
954 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
956 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
957 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
958 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
960 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
961 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
962 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
963 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
965 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
966 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
967 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
969 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
970 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
971 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
973 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
974 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
976 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
977 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
978 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
979 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
981 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
982 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
983 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
985 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
986 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
987 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
988 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
989 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
990 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
991 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
992 the header file <printf.h> for details.
994 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
995 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
996 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
997 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
998 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
999 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1000 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1002 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1003 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1004 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1005 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1006 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1007 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1009 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1010 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1012 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1013 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1014 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1016 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1018 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1019 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1020 their use is discouraged.
1022 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1023 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1025 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1026 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1028 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1029 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1031 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1034 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1035 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1036 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1037 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1038 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1040 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1041 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1042 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1043 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1045 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1046 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1048 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1049 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1050 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1051 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1054 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1055 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1057 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1058 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1060 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1061 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1062 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1063 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1065 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1067 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1068 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1069 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1071 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1072 for arithmetic and string handling.
1074 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1075 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1076 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1077 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1079 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1080 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1081 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1082 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1083 programs already written to use it.)
1085 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1088 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1091 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1092 a given effective group ID.
1094 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1095 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1096 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1097 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1099 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1100 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1101 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1102 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1103 doing the same thing.
1105 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1106 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1108 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1109 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1111 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1113 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1114 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1115 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1116 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1117 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1119 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1120 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1122 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1123 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1124 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1127 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1129 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1130 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1133 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1134 and writing the utmp file.
1136 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1139 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1140 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1141 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1143 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1144 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1146 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1147 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1150 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1151 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1152 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1153 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1155 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1156 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1157 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1159 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1160 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1161 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1164 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1167 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1170 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1172 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1173 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1174 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1178 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1180 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1181 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1183 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1184 want to put themselves in the background.
1186 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1187 run without an operating system.
1189 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1190 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1192 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1193 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1195 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1197 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1198 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1201 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1204 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1205 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1209 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1210 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1211 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1213 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1214 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1216 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1217 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1219 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1221 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1223 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1226 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1227 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1228 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1230 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1232 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1233 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1234 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1236 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1237 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1238 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1239 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1240 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1243 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1244 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1245 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1246 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1247 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1250 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1251 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1255 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1256 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1258 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1259 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1260 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1262 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1263 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1264 address of the last character written.
1266 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1267 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1269 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1270 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1272 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1273 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1274 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1275 you dereference this pointer.
1277 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1278 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1280 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1281 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1282 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1283 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1285 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1286 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1287 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1288 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1292 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1293 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1294 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1295 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1296 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1298 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1300 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1302 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1303 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1305 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1306 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1308 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1309 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1311 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1312 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1313 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1314 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1315 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1317 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1318 to the error code in `errno'.
1320 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1321 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1322 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1325 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1326 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1327 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1329 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1330 uniquely-named temporary file.
1334 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1335 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1336 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1338 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1341 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1342 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1344 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1348 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1349 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1350 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1351 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1353 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1354 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1355 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1357 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1358 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1360 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1361 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1362 made itself into a shared library.
1364 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1365 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1367 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1368 with limited length.
1370 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1372 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1374 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1376 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1377 function for traversing a directory tree.
1379 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1380 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1381 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1382 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1384 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1385 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1387 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1389 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1390 things to your strings.
1392 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1394 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1395 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1396 supporting those systems.
1398 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1399 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1400 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1401 configuration files.
1403 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1404 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1406 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1407 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1410 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1411 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1412 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1413 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1414 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1415 required storage is not available.
1417 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1418 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1420 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1421 latest files released from Berkeley.
1423 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1424 Copyright information:
1426 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1428 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1429 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1430 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1431 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1433 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1434 of this document, or of portions of it,
1435 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1436 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1439 version-control: never