1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-6-16
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 cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh for the
12 128-bit long double format.
14 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
19 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
20 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
21 in float, double, and long double format.
23 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
24 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
25 128-bit long double format.
27 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
28 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
29 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
30 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
32 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
33 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
34 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
36 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
37 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
39 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
40 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
42 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
43 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
44 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
46 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
47 family of functions for Linux/S390.
49 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
50 of functions for Linux/x86.
52 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
56 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
57 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
58 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
59 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
60 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
61 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
64 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
65 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
67 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
68 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
69 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
70 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
72 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
77 only lists the names of the supported locales
81 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
82 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
86 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
87 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
88 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
89 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
90 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
94 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
96 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
98 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
99 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
100 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
102 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
103 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
105 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
106 changed from the default "C" locale.
108 * The usual bug fixes.
112 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
113 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
116 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
118 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
120 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
121 obviously requires a database library being available.
123 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
125 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
127 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
128 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
130 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
132 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
133 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
136 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
137 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
138 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
140 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
141 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
143 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
144 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
145 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
147 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
148 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
149 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
150 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
152 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
153 structures for the wide character tables.
155 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
157 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
159 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
161 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
164 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
166 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
168 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
170 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
172 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
174 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
175 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
176 implemented for Linux.
178 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
179 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
180 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
183 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
186 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
188 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
189 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
190 ******************************************
192 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
193 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
196 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
197 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
200 Recommended Tools for Compilation
201 =================================
203 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
204 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
206 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
207 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
208 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
210 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
211 the recommended solution):
213 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
214 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
215 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
217 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
218 =================================================
220 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
221 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
222 is currently untested. Hence the following options
223 are required for configuring the library:
225 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
227 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
228 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
229 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
230 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
232 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
237 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
241 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
246 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
248 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
262 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
264 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
266 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
268 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
270 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
272 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
274 * Update timezone data files.
276 * lots of charmaps corrections
278 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
283 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
284 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
285 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
286 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
287 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
288 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
290 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
291 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
293 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
296 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
297 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
299 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
301 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
304 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
306 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
307 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
309 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
312 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
313 functions from ISO C 9X.
315 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
316 real valued functions.
318 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
320 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
322 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
324 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
326 * Optimized string functions have been added.
328 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
330 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
332 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
333 daemon for NSS (nscd).
335 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
336 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
340 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
342 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
344 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
346 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
348 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
350 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
352 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
353 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
356 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
357 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
359 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
361 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
363 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
364 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
366 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
368 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
371 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
372 latest draft standards.
374 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
376 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
377 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
378 addseverity NEW: Unix98
380 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
381 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
382 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
383 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
384 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
385 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
386 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
387 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
388 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
389 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
390 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
391 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
392 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
393 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
394 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
395 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
399 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
400 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
410 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
411 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
416 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
417 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
419 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
432 clearerr_locked REMOVED
433 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
436 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
437 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
468 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
469 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
470 endutxent NEW: Unix98
482 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
483 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
484 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
485 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
486 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
488 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
489 ferror_locked REMOVED
490 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
491 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
492 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
493 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
494 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
495 fflush_locked REMOVED
499 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
500 fileno_locked REMOVED
513 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
514 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
525 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
526 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
530 getchar_locked REMOVED
532 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
533 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
535 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
536 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
538 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
540 getutxent NEW: Unix98
542 getutxline NEW: Unix98
544 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
545 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
546 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
547 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
548 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
550 iconv_close NEW: iconv
551 iconv_open NEW: iconv
552 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
553 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
554 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
555 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
556 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
557 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
558 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
559 isastream NEW: STREAMS
560 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
561 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
562 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
563 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
564 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
565 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
566 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
567 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
568 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
569 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
571 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
572 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
573 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
574 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
575 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
583 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
584 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
586 makecontext NEW: Unix98
587 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
590 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
594 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
595 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
596 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
597 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
598 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
599 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
600 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
601 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
605 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
611 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
612 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
613 profil_counter REMOVED
614 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
615 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
616 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
617 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
619 putchar_locked REMOVED
620 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
623 pututxline NEW: Unix98
629 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
630 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
635 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
636 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
637 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
640 setcontext NEW: Unix98
642 setutxent NEW: Unix98
644 sigignore NEW: Unix98
645 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
648 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
649 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
651 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
652 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
656 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
657 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
658 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
659 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
660 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
661 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
662 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
663 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
664 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
665 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
667 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
668 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
675 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
677 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
678 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
679 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
680 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
682 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
683 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
684 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
685 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
686 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
687 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
688 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
691 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
692 write_profiling REMOVED
693 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
694 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
695 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
696 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
697 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
698 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
699 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
700 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
701 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
702 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
703 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
704 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
705 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
706 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
707 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
708 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
719 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
721 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
723 * rewrite of cbrt function
725 * update of timezone data
741 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
747 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
749 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
751 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
752 the ELF dynamic loader.
754 * support for parallel builds is improved
758 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
759 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
762 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
763 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
764 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
765 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
766 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
767 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
768 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
769 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
770 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
771 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
772 files in the ELF format.
774 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
775 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
777 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
778 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
779 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
780 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
781 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
782 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
783 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
784 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
785 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
786 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
787 about dynamically linked binaries.
789 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
790 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
791 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
792 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
793 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
795 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
796 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
797 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
798 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
799 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
801 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
803 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
804 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
805 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
806 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
807 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
808 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
809 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
810 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
811 NSS services available.
813 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
814 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
815 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
817 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
818 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
819 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
821 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
822 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
823 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
824 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
826 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
827 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
828 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
830 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
831 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
832 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
834 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
835 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
837 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
838 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
839 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
840 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
842 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
843 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
844 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
846 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
847 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
848 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
849 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
850 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
851 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
852 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
853 the header file <printf.h> for details.
855 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
856 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
857 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
858 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
859 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
860 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
861 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
863 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
864 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
865 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
866 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
867 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
868 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
870 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
871 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
873 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
874 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
875 NSS scheme used in glibc.
877 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
879 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
880 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
881 their use is discouraged.
883 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
884 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
886 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
887 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
889 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
890 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
892 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
895 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
896 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
897 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
898 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
899 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
901 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
902 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
903 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
904 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
906 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
907 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
909 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
910 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
911 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
912 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
915 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
916 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
918 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
919 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
921 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
922 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
923 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
924 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
926 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
928 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
929 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
930 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
932 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
933 for arithmetic and string handling.
935 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
936 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
937 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
938 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
940 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
941 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
942 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
943 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
944 programs already written to use it.)
946 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
949 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
952 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
953 a given effective group ID.
955 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
956 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
957 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
958 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
960 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
961 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
962 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
963 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
964 doing the same thing.
966 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
967 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
969 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
970 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
972 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
974 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
975 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
976 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
977 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
978 `-ldb' to get these functions.
980 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
981 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
983 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
984 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
985 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
988 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
990 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
991 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
994 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
995 and writing the utmp file.
997 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1000 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1001 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1002 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1004 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1005 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1007 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1008 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1011 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1012 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1013 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1014 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1016 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1017 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1018 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1020 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1021 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1022 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1025 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1028 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1031 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1033 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1034 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1035 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1039 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1041 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1042 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1044 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1045 want to put themselves in the background.
1047 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1048 run without an operating system.
1050 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1051 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1053 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1054 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1056 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1058 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1059 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1062 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1065 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1066 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1070 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1071 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1072 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1074 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1075 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1077 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1078 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1080 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1082 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1084 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1087 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1088 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1089 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1091 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1093 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1094 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1095 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1097 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1098 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1099 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1100 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1101 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1104 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1105 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1106 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1107 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1108 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1111 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1112 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1116 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1117 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1119 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1120 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1121 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1123 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1124 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1125 address of the last character written.
1127 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1128 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1130 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1131 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1133 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1134 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1135 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1136 you dereference this pointer.
1138 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1139 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1141 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1142 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1143 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1144 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1146 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1147 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1148 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1149 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1153 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1154 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1155 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1156 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1157 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1159 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1161 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1163 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1164 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1166 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1167 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1169 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1170 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1172 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1173 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1174 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1175 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1176 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1178 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1179 to the error code in `errno'.
1181 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1182 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1183 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1186 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1187 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1188 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1190 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1191 uniquely-named temporary file.
1195 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1196 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1197 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1199 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1202 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1203 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1205 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1209 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1210 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1211 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1212 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1214 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1215 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1216 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1218 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1219 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1221 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1222 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1223 made itself into a shared library.
1225 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1226 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1228 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1229 with limited length.
1231 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1233 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1235 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1237 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1238 function for traversing a directory tree.
1240 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1241 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1242 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1243 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1245 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1246 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1248 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1250 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1251 things to your strings.
1253 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1255 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1256 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1257 supporting those systems.
1259 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1260 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1261 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1262 configuration files.
1264 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1265 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1267 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1268 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1271 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1272 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1273 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1274 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1275 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1276 required storage is not available.
1278 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1279 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1281 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1282 latest files released from Berkeley.
1284 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1285 Copyright information:
1287 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1289 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1290 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1291 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1292 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1294 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1295 of this document, or of portions of it,
1296 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1297 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1300 version-control: never