1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-12-11
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
6 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
10 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
13 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
14 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
16 * localedef now can transliterate characters in strings which are not in
17 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
19 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
20 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
24 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
25 128-bit long double format.
27 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
28 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
30 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
32 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
34 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
37 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. binaries created by recent binutils
38 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spend on relocations.
42 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
43 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
45 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
48 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
49 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
51 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
53 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
54 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
55 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
57 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
58 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
60 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
61 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
63 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
67 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
68 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
69 in float, double, and long double format.
71 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
72 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
73 128-bit long double format.
75 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
76 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
77 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
78 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
80 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
81 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
82 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
85 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
87 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
88 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
90 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
91 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
92 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
94 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
95 family of functions for Linux/S390.
97 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
98 of functions for Linux/x86.
100 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
104 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
105 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
106 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
107 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
108 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
109 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
112 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
113 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
115 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
116 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
117 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
118 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
120 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
125 only lists the names of the supported locales
129 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
130 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
134 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
135 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
136 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
137 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
138 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
142 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
144 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
146 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
147 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
148 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
150 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
151 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
153 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
154 changed from the default "C" locale.
156 * The usual bug fixes.
160 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
161 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
164 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
166 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
168 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
169 obviously requires a database library being available.
171 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
173 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
175 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
176 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
178 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
180 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
181 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
184 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
185 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
186 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
188 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
189 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
191 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
192 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
193 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
195 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
196 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
197 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
198 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
200 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
201 structures for the wide character tables.
203 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
205 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
207 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
209 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
212 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
214 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
216 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
218 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
220 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
222 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
223 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
224 implemented for Linux.
226 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
227 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
228 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
231 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
234 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
236 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
237 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
238 ******************************************
240 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
241 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
244 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
245 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
248 Recommended Tools for Compilation
249 =================================
251 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
252 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
254 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
255 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
256 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
258 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
259 the recommended solution):
261 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
262 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
263 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
265 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
266 =================================================
268 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
269 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
270 is currently untested. Hence the following options
271 are required for configuring the library:
273 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
275 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
276 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
277 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
278 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
280 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
285 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
289 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
294 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
296 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
310 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
312 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
314 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
316 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
318 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
320 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
322 * Update timezone data files.
324 * lots of charmaps corrections
326 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
331 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
332 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
333 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
334 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
335 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
336 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
338 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
339 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
341 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
344 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
345 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
347 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
349 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
352 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
354 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
355 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
357 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
360 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
361 functions from ISO C 9X.
363 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
364 real valued functions.
366 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
368 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
370 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
372 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
374 * Optimized string functions have been added.
376 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
378 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
380 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
381 daemon for NSS (nscd).
383 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
384 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
388 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
390 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
392 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
394 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
396 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
398 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
400 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
401 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
404 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
405 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
407 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
409 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
411 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
412 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
414 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
416 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
419 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
420 latest draft standards.
422 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
424 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
425 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
426 addseverity NEW: Unix98
428 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
429 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
430 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
431 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
432 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
433 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
434 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
435 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
436 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
437 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
438 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
439 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
440 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
441 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
442 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
443 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
447 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
448 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
458 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
459 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
464 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
465 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
467 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
480 clearerr_locked REMOVED
481 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
484 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
485 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
516 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
517 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
518 endutxent NEW: Unix98
530 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
531 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
532 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
533 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
534 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
536 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
537 ferror_locked REMOVED
538 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
539 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
540 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
541 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
542 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
543 fflush_locked REMOVED
547 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
548 fileno_locked REMOVED
561 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
562 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
573 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
574 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
578 getchar_locked REMOVED
580 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
581 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
583 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
584 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
586 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
588 getutxent NEW: Unix98
590 getutxline NEW: Unix98
592 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
593 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
594 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
595 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
596 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
598 iconv_close NEW: iconv
599 iconv_open NEW: iconv
600 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
601 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
602 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
603 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
604 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
605 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
606 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
607 isastream NEW: STREAMS
608 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
609 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
610 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
611 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
612 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
613 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
614 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
615 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
616 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
617 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
619 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
620 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
621 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
622 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
623 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
631 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
632 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
634 makecontext NEW: Unix98
635 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
638 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
642 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
643 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
644 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
645 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
646 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
647 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
648 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
649 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
653 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
659 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
660 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
661 profil_counter REMOVED
662 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
663 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
664 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
665 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
667 putchar_locked REMOVED
668 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
671 pututxline NEW: Unix98
677 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
678 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
683 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
684 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
685 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
688 setcontext NEW: Unix98
690 setutxent NEW: Unix98
692 sigignore NEW: Unix98
693 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
696 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
697 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
699 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
700 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
704 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
705 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
706 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
707 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
708 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
709 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
710 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
711 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
712 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
713 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
715 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
716 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
723 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
725 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
726 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
727 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
728 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
730 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
731 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
732 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
733 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
734 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
735 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
736 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
739 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
740 write_profiling REMOVED
741 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
742 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
743 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
744 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
745 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
746 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
747 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
748 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
749 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
750 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
751 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
752 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
753 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
754 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
755 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
756 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
767 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
769 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
771 * rewrite of cbrt function
773 * update of timezone data
789 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
795 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
797 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
799 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
800 the ELF dynamic loader.
802 * support for parallel builds is improved
806 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
807 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
810 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
811 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
812 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
813 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
814 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
815 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
816 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
817 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
818 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
819 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
820 files in the ELF format.
822 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
823 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
825 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
826 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
827 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
828 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
829 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
830 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
831 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
832 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
833 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
834 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
835 about dynamically linked binaries.
837 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
838 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
839 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
840 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
841 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
843 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
844 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
845 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
846 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
847 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
849 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
851 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
852 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
853 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
854 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
855 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
856 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
857 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
858 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
859 NSS services available.
861 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
862 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
863 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
865 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
866 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
867 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
869 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
870 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
871 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
872 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
874 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
875 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
876 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
878 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
879 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
880 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
882 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
883 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
885 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
886 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
887 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
888 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
890 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
891 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
892 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
894 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
895 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
896 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
897 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
898 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
899 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
900 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
901 the header file <printf.h> for details.
903 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
904 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
905 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
906 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
907 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
908 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
909 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
911 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
912 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
913 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
914 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
915 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
916 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
918 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
919 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
921 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
922 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
923 NSS scheme used in glibc.
925 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
927 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
928 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
929 their use is discouraged.
931 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
932 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
934 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
935 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
937 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
938 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
940 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
943 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
944 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
945 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
946 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
947 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
949 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
950 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
951 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
952 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
954 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
955 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
957 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
958 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
959 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
960 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
963 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
964 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
966 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
967 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
969 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
970 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
971 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
972 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
974 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
976 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
977 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
978 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
980 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
981 for arithmetic and string handling.
983 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
984 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
985 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
986 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
988 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
989 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
990 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
991 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
992 programs already written to use it.)
994 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
997 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1000 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1001 a given effective group ID.
1003 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1004 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1005 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1006 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1008 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1009 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1010 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1011 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1012 doing the same thing.
1014 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1015 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1017 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1018 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1020 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1022 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1023 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1024 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1025 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1026 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1028 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1029 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1031 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1032 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1033 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1036 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1038 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1039 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1042 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1043 and writing the utmp file.
1045 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1048 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1049 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1050 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1052 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1053 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1055 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1056 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1059 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1060 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1061 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1062 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1064 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1065 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1066 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1068 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1069 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1070 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1073 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1076 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1079 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1081 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1082 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1083 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1087 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1089 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1090 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1092 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1093 want to put themselves in the background.
1095 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1096 run without an operating system.
1098 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1099 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1101 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1102 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1104 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1106 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1107 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1110 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1113 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1114 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1118 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1119 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1120 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1122 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1123 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1125 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1126 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1128 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1130 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1132 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1135 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1136 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1137 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1139 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1141 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1142 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1143 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1145 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1146 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1147 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1148 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1149 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1152 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1153 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1154 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1155 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1156 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1159 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1160 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1164 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1165 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1167 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1168 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1169 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1171 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1172 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1173 address of the last character written.
1175 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1176 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1178 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1179 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1181 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1182 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1183 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1184 you dereference this pointer.
1186 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1187 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1189 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1190 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1191 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1192 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1194 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1195 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1196 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1197 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1201 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1202 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1203 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1204 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1205 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1207 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1209 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1211 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1212 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1214 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1215 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1217 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1218 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1220 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1221 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1222 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1223 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1224 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1226 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1227 to the error code in `errno'.
1229 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1230 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1231 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1234 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1235 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1236 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1238 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1239 uniquely-named temporary file.
1243 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1244 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1245 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1247 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1250 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1251 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1253 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1257 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1258 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1259 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1260 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1262 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1263 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1264 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1266 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1267 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1269 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1270 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1271 made itself into a shared library.
1273 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1274 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1276 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1277 with limited length.
1279 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1281 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1283 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1285 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1286 function for traversing a directory tree.
1288 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1289 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1290 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1291 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1293 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1294 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1296 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1298 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1299 things to your strings.
1301 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1303 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1304 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1305 supporting those systems.
1307 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1308 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1309 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1310 configuration files.
1312 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1313 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1315 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1316 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1319 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1320 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1321 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1322 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1323 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1324 required storage is not available.
1326 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1327 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1329 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1330 latest files released from Berkeley.
1332 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1333 Copyright information:
1335 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1337 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1338 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1339 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1340 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1342 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1343 of this document, or of portions of it,
1344 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1345 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1348 version-control: never