1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-11-27
3 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
13 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
14 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
15 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
16 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
20 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
22 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
26 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
27 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
30 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
32 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
34 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
35 obviously requires a database library being available.
37 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
39 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
41 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
42 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
44 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
46 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
47 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
50 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
51 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
52 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
54 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
55 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
57 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
58 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
59 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
61 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
62 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
63 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
64 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
66 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
67 structures for the wide character tables.
69 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
73 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
75 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
78 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
80 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
82 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
86 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
88 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
89 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
90 implemented for Linux.
92 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
93 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
94 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
97 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
100 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
102 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
103 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
104 ******************************************
106 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
107 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
110 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
111 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
114 Recommended Tools for Compilation
115 =================================
117 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
118 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
120 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
121 including the provided set of patches.
123 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
124 the recommended solution):
126 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
127 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
128 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
130 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
131 =================================================
133 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
134 later to funtion properly. Besides that it currently does not have
135 support for debug and profiling libraries. Hence the following options
136 are required for configuring the library:
138 --disable-debug --disable-profile --enable-kernel=2.4.0
140 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
141 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
142 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
143 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
145 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
151 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
155 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
160 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
162 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
176 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
178 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
180 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
182 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
184 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
186 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
188 * Update timezone data files.
190 * lots of charmaps corrections
192 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
197 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
198 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
199 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
200 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
201 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
202 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
204 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
205 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
207 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
210 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
211 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
213 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
215 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
218 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
220 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
221 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
223 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
226 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
227 functions from ISO C 9X.
229 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
230 real valued functions.
232 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
234 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
236 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
238 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
240 * Optimized string functions have been added.
242 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
244 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
246 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
247 daemon for NSS (nscd).
249 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
250 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
254 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
256 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
258 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
260 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
262 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
264 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
266 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
267 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
270 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
271 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
273 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
275 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
277 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
278 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
280 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
282 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
285 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
286 latest draft standards.
288 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
290 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
291 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
292 addseverity NEW: Unix98
294 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
295 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
296 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
297 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
298 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
299 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
300 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
301 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
302 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
303 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
304 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
305 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
306 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
307 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
308 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
309 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
313 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
314 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
324 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
325 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
330 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
331 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
333 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
346 clearerr_locked REMOVED
347 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
350 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
351 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
382 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
383 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
384 endutxent NEW: Unix98
396 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
397 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
398 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
399 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
400 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
402 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
403 ferror_locked REMOVED
404 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
405 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
406 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
407 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
408 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
409 fflush_locked REMOVED
413 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
414 fileno_locked REMOVED
427 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
428 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
439 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
440 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
444 getchar_locked REMOVED
446 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
447 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
449 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
450 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
452 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
454 getutxent NEW: Unix98
456 getutxline NEW: Unix98
458 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
459 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
460 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
461 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
462 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
464 iconv_close NEW: iconv
465 iconv_open NEW: iconv
466 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
467 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
468 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
469 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
470 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
471 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
472 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
473 isastream NEW: STREAMS
474 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
475 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
476 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
477 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
478 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
479 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
480 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
481 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
482 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
483 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
485 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
486 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
487 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
488 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
489 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
497 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
498 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
500 makecontext NEW: Unix98
501 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
504 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
508 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
509 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
510 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
511 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
512 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
513 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
514 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
515 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
519 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
525 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
526 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
527 profil_counter REMOVED
528 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
529 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
530 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
531 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
533 putchar_locked REMOVED
534 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
537 pututxline NEW: Unix98
543 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
544 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
549 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
550 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
551 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
554 setcontext NEW: Unix98
556 setutxent NEW: Unix98
558 sigignore NEW: Unix98
559 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
562 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
563 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
565 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
566 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
570 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
571 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
572 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
573 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
574 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
575 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
576 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
577 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
578 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
579 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
581 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
582 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
589 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
591 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
592 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
593 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
594 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
596 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
597 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
598 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
599 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
600 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
601 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
602 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
605 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
606 write_profiling REMOVED
607 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
608 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
609 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
610 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
611 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
612 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
613 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
614 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
615 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
616 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
617 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
618 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
619 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
620 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
621 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
622 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
633 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
635 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
637 * rewrite of cbrt function
639 * update of timezone data
655 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
661 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
663 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
665 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
666 the ELF dynamic loader.
668 * support for parallel builds is improved
672 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
673 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
676 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
677 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
678 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
679 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
680 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
681 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
682 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
683 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
684 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
685 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
686 files in the ELF format.
688 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
689 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
691 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
692 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
693 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
694 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
695 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
696 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
697 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
698 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
699 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
700 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
701 about dynamically linked binaries.
703 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
704 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
705 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
706 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
707 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
709 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
710 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
711 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
712 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
713 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
715 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
717 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
718 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
719 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
720 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
721 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
722 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
723 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
724 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
725 NSS services available.
727 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
728 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
729 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
731 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
732 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
733 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
735 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
736 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
737 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
738 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
740 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
741 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
742 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
744 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
745 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
746 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
748 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
749 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
751 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
752 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
753 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
754 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
756 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
757 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
758 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
760 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
761 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
762 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
763 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
764 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
765 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
766 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
767 the header file <printf.h> for details.
769 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
770 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
771 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
772 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
773 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
774 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
775 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
777 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
778 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
779 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
780 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
781 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
782 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
784 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
785 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
787 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
788 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
789 NSS scheme used in glibc.
791 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
793 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
794 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
795 their use is discouraged.
797 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
798 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
800 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
801 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
803 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
804 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
806 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
809 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
810 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
811 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
812 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
813 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
815 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
816 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
817 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
818 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
820 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
821 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
823 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
824 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
825 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
826 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
829 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
830 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
832 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
833 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
835 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
836 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
837 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
838 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
840 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
842 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
843 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
844 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
846 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
847 for arithmetic and string handling.
849 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
850 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
851 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
852 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
854 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
855 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
856 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
857 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
858 programs already written to use it.)
860 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
863 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
866 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
867 a given effective group ID.
869 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
870 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
871 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
872 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
874 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
875 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
876 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
877 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
878 doing the same thing.
880 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
881 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
883 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
884 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
886 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
888 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
889 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
890 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
891 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
892 `-ldb' to get these functions.
894 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
895 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
897 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
898 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
899 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
902 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
904 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
905 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
908 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
909 and writing the utmp file.
911 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
914 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
915 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
916 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
918 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
919 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
921 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
922 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
925 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
926 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
927 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
928 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
930 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
931 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
932 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
934 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
935 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
936 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
939 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
942 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
945 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
947 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
948 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
949 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
953 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
955 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
956 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
958 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
959 want to put themselves in the background.
961 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
962 run without an operating system.
964 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
965 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
967 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
968 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
970 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
972 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
973 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
976 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
979 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
980 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
984 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
985 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
986 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
988 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
989 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
991 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
992 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
994 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
996 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
998 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1001 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1002 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1003 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1005 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1007 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1008 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1009 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1011 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1012 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1013 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1014 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1015 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1018 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1019 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1020 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1021 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1022 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1025 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1026 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1030 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1031 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1033 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1034 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1035 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1037 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1038 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1039 address of the last character written.
1041 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1042 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1044 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1045 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1047 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1048 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1049 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1050 you dereference this pointer.
1052 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1053 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1055 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1056 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1057 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1058 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1060 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1061 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1062 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1063 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1067 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1068 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1069 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1070 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1071 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1073 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1075 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1077 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1078 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1080 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1081 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1083 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1084 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1086 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1087 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1088 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1089 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1090 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1092 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1093 to the error code in `errno'.
1095 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1096 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1097 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1100 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1101 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1102 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1104 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1105 uniquely-named temporary file.
1109 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1110 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1111 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1113 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1116 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1117 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1119 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1123 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1124 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1125 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1126 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1128 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1129 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1130 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1132 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1133 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1135 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1136 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1137 made itself into a shared library.
1139 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1140 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1142 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1143 with limited length.
1145 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1147 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1149 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1151 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1152 function for traversing a directory tree.
1154 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1155 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1156 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1157 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1159 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1160 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1162 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1164 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1165 things to your strings.
1167 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1169 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1170 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1171 supporting those systems.
1173 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1174 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1175 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1176 configuration files.
1178 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1179 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1181 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1182 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1185 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1186 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1187 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1188 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1189 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1190 required storage is not available.
1192 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1193 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1195 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1196 latest files released from Berkeley.
1198 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1199 Copyright information:
1201 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1203 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1204 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1205 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1206 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1208 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1209 of this document, or of portions of it,
1210 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1211 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1214 version-control: never
projects / platform / upstream / glibc.git / blob