1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-6-1
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * New interfaces: execvpe
11 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * checking version of longjmp added that fails if an uninitialized stack
14 frame would be created. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * STT_GNU_IFUNC is now supported in static executables.
17 Implemented by H.J. Lu.
22 * New interfaces: preadv, preadv64, pwritev, pwritev64, malloc_info
23 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * New Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
26 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
28 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
29 could lead to compile errors for invalid C++ code.
31 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
34 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
35 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
37 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
38 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
40 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
41 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
43 * The libcrypt library can now use the hash function implementations in
44 NSS. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
46 * The malloc implementation can be compiled to be less memory efficient
47 but higher performing in multi-threaded programs.
48 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
50 * New locales: nan_TW@latin, ks_IN
52 * Faster strlen, strchr, strchrnul, strrchr, memchr, and rawmemchr for x86-64.
53 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
55 * Extended printf hook support. It is possible to use user-defined types
56 and extend existing format specifiers.
57 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
59 * Handling for group shadow files has been added.
60 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
62 * DNS IPv4-IPv6 parallel lookup now deals better with broken DNS
63 servers (the case, e.g., for some people using the built-in DNS
64 server in ADSL modems/routers). There is a once-per-process timeout
65 in case of a broken server. To avoid it, users can run nscd or put
66 'options single-request' in /etc/resolv.conf.
67 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
72 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
73 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
75 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
76 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
78 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
79 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
81 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
82 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
83 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
85 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
86 Implemented by Eric Blake.
88 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
90 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
91 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
93 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
94 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
95 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
96 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
98 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
99 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
101 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
103 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
105 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
109 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
111 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
113 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
114 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
116 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
118 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
119 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
121 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
122 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
124 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
125 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
126 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
128 * Faster memset for x86-64.
129 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
131 * Faster memcpy on x86.
132 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
134 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
135 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
137 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
138 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
142 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
143 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
145 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
147 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
148 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
149 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
151 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
152 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
154 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
155 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
157 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
159 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
160 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
162 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
163 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
165 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
166 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
168 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
170 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
171 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
173 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
174 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
177 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
178 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
182 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
184 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
186 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
191 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
192 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
193 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
195 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
196 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
198 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
200 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
202 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
203 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
204 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
205 site might have problems with the default behavior.
206 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
208 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
209 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
210 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
211 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
213 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
216 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
218 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
221 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
223 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
224 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
228 * More overflow detection functions.
230 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
231 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
233 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
234 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
235 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
236 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
237 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
238 by Masahide Washizawa.
240 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
241 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
243 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
244 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
245 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
246 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
248 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
249 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
251 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
253 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
254 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
255 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
257 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
258 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
260 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
261 for compatibility with some other systems.
263 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
267 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
269 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
270 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
271 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
272 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
273 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
274 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
276 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
278 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
280 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
284 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
286 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
287 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
288 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
289 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
291 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
295 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
296 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
298 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
299 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
300 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
302 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
303 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
305 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
307 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
309 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
310 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
313 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
314 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
315 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
317 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
318 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
320 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
321 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
322 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
323 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
325 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
326 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
327 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
328 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
330 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
331 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
332 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
333 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
334 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
338 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
339 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
341 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
342 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
344 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
345 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
347 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
348 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
350 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
353 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
356 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
361 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
362 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
363 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
364 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
365 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
366 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
367 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
368 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
369 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
371 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
372 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
373 and are now also available on the Hurd.
375 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
377 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
378 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
380 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
381 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
383 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
385 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
386 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
388 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
389 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
390 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
391 of weak definition in ld.so.
393 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
394 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
396 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
397 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
401 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
404 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
405 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
407 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
408 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
410 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
411 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
413 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
414 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
415 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
417 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
418 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
420 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
421 implementation of regex.
423 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
426 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
427 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
429 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
430 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
431 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
433 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
434 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
436 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
437 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
438 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
440 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
441 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
443 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
444 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
447 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
451 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
452 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
454 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
455 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
459 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
460 128-bit long double format.
462 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
463 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
465 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
467 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
469 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
472 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
473 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
475 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
479 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
480 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
482 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
485 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
486 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
488 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
490 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
491 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
492 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
494 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
495 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
497 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
498 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
500 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
504 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
505 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
506 in float, double, and long double format.
508 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
509 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
510 128-bit long double format.
512 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
513 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
514 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
515 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
517 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
518 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
519 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
521 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
522 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
524 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
525 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
527 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
528 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
529 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
531 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
532 family of functions for Linux/S390.
534 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
535 of functions for Linux/x86.
537 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
541 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
542 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
543 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
544 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
545 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
546 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
549 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
550 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
552 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
553 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
554 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
555 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
557 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
562 only lists the names of the supported locales
566 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
567 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
571 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
572 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
573 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
574 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
575 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
579 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
581 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
583 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
584 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
585 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
587 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
588 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
590 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
591 changed from the default "C" locale.
593 * The usual bug fixes.
597 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
598 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
601 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
603 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
605 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
606 obviously requires a database library being available.
608 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
610 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
612 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
613 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
615 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
617 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
618 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
621 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
622 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
623 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
625 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
626 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
628 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
629 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
630 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
632 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
633 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
634 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
635 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
637 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
638 structures for the wide character tables.
640 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
642 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
644 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
646 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
649 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
651 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
653 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
655 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
657 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
659 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
660 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
661 implemented for Linux.
663 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
664 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
665 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
668 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
671 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
673 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
674 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
675 ******************************************
677 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
678 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
681 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
682 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
685 Recommended Tools for Compilation
686 =================================
688 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
689 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
691 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
692 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
693 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
695 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
696 the recommended solution):
698 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
699 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
700 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
702 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
703 =================================================
705 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
706 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
707 is currently untested. Hence the following options
708 are required for configuring the library:
710 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
712 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
713 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
714 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
715 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
717 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
722 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
726 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
731 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
733 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
747 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
749 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
751 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
753 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
755 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
757 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
759 * Update timezone data files.
761 * lots of charmaps corrections
763 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
768 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
769 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
770 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
771 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
772 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
773 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
775 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
776 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
778 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
781 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
782 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
784 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
786 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
789 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
791 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
792 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
794 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
797 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
798 functions from ISO C 9X.
800 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
801 real valued functions.
803 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
805 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
807 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
809 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
811 * Optimized string functions have been added.
813 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
815 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
817 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
818 daemon for NSS (nscd).
820 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
821 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
825 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
827 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
829 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
831 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
833 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
835 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
837 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
838 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
841 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
842 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
844 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
846 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
848 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
849 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
851 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
853 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
856 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
857 latest draft standards.
859 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
861 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
862 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
863 addseverity NEW: Unix98
865 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
866 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
867 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
868 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
869 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
870 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
871 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
872 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
873 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
874 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
875 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
876 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
877 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
878 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
879 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
880 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
884 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
885 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
895 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
896 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
901 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
902 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
904 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
917 clearerr_locked REMOVED
918 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
921 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
922 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
953 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
954 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
955 endutxent NEW: Unix98
967 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
968 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
969 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
970 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
971 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
973 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
974 ferror_locked REMOVED
975 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
976 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
977 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
978 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
979 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
980 fflush_locked REMOVED
984 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
985 fileno_locked REMOVED
998 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
999 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1004 fstatvfs NEW: Unix98
1008 ftruncate64 NEW: LFS
1010 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1011 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
1015 getchar_locked REMOVED
1017 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
1018 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
1020 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
1021 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
1022 getpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1023 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1024 getrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1025 getutxent NEW: Unix98
1026 getutxid NEW: Unix98
1027 getutxline NEW: Unix98
1028 glob64 NEW: GNU ext.
1029 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
1030 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
1031 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
1032 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1033 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1035 iconv_close NEW: iconv
1036 iconv_open NEW: iconv
1037 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
1038 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
1039 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1040 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1041 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1042 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1043 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1044 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1045 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1046 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1047 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1048 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1049 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1050 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1051 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1052 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1053 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1054 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1055 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1056 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1057 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1058 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1059 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1060 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1065 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1066 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1067 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1068 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1069 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1071 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1072 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1075 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1079 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1080 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1081 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1082 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1083 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1084 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1085 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1086 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1090 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1092 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1093 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1096 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1097 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1098 profil_counter REMOVED
1099 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1100 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1101 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1102 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1104 putchar_locked REMOVED
1105 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1107 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1108 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1112 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1113 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1114 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1115 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1117 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1118 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1120 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1121 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1122 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1124 sendfile NEW: kernel
1125 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1126 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1127 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1129 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1130 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1131 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1132 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1133 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1134 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1135 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1136 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1137 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1141 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1142 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1143 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1144 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1145 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1146 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1147 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1148 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1149 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1150 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1151 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1152 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1153 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1157 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1158 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1160 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1161 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1162 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1163 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1164 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1165 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1167 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1168 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1169 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1170 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1171 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1172 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1173 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1175 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1176 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1177 write_profiling REMOVED
1178 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1179 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1180 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1181 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1182 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1183 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1184 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1185 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1186 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1187 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1188 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1189 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1190 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1191 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1192 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1193 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1204 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1206 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1208 * rewrite of cbrt function
1210 * update of timezone data
1224 * add atoll function
1226 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1228 * fix math functions
1232 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1234 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1236 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1237 the ELF dynamic loader.
1239 * support for parallel builds is improved
1243 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1244 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1247 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1248 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1249 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1250 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1251 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1252 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1253 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1254 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1255 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1256 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1257 files in the ELF format.
1259 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1260 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1262 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1263 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1264 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1265 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1266 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1267 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1268 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1269 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1270 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1271 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1272 about dynamically linked binaries.
1274 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1275 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1276 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1277 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1278 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1280 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1281 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1282 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1283 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1284 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1286 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1288 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1289 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1290 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1291 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1292 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1293 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1294 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1295 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1296 NSS services available.
1298 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1299 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1300 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1302 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1303 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1304 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1306 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1307 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1308 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1309 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1311 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1312 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1313 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1315 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1316 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1317 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1319 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1320 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1322 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1323 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1324 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1325 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1327 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1328 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1329 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1331 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1332 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1333 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1334 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1335 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1336 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1337 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1338 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1340 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1341 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1342 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1343 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1344 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1345 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1346 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1348 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1349 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1350 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1351 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1352 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1353 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1355 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1356 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1358 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1359 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1360 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1362 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1364 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1365 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1366 their use is discouraged.
1368 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1369 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1371 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1372 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1374 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1375 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1377 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1380 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1381 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1382 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1383 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1384 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1386 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1387 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1388 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1389 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1391 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1392 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1394 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1395 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1396 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1397 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1400 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1401 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1403 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1404 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1406 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1407 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1408 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1409 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1411 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1413 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1414 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1415 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1417 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1418 for arithmetic and string handling.
1420 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1421 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1422 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1423 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1425 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1426 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1427 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1428 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1429 programs already written to use it.)
1431 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1434 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1437 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1438 a given effective group ID.
1440 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1441 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1442 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1443 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1445 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1446 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1447 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1448 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1449 doing the same thing.
1451 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1452 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1454 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1455 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1457 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1459 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1460 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1461 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1462 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1463 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1465 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1466 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1468 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1469 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1470 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1473 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1475 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1476 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1479 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1480 and writing the utmp file.
1482 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1485 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1486 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1487 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1489 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1490 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1492 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1493 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1496 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1497 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1498 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1499 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1501 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1502 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1503 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1505 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1506 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1507 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1510 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1513 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1516 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1518 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1519 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1520 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1524 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1526 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1527 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1529 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1530 want to put themselves in the background.
1532 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1533 run without an operating system.
1535 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1536 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1538 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1539 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1541 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1543 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1544 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1547 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1550 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1551 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1555 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1556 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1557 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1559 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1560 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1562 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1563 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1565 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1567 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1569 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1572 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1573 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1574 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1576 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1578 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1579 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1580 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1582 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1583 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1584 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1585 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1586 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1589 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1590 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1591 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1592 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1593 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1596 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1597 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1601 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1602 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1604 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1605 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1606 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1608 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1609 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1610 address of the last character written.
1612 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1613 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1615 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1616 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1618 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1619 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1620 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1621 you dereference this pointer.
1623 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1624 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1626 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1627 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1628 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1629 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1631 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1632 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1633 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1634 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1638 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1639 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1640 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1641 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1642 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1644 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1646 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1648 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1649 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1651 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1652 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1654 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1655 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1657 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1658 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1659 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1660 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1661 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1663 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1664 to the error code in `errno'.
1666 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1667 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1668 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1671 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1672 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1673 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1675 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1676 uniquely-named temporary file.
1680 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1681 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1682 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1684 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1687 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1688 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1690 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1694 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1695 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1696 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1697 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1699 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1700 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1701 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1703 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1704 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1706 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1707 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1708 made itself into a shared library.
1710 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1711 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1713 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1714 with limited length.
1716 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1718 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1720 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1722 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1723 function for traversing a directory tree.
1725 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1726 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1727 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1728 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1730 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1731 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1733 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1735 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1736 things to your strings.
1738 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1740 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1741 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1742 supporting those systems.
1744 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1745 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1746 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1747 configuration files.
1749 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1750 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1752 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1753 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1756 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1757 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1758 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1759 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1760 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1761 required storage is not available.
1763 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1764 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1766 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1767 latest files released from Berkeley.
1769 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1770 Copyright information:
1772 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1773 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1775 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1776 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1777 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1778 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1780 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1781 of this document, or of portions of it,
1782 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1783 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1786 version-control: never