1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2002-1-28
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
6 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
11 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
14 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
15 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
17 * localedef now can transliterate characters in strings which are not in
18 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
20 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
21 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
23 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation but eliminating
24 copying and buffer underflows. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
26 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
27 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
31 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
32 128-bit long double format.
34 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
35 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
37 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
39 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
41 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
44 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. binaries created by recent binutils
45 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spend on relocations.
47 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
51 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
52 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
54 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
57 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
58 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
60 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
62 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
63 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
64 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
66 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
67 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
69 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
70 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
72 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
76 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
77 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
78 in float, double, and long double format.
80 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
81 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
82 128-bit long double format.
84 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
85 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
86 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
87 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
89 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
90 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
91 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
93 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
94 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
96 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
97 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
99 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
100 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
101 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
103 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
104 family of functions for Linux/S390.
106 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
107 of functions for Linux/x86.
109 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
113 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
114 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
115 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
116 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
117 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
118 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
121 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
122 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
124 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
125 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
126 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
127 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
129 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
134 only lists the names of the supported locales
138 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
139 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
143 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
144 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
145 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
146 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
147 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
151 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
153 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
155 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
156 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
157 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
159 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
160 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
162 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
163 changed from the default "C" locale.
165 * The usual bug fixes.
169 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
170 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
173 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
175 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
177 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
178 obviously requires a database library being available.
180 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
182 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
184 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
185 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
187 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
189 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
190 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
193 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
194 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
195 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
197 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
198 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
200 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
201 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
202 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
204 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
205 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
206 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
207 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
209 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
210 structures for the wide character tables.
212 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
214 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
216 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
218 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
221 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
223 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
225 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
227 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
229 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
231 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
232 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
233 implemented for Linux.
235 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
236 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
237 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
240 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
243 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
245 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
246 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
247 ******************************************
249 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
250 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
253 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
254 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
257 Recommended Tools for Compilation
258 =================================
260 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
261 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
263 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
264 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
265 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
267 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
268 the recommended solution):
270 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
271 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
272 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
274 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
275 =================================================
277 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
278 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
279 is currently untested. Hence the following options
280 are required for configuring the library:
282 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
284 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
285 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
286 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
287 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
289 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
294 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
298 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
303 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
305 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
319 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
321 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
323 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
325 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
327 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
329 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
331 * Update timezone data files.
333 * lots of charmaps corrections
335 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
340 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
341 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
342 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
343 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
344 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
345 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
347 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
348 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
350 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
353 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
354 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
356 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
358 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
361 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
363 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
364 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
366 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
369 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
370 functions from ISO C 9X.
372 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
373 real valued functions.
375 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
377 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
379 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
381 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
383 * Optimized string functions have been added.
385 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
387 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
389 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
390 daemon for NSS (nscd).
392 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
393 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
397 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
399 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
401 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
403 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
405 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
407 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
409 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
410 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
413 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
414 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
416 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
418 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
420 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
421 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
423 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
425 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
428 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
429 latest draft standards.
431 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
433 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
434 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
435 addseverity NEW: Unix98
437 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
438 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
439 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
440 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
441 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
442 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
443 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
444 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
445 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
446 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
447 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
448 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
449 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
450 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
451 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
452 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
456 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
457 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
467 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
468 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
473 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
474 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
476 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
489 clearerr_locked REMOVED
490 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
493 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
494 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
525 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
526 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
527 endutxent NEW: Unix98
539 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
540 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
541 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
542 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
543 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
545 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
546 ferror_locked REMOVED
547 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
548 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
549 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
550 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
551 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
552 fflush_locked REMOVED
556 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
557 fileno_locked REMOVED
570 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
571 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
582 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
583 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
587 getchar_locked REMOVED
589 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
590 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
592 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
593 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
595 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
597 getutxent NEW: Unix98
599 getutxline NEW: Unix98
601 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
602 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
603 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
604 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
605 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
607 iconv_close NEW: iconv
608 iconv_open NEW: iconv
609 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
610 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
611 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
612 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
613 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
614 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
615 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
616 isastream NEW: STREAMS
617 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
618 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
619 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
620 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
621 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
622 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
623 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
624 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
625 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
626 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
628 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
629 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
630 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
631 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
632 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
640 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
641 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
643 makecontext NEW: Unix98
644 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
647 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
651 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
652 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
653 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
654 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
655 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
656 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
657 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
658 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
662 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
668 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
669 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
670 profil_counter REMOVED
671 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
672 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
673 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
674 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
676 putchar_locked REMOVED
677 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
680 pututxline NEW: Unix98
686 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
687 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
692 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
693 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
694 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
697 setcontext NEW: Unix98
699 setutxent NEW: Unix98
701 sigignore NEW: Unix98
702 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
705 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
706 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
708 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
709 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
713 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
714 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
715 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
716 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
717 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
718 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
719 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
720 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
721 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
722 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
724 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
725 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
732 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
734 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
735 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
736 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
737 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
739 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
740 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
741 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
742 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
743 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
744 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
745 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
748 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
749 write_profiling REMOVED
750 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
751 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
752 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
753 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
754 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
755 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
756 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
757 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
758 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
759 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
760 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
761 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
762 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
763 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
764 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
765 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
776 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
778 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
780 * rewrite of cbrt function
782 * update of timezone data
798 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
804 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
806 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
808 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
809 the ELF dynamic loader.
811 * support for parallel builds is improved
815 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
816 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
819 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
820 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
821 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
822 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
823 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
824 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
825 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
826 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
827 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
828 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
829 files in the ELF format.
831 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
832 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
834 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
835 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
836 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
837 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
838 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
839 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
840 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
841 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
842 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
843 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
844 about dynamically linked binaries.
846 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
847 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
848 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
849 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
850 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
852 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
853 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
854 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
855 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
856 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
858 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
860 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
861 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
862 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
863 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
864 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
865 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
866 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
867 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
868 NSS services available.
870 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
871 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
872 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
874 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
875 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
876 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
878 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
879 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
880 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
881 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
883 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
884 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
885 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
887 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
888 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
889 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
891 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
892 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
894 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
895 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
896 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
897 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
899 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
900 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
901 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
903 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
904 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
905 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
906 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
907 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
908 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
909 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
910 the header file <printf.h> for details.
912 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
913 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
914 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
915 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
916 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
917 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
918 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
920 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
921 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
922 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
923 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
924 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
925 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
927 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
928 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
930 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
931 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
932 NSS scheme used in glibc.
934 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
936 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
937 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
938 their use is discouraged.
940 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
941 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
943 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
944 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
946 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
947 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
949 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
952 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
953 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
954 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
955 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
956 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
958 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
959 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
960 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
961 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
963 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
964 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
966 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
967 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
968 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
969 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
972 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
973 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
975 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
976 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
978 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
979 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
980 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
981 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
983 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
985 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
986 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
987 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
989 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
990 for arithmetic and string handling.
992 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
993 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
994 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
995 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
997 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
998 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
999 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1000 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1001 programs already written to use it.)
1003 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1006 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1009 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1010 a given effective group ID.
1012 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1013 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1014 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1015 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1017 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1018 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1019 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1020 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1021 doing the same thing.
1023 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1024 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1026 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1027 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1029 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1031 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1032 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1033 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1034 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1035 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1037 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1038 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1040 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1041 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1042 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1045 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1047 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1048 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1051 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1052 and writing the utmp file.
1054 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1057 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1058 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1059 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1061 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1062 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1064 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1065 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1068 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1069 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1070 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1071 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1073 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1074 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1075 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1077 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1078 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1079 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1082 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1085 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1088 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1090 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1091 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1092 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1096 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1098 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1099 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1101 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1102 want to put themselves in the background.
1104 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1105 run without an operating system.
1107 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1108 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1110 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1111 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1113 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1115 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1116 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1119 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1122 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1123 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1127 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1128 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1129 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1131 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1132 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1134 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1135 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1137 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1139 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1141 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1144 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1145 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1146 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1148 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1150 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1151 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1152 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1154 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1155 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1156 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1157 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1158 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1161 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1162 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1163 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1164 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1165 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1168 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1169 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1173 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1174 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1176 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1177 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1178 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1180 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1181 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1182 address of the last character written.
1184 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1185 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1187 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1188 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1190 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1191 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1192 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1193 you dereference this pointer.
1195 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1196 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1198 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1199 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1200 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1201 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1203 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1204 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1205 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1206 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1210 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1211 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1212 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1213 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1214 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1216 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1218 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1220 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1221 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1223 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1224 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1226 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1227 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1229 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1230 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1231 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1232 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1233 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1235 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1236 to the error code in `errno'.
1238 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1239 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1240 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1243 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1244 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1245 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1247 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1248 uniquely-named temporary file.
1252 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1253 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1254 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1256 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1259 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1260 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1262 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1266 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1267 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1268 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1269 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1271 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1272 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1273 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1275 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1276 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1278 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1279 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1280 made itself into a shared library.
1282 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1283 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1285 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1286 with limited length.
1288 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1290 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1292 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1294 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1295 function for traversing a directory tree.
1297 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1298 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1299 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1300 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1302 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1303 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1305 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1307 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1308 things to your strings.
1310 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1312 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1313 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1314 supporting those systems.
1316 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1317 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1318 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1319 configuration files.
1321 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1322 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1324 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1325 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1328 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1329 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1330 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1331 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1332 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1333 required storage is not available.
1335 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1336 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1338 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1339 latest files released from Berkeley.
1341 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1342 Copyright information:
1344 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1346 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1347 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1348 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1349 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1351 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1352 of this document, or of portions of it,
1353 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1354 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1357 version-control: never