1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2007-9-19
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2006, 2007 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 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
11 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
13 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
15 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
16 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
17 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
19 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
20 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
22 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additonal
23 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
28 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
30 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
31 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
33 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
35 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
36 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
40 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
42 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
44 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
49 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
50 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
51 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
53 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
54 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
56 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
58 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
60 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
61 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
62 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
63 site might have problems with the default behavior.
64 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
66 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
67 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
68 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
69 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
74 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
76 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
79 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
81 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
82 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
86 * More overflow detection functions.
88 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
89 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
91 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
92 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
93 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
94 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
95 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
96 by Masahide Washizawa.
98 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
99 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
101 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
102 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
103 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
104 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
106 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
107 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
109 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
111 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
112 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
113 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
115 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
116 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
118 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
119 for compatibility with some other systems.
121 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
125 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
127 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
128 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
129 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
130 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
131 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
132 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
134 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
136 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
138 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
142 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
144 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
145 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
146 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
147 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
149 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
153 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
154 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
156 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
157 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
158 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
160 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
161 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
163 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
165 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
167 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
168 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
171 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
172 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
173 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
175 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
176 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
178 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
179 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
180 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
181 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
183 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
184 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
185 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
186 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
188 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
189 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
190 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
191 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
192 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
196 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
197 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
199 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
200 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
202 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
203 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
205 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
206 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
208 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
211 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
214 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
219 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
220 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
221 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
222 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
223 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
224 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
225 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
226 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
227 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
229 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
230 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
231 and are now also available on the Hurd.
233 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
235 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
236 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
238 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
239 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
241 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
243 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
244 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
246 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
247 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
248 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
249 of weak definition in ld.so.
251 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
252 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
254 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
255 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
259 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
262 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
263 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
265 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
266 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
268 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
269 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
271 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
272 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
273 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
275 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
276 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
278 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
279 implementation of regex.
281 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
284 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
285 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
287 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
288 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
289 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
291 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
292 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
294 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
295 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
296 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
298 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
299 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
301 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
302 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
305 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
309 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
310 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
312 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
313 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
317 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
318 128-bit long double format.
320 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
321 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
323 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
325 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
327 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
330 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
331 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
333 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
337 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
338 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
340 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
343 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
344 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
346 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
348 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
349 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
350 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
352 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
353 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
355 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
356 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
358 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
362 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
363 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
364 in float, double, and long double format.
366 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
367 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
368 128-bit long double format.
370 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
371 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
372 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
373 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
375 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
376 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
377 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
379 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
380 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
382 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
383 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
385 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
386 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
387 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
389 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
390 family of functions for Linux/S390.
392 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
393 of functions for Linux/x86.
395 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
399 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
400 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
401 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
402 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
403 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
404 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
407 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
408 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
410 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
411 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
412 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
413 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
415 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
420 only lists the names of the supported locales
424 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
425 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
429 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
430 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
431 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
432 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
433 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
437 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
439 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
441 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
442 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
443 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
445 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
446 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
448 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
449 changed from the default "C" locale.
451 * The usual bug fixes.
455 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
456 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
459 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
461 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
463 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
464 obviously requires a database library being available.
466 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
468 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
470 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
471 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
473 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
475 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
476 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
479 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
480 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
481 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
483 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
484 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
486 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
487 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
488 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
490 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
491 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
492 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
493 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
495 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
496 structures for the wide character tables.
498 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
500 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
502 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
504 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
507 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
509 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
511 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
513 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
515 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
517 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
518 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
519 implemented for Linux.
521 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
522 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
523 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
526 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
529 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
531 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
532 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
533 ******************************************
535 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
536 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
539 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
540 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
543 Recommended Tools for Compilation
544 =================================
546 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
547 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
549 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
550 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
551 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
553 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
554 the recommended solution):
556 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
557 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
558 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
560 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
561 =================================================
563 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
564 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
565 is currently untested. Hence the following options
566 are required for configuring the library:
568 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
570 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
571 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
572 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
573 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
575 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
580 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
584 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
589 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
591 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
605 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
607 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
609 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
611 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
613 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
615 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
617 * Update timezone data files.
619 * lots of charmaps corrections
621 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
626 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
627 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
628 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
629 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
630 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
631 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
633 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
634 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
636 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
639 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
640 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
642 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
644 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
647 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
649 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
650 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
652 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
655 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
656 functions from ISO C 9X.
658 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
659 real valued functions.
661 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
663 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
665 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
667 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
669 * Optimized string functions have been added.
671 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
673 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
675 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
676 daemon for NSS (nscd).
678 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
679 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
683 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
685 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
687 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
689 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
691 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
693 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
695 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
696 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
699 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
700 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
702 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
704 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
706 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
707 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
709 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
711 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
714 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
715 latest draft standards.
717 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
719 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
720 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
721 addseverity NEW: Unix98
723 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
724 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
725 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
726 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
727 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
728 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
729 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
730 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
731 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
732 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
733 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
734 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
735 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
736 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
737 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
738 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
742 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
743 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
753 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
754 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
759 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
760 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
762 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
775 clearerr_locked REMOVED
776 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
779 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
780 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
811 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
812 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
813 endutxent NEW: Unix98
825 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
826 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
827 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
828 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
829 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
831 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
832 ferror_locked REMOVED
833 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
834 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
835 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
836 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
837 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
838 fflush_locked REMOVED
842 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
843 fileno_locked REMOVED
856 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
857 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
868 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
869 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
873 getchar_locked REMOVED
875 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
876 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
878 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
879 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
881 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
883 getutxent NEW: Unix98
885 getutxline NEW: Unix98
887 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
888 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
889 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
890 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
891 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
893 iconv_close NEW: iconv
894 iconv_open NEW: iconv
895 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
896 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
897 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
898 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
899 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
900 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
901 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
902 isastream NEW: STREAMS
903 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
904 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
905 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
906 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
907 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
908 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
909 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
910 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
911 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
912 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
914 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
915 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
916 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
917 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
918 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
926 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
927 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
929 makecontext NEW: Unix98
930 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
933 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
937 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
938 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
939 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
940 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
941 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
942 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
943 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
944 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
948 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
954 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
955 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
956 profil_counter REMOVED
957 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
958 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
959 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
960 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
962 putchar_locked REMOVED
963 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
966 pututxline NEW: Unix98
972 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
973 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
978 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
979 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
980 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
983 setcontext NEW: Unix98
985 setutxent NEW: Unix98
987 sigignore NEW: Unix98
988 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
991 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
992 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
994 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
995 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
999 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1000 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1001 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1002 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1003 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1004 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1005 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1006 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1007 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1008 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1009 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1010 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1011 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1015 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1016 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1019 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1020 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1021 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1022 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1023 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1025 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1026 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1027 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1028 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1029 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1030 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1031 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1033 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1034 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1035 write_profiling REMOVED
1036 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1037 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1038 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1039 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1040 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1041 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1042 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1043 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1044 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1045 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1046 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1047 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1048 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1049 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1050 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1051 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1062 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1064 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1066 * rewrite of cbrt function
1068 * update of timezone data
1082 * add atoll function
1084 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1086 * fix math functions
1090 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1092 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1094 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1095 the ELF dynamic loader.
1097 * support for parallel builds is improved
1101 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1102 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1105 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1106 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1107 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1108 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1109 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1110 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1111 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1112 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1113 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1114 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1115 files in the ELF format.
1117 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1118 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1120 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1121 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1122 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1123 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1124 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1125 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1126 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1127 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1128 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1129 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1130 about dynamically linked binaries.
1132 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1133 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1134 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1135 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1136 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1138 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1139 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1140 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1141 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1142 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1144 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1146 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1147 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1148 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1149 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1150 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1151 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1152 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1153 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1154 NSS services available.
1156 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1157 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1158 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1160 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1161 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1162 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1164 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1165 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1166 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1167 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1169 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1170 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1171 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1173 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1174 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1175 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1177 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1178 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1180 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1181 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1182 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1183 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1185 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1186 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1187 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1189 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1190 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1191 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1192 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1193 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1194 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1195 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1196 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1198 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1199 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1200 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1201 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1202 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1203 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1204 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1206 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1207 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1208 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1209 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1210 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1211 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1213 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1214 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1216 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1217 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1218 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1220 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1222 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1223 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1224 their use is discouraged.
1226 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1227 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1229 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1230 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1232 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1233 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1235 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1238 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1239 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1240 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1241 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1242 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1244 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1245 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1246 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1247 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1249 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1250 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1252 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1253 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1254 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1255 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1258 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1259 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1261 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1262 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1264 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1265 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1266 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1267 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1269 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1271 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1272 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1273 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1275 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1276 for arithmetic and string handling.
1278 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1279 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1280 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1281 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1283 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1284 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1285 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1286 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1287 programs already written to use it.)
1289 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1292 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1295 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1296 a given effective group ID.
1298 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1299 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1300 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1301 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1303 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1304 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1305 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1306 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1307 doing the same thing.
1309 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1310 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1312 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1313 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1315 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1317 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1318 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1319 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1320 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1321 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1323 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1324 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1326 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1327 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1328 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1331 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1333 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1334 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1337 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1338 and writing the utmp file.
1340 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1343 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1344 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1345 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1347 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1348 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1350 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1351 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1354 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1355 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1356 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1357 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1359 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1360 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1361 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1363 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1364 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1365 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1368 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1371 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1374 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1376 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1377 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1378 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1382 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1384 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1385 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1387 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1388 want to put themselves in the background.
1390 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1391 run without an operating system.
1393 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1394 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1396 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1397 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1399 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1401 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1402 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1405 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1408 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1409 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1413 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1414 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1415 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1417 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1418 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1420 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1421 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1423 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1425 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1427 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1430 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1431 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1432 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1434 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1436 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1437 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1438 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1440 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1441 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1442 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1443 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1444 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1447 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1448 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1449 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1450 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1451 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1454 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1455 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1459 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1460 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1462 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1463 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1464 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1466 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1467 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1468 address of the last character written.
1470 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1471 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1473 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1474 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1476 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1477 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1478 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1479 you dereference this pointer.
1481 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1482 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1484 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1485 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1486 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1487 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1489 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1490 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1491 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1492 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1496 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1497 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1498 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1499 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1500 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1502 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1504 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1506 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1507 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1509 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1510 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1512 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1513 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1515 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1516 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1517 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1518 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1519 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1521 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1522 to the error code in `errno'.
1524 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1525 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1526 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1529 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1530 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1531 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1533 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1534 uniquely-named temporary file.
1538 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1539 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1540 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1542 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1545 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1546 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1548 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1552 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1553 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1554 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1555 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1557 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1558 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1559 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1561 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1562 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1564 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1565 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1566 made itself into a shared library.
1568 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1569 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1571 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1572 with limited length.
1574 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1576 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1578 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1580 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1581 function for traversing a directory tree.
1583 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1584 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1585 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1586 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1588 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1589 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1591 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1593 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1594 things to your strings.
1596 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1598 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1599 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1600 supporting those systems.
1602 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1603 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1604 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1605 configuration files.
1607 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1608 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1610 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1611 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1614 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1615 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1616 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1617 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1618 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1619 required storage is not available.
1621 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1622 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1624 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1625 latest files released from Berkeley.
1627 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1628 Copyright information:
1630 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1631 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1633 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1634 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1635 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1636 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1638 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1639 of this document, or of portions of it,
1640 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1641 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1644 version-control: never