1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2008-7-27
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2007, 2008 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 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
11 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
14 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
16 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
17 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
19 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
20 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
21 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
23 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
24 Implemented by Eric Blake.
26 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, paccept, dup3, epoll_create2, pipe2
28 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
29 close-on-exec flag set
31 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
32 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
36 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
38 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
40 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
41 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
43 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
45 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
46 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
48 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
49 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
51 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
52 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
53 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
55 * Faster memset for x86-64.
56 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
58 * Faster memcpy on x86.
59 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
61 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
62 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
64 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
65 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
69 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
70 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
72 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
74 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
75 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
76 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
78 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
79 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
81 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
82 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
86 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
87 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
89 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
90 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
92 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
93 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
95 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
97 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
98 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
100 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
101 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
104 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
105 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
109 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
111 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
113 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
118 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
119 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
120 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
122 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
123 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
125 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
127 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
129 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
130 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
131 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
132 site might have problems with the default behavior.
133 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
135 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
136 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
137 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
138 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
140 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
143 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
145 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
148 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
150 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
151 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
155 * More overflow detection functions.
157 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
158 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
160 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
161 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
162 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
163 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
164 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
165 by Masahide Washizawa.
167 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
168 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
170 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
171 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
172 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
173 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
175 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
176 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
178 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
180 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
181 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
182 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
184 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
185 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
187 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
188 for compatibility with some other systems.
190 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
194 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
196 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
197 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
198 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
199 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
200 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
201 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
203 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
205 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
207 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
211 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
213 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
214 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
215 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
216 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
218 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
222 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
223 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
225 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
226 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
227 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
229 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
230 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
232 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
234 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
236 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
237 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
240 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
241 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
242 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
244 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
245 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
247 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
248 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
249 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
250 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
252 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
253 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
254 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
255 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
257 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
258 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
259 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
260 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
261 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
265 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
266 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
268 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
269 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
271 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
272 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
274 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
275 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
277 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
280 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
283 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
288 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
289 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
290 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
291 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
292 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
293 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
294 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
295 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
296 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
298 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
299 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
300 and are now also available on the Hurd.
302 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
304 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
305 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
307 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
308 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
310 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
312 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
313 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
315 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
316 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
317 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
318 of weak definition in ld.so.
320 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
321 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
323 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
324 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
328 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
331 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
332 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
334 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
335 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
337 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
338 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
340 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
341 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
342 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
344 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
345 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
347 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
348 implementation of regex.
350 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
353 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
354 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
356 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
357 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
358 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
360 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
361 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
363 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
364 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
365 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
367 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
368 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
370 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
371 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
374 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
378 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
379 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
381 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
382 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
386 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
387 128-bit long double format.
389 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
390 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
392 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
394 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
396 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
399 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
400 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
402 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
406 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
407 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
409 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
412 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
413 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
415 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
417 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
418 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
419 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
421 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
422 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
424 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
425 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
427 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
431 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
432 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
433 in float, double, and long double format.
435 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
436 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
437 128-bit long double format.
439 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
440 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
441 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
442 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
444 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
445 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
446 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
448 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
449 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
451 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
452 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
454 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
455 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
456 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
458 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
459 family of functions for Linux/S390.
461 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
462 of functions for Linux/x86.
464 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
468 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
469 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
470 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
471 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
472 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
473 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
476 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
477 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
479 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
480 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
481 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
482 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
484 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
489 only lists the names of the supported locales
493 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
494 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
498 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
499 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
500 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
501 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
502 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
506 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
508 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
510 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
511 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
512 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
514 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
515 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
517 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
518 changed from the default "C" locale.
520 * The usual bug fixes.
524 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
525 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
528 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
530 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
532 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
533 obviously requires a database library being available.
535 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
537 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
539 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
540 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
542 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
544 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
545 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
548 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
549 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
550 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
552 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
553 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
555 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
556 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
557 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
559 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
560 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
561 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
562 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
564 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
565 structures for the wide character tables.
567 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
569 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
571 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
573 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
576 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
578 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
580 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
582 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
584 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
586 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
587 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
588 implemented for Linux.
590 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
591 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
592 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
595 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
598 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
600 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
601 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
602 ******************************************
604 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
605 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
608 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
609 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
612 Recommended Tools for Compilation
613 =================================
615 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
616 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
618 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
619 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
620 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
622 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
623 the recommended solution):
625 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
626 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
627 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
629 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
630 =================================================
632 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
633 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
634 is currently untested. Hence the following options
635 are required for configuring the library:
637 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
639 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
640 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
641 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
642 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
644 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
649 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
653 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
658 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
660 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
674 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
676 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
678 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
680 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
682 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
684 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
686 * Update timezone data files.
688 * lots of charmaps corrections
690 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
695 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
696 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
697 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
698 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
699 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
700 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
702 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
703 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
705 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
708 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
709 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
711 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
713 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
716 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
718 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
719 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
721 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
724 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
725 functions from ISO C 9X.
727 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
728 real valued functions.
730 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
732 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
734 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
736 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
738 * Optimized string functions have been added.
740 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
742 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
744 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
745 daemon for NSS (nscd).
747 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
748 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
752 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
754 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
756 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
758 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
760 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
762 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
764 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
765 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
768 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
769 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
771 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
773 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
775 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
776 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
778 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
780 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
783 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
784 latest draft standards.
786 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
788 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
789 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
790 addseverity NEW: Unix98
792 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
793 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
794 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
795 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
796 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
797 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
798 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
799 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
800 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
801 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
802 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
803 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
804 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
805 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
806 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
807 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
811 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
812 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
822 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
823 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
828 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
829 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
831 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
844 clearerr_locked REMOVED
845 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
848 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
849 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
880 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
881 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
882 endutxent NEW: Unix98
894 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
895 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
896 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
897 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
898 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
900 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
901 ferror_locked REMOVED
902 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
903 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
904 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
905 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
906 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
907 fflush_locked REMOVED
911 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
912 fileno_locked REMOVED
925 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
926 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
937 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
938 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
942 getchar_locked REMOVED
944 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
945 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
947 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
948 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
950 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
952 getutxent NEW: Unix98
954 getutxline NEW: Unix98
956 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
957 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
958 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
959 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
960 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
962 iconv_close NEW: iconv
963 iconv_open NEW: iconv
964 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
965 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
966 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
967 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
968 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
969 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
970 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
971 isastream NEW: STREAMS
972 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
973 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
974 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
975 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
976 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
977 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
978 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
979 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
980 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
981 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
983 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
984 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
985 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
986 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
987 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
995 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
996 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
998 makecontext NEW: Unix98
999 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1002 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1006 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1007 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1008 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1009 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1010 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1011 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1012 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1013 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1017 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1019 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1020 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1023 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1024 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1025 profil_counter REMOVED
1026 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1027 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1028 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1029 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1031 putchar_locked REMOVED
1032 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1034 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1035 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1039 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1040 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1041 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1042 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1044 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1045 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1047 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1048 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1049 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1051 sendfile NEW: kernel
1052 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1053 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1054 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1056 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1057 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1058 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1059 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1060 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1061 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1062 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1063 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1064 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1068 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1069 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1070 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1071 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1072 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1073 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1074 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1075 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1076 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1077 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1078 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1079 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1080 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1084 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1085 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1087 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1088 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1089 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1090 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1091 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1092 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1094 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1095 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1096 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1097 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1098 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1099 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1100 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1102 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1103 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1104 write_profiling REMOVED
1105 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1106 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1107 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1108 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1109 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1110 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1111 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1112 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1113 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1114 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1115 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1116 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1117 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1118 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1119 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1120 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1131 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1133 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1135 * rewrite of cbrt function
1137 * update of timezone data
1151 * add atoll function
1153 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1155 * fix math functions
1159 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1161 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1163 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1164 the ELF dynamic loader.
1166 * support for parallel builds is improved
1170 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1171 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1174 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1175 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1176 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1177 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1178 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1179 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1180 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1181 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1182 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1183 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1184 files in the ELF format.
1186 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1187 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1189 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1190 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1191 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1192 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1193 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1194 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1195 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1196 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1197 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1198 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1199 about dynamically linked binaries.
1201 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1202 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1203 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1204 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1205 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1207 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1208 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1209 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1210 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1211 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1213 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1215 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1216 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1217 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1218 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1219 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1220 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1221 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1222 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1223 NSS services available.
1225 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1226 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1227 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1229 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1230 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1231 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1233 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1234 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1235 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1236 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1238 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1239 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1240 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1242 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1243 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1244 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1246 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1247 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1249 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1250 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1251 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1252 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1254 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1255 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1256 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1258 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1259 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1260 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1261 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1262 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1263 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1264 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1265 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1267 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1268 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1269 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1270 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1271 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1272 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1273 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1275 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1276 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1277 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1278 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1279 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1280 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1282 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1283 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1285 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1286 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1287 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1289 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1291 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1292 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1293 their use is discouraged.
1295 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1296 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1298 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1299 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1301 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1302 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1304 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1307 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1308 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1309 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1310 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1311 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1313 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1314 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1315 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1316 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1318 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1319 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1321 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1322 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1323 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1324 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1327 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1328 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1330 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1331 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1333 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1334 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1335 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1336 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1338 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1340 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1341 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1342 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1344 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1345 for arithmetic and string handling.
1347 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1348 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1349 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1350 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1352 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1353 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1354 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1355 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1356 programs already written to use it.)
1358 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1361 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1364 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1365 a given effective group ID.
1367 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1368 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1369 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1370 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1372 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1373 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1374 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1375 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1376 doing the same thing.
1378 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1379 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1381 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1382 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1384 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1386 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1387 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1388 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1389 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1390 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1392 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1393 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1395 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1396 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1397 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1400 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1402 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1403 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1406 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1407 and writing the utmp file.
1409 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1412 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1413 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1414 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1416 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1417 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1419 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1420 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1423 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1424 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1425 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1426 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1428 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1429 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1430 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1432 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1433 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1434 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1437 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1440 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1443 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1445 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1446 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1447 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1451 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1453 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1454 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1456 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1457 want to put themselves in the background.
1459 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1460 run without an operating system.
1462 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1463 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1465 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1466 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1468 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1470 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1471 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1474 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1477 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1478 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1482 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1483 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1484 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1486 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1487 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1489 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1490 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1492 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1494 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1496 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1499 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1500 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1501 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1503 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1505 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1506 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1507 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1509 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1510 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1511 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1512 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1513 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1516 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1517 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1518 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1519 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1520 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1523 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1524 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1528 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1529 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1531 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1532 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1533 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1535 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1536 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1537 address of the last character written.
1539 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1540 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1542 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1543 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1545 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1546 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1547 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1548 you dereference this pointer.
1550 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1551 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1553 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1554 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1555 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1556 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1558 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1559 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1560 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1561 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1565 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1566 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1567 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1568 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1569 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1571 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1573 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1575 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1576 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1578 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1579 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1581 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1582 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1584 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1585 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1586 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1587 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1588 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1590 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1591 to the error code in `errno'.
1593 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1594 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1595 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1598 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1599 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1600 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1602 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1603 uniquely-named temporary file.
1607 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1608 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1609 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1611 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1614 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1615 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1617 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1621 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1622 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1623 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1624 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1626 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1627 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1628 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1630 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1631 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1633 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1634 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1635 made itself into a shared library.
1637 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1638 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1640 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1641 with limited length.
1643 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1645 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1647 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1649 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1650 function for traversing a directory tree.
1652 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1653 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1654 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1655 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1657 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1658 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1660 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1662 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1663 things to your strings.
1665 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1667 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1668 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1669 supporting those systems.
1671 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1672 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1673 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1674 configuration files.
1676 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1677 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1679 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1680 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1683 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1684 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1685 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1686 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1687 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1688 required storage is not available.
1690 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1691 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1693 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1694 latest files released from Berkeley.
1696 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1697 Copyright information:
1699 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1700 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1702 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1703 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1704 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1705 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1707 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1708 of this document, or of portions of it,
1709 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1710 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1713 version-control: never