1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2006-05-07
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2002,2003,2004,2005,2006 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 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
11 handles rules 3 and 7 from RFC 3484. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
14 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplace.
18 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
20 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
21 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
22 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
23 site might have problems with default behavior.
24 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
26 * Iterating over entire database in NIS and NIS+ can be slow. With the
27 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
28 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
29 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
34 * More overflow detection functions.
36 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
37 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
39 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
40 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
41 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
42 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
43 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
44 by Masahide Washizawa.
46 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
47 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
49 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
50 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
51 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
52 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
54 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
55 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
57 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
59 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
60 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
61 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
63 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
64 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
66 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
67 for compatibility with some other systems.
69 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
73 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
75 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
76 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
77 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
78 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
79 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
80 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
82 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
84 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
86 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
90 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
92 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
93 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
94 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
95 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
97 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
101 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
102 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
104 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
105 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
106 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
108 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
109 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
111 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
113 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
115 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
116 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
119 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
120 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
121 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
123 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
124 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
126 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
127 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
128 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
129 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
131 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
132 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
133 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
134 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
136 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
137 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
138 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
139 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
140 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
144 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
145 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
147 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
148 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
150 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
151 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
153 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
154 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
156 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
159 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
162 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
167 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
168 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
169 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
170 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
171 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
172 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
173 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
174 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
175 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
177 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
178 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
179 and are now also available on the Hurd.
181 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
183 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
184 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
186 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
187 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
189 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
191 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
192 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
194 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
195 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
196 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
197 of weak definition in ld.so.
199 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
200 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
202 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
203 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
207 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
210 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
211 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
213 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
214 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
216 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
217 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
219 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
220 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
221 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
223 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
224 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
226 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
227 implementation of regex.
229 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
232 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
233 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
235 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
236 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
237 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
239 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
240 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
242 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
243 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
244 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
246 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
247 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
249 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
250 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
253 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
257 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
258 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
260 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
261 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
265 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
266 128-bit long double format.
268 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
269 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
271 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
273 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
275 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
278 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
279 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
281 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
285 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
286 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
288 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
291 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
292 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
294 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
296 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
297 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
298 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
300 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
301 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
303 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
304 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
306 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
310 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
311 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
312 in float, double, and long double format.
314 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
315 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
316 128-bit long double format.
318 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
319 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
320 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
321 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
323 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
324 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
325 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
327 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
328 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
330 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
331 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
333 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
334 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
335 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
337 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
338 family of functions for Linux/S390.
340 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
341 of functions for Linux/x86.
343 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
347 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
348 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
349 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
350 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
351 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
352 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
355 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
356 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
358 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
359 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
360 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
361 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
363 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
368 only lists the names of the supported locales
372 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
373 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
377 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
378 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
379 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
380 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
381 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
385 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
387 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
389 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
390 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
391 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
393 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
394 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
396 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
397 changed from the default "C" locale.
399 * The usual bug fixes.
403 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
404 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
407 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
409 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
411 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
412 obviously requires a database library being available.
414 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
416 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
418 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
419 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
421 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
423 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
424 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
427 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
428 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
429 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
431 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
432 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
434 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
435 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
436 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
438 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
439 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
440 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
441 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
443 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
444 structures for the wide character tables.
446 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
448 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
450 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
452 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
455 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
457 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
459 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
461 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
463 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
465 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
466 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
467 implemented for Linux.
469 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
470 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
471 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
474 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
477 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
479 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
480 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
481 ******************************************
483 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
484 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
487 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
488 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
491 Recommended Tools for Compilation
492 =================================
494 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
495 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
497 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
498 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
499 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
501 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
502 the recommended solution):
504 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
505 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
506 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
508 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
509 =================================================
511 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
512 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
513 is currently untested. Hence the following options
514 are required for configuring the library:
516 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
518 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
519 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
520 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
521 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
523 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
528 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
532 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
537 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
539 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
553 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
555 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
557 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
559 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
561 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
563 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
565 * Update timezone data files.
567 * lots of charmaps corrections
569 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
574 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
575 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
576 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
577 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
578 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
579 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
581 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
582 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
584 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
587 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
588 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
590 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
592 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
595 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
597 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
598 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
600 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
603 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
604 functions from ISO C 9X.
606 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
607 real valued functions.
609 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
611 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
613 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
615 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
617 * Optimized string functions have been added.
619 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
621 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
623 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
624 daemon for NSS (nscd).
626 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
627 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
631 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
633 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
635 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
637 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
639 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
641 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
643 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
644 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
647 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
648 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
650 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
652 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
654 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
655 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
657 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
659 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
662 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
663 latest draft standards.
665 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
667 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
668 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
669 addseverity NEW: Unix98
671 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
672 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
673 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
674 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
675 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
676 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
677 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
678 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
679 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
680 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
681 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
682 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
683 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
684 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
685 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
686 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
690 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
691 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
701 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
702 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
707 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
708 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
710 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
723 clearerr_locked REMOVED
724 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
727 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
728 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
759 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
760 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
761 endutxent NEW: Unix98
773 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
774 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
775 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
776 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
777 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
779 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
780 ferror_locked REMOVED
781 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
782 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
783 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
784 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
785 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
786 fflush_locked REMOVED
790 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
791 fileno_locked REMOVED
804 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
805 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
816 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
817 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
821 getchar_locked REMOVED
823 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
824 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
826 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
827 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
829 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
831 getutxent NEW: Unix98
833 getutxline NEW: Unix98
835 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
836 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
837 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
838 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
839 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
841 iconv_close NEW: iconv
842 iconv_open NEW: iconv
843 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
844 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
845 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
846 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
847 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
848 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
849 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
850 isastream NEW: STREAMS
851 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
852 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
853 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
854 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
855 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
856 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
857 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
858 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
859 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
860 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
862 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
863 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
864 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
865 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
866 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
874 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
875 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
877 makecontext NEW: Unix98
878 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
881 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
885 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
886 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
887 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
888 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
889 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
890 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
891 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
892 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
896 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
902 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
903 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
904 profil_counter REMOVED
905 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
906 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
907 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
908 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
910 putchar_locked REMOVED
911 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
914 pututxline NEW: Unix98
920 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
921 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
926 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
927 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
928 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
931 setcontext NEW: Unix98
933 setutxent NEW: Unix98
935 sigignore NEW: Unix98
936 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
939 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
940 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
942 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
943 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
947 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
948 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
949 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
950 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
951 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
952 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
953 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
954 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
955 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
956 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
958 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
959 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
966 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
968 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
969 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
970 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
971 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
973 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
974 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
975 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
976 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
977 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
978 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
979 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
982 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
983 write_profiling REMOVED
984 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
985 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
986 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
987 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
988 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
989 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
990 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
991 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
992 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
993 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
994 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
995 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
996 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
997 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
998 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
999 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1010 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1012 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1014 * rewrite of cbrt function
1016 * update of timezone data
1030 * add atoll function
1032 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1034 * fix math functions
1038 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1040 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1042 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1043 the ELF dynamic loader.
1045 * support for parallel builds is improved
1049 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1050 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1053 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1054 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1055 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1056 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1057 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1058 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1059 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1060 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1061 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1062 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1063 files in the ELF format.
1065 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1066 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1068 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1069 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1070 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1071 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1072 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1073 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1074 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1075 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1076 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1077 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1078 about dynamically linked binaries.
1080 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1081 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1082 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1083 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1084 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1086 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1087 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1088 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1089 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1090 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1092 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1094 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1095 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1096 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1097 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1098 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1099 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1100 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1101 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1102 NSS services available.
1104 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1105 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1106 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1108 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1109 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1110 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1112 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1113 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1114 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1115 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1117 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1118 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1119 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1121 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1122 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1123 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1125 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1126 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1128 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1129 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1130 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1131 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1133 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1134 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1135 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1137 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1138 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1139 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1140 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1141 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1142 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1143 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1144 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1146 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1147 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1148 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1149 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1150 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1151 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1152 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1154 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1155 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1156 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1157 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1158 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1159 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1161 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1162 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1164 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1165 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1166 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1168 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1170 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1171 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1172 their use is discouraged.
1174 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1175 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1177 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1178 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1180 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1181 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1183 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1186 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1187 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1188 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1189 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1190 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1192 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1193 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1194 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1195 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1197 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1198 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1200 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1201 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1202 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1203 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1206 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1207 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1209 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1210 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1212 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1213 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1214 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1215 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1217 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1219 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1220 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1221 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1223 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1224 for arithmetic and string handling.
1226 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1227 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1228 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1229 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1231 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1232 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1233 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1234 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1235 programs already written to use it.)
1237 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1240 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1243 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1244 a given effective group ID.
1246 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1247 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1248 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1249 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1251 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1252 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1253 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1254 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1255 doing the same thing.
1257 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1258 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1260 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1261 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1263 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1265 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1266 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1267 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1268 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1269 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1271 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1272 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1274 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1275 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1276 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1279 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1281 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1282 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1285 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1286 and writing the utmp file.
1288 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1291 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1292 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1293 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1295 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1296 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1298 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1299 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1302 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1303 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1304 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1305 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1307 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1308 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1309 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1311 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1312 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1313 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1316 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1319 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1322 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1324 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1325 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1326 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1330 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1332 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1333 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1335 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1336 want to put themselves in the background.
1338 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1339 run without an operating system.
1341 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1342 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1344 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1345 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1347 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1349 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1350 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1353 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1356 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1357 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1361 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1362 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1363 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1365 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1366 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1368 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1369 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1371 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1373 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1375 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1378 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1379 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1380 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1382 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1384 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1385 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1386 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1388 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1389 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1390 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1391 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1392 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1395 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1396 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1397 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1398 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1399 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1402 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1403 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1407 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1408 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1410 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1411 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1412 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1414 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1415 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1416 address of the last character written.
1418 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1419 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1421 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1422 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1424 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1425 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1426 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1427 you dereference this pointer.
1429 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1430 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1432 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1433 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1434 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1435 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1437 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1438 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1439 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1440 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1444 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1445 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1446 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1447 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1448 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1450 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1452 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1454 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1455 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1457 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1458 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1460 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1461 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1463 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1464 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1465 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1466 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1467 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1469 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1470 to the error code in `errno'.
1472 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1473 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1474 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1477 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1478 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1479 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1481 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1482 uniquely-named temporary file.
1486 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1487 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1488 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1490 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1493 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1494 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1496 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1500 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1501 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1502 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1503 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1505 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1506 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1507 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1509 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1510 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1512 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1513 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1514 made itself into a shared library.
1516 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1517 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1519 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1520 with limited length.
1522 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1524 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1526 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1528 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1529 function for traversing a directory tree.
1531 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1532 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1533 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1534 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1536 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1537 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1539 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1541 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1542 things to your strings.
1544 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1546 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1547 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1548 supporting those systems.
1550 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1551 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1552 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1553 configuration files.
1555 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1556 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1558 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1559 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1562 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1563 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1564 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1565 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1566 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1567 required storage is not available.
1569 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1570 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1572 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1573 latest files released from Berkeley.
1575 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1576 Copyright information:
1578 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1579 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1581 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1582 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1583 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1584 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1586 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1587 of this document, or of portions of it,
1588 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1589 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1592 version-control: never