1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2002-11-5
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
6 <bugs@gnu.org>. Please send questions and suggestions to <bug-glibc@gnu.org>.
10 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
11 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
12 and are now also available on the Hurd.
14 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
16 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
17 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
19 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
23 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
26 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
27 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
29 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
30 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
32 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
33 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
35 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
36 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
37 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
39 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
40 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
42 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
43 implementation of regex.
45 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
48 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
49 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
51 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
52 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
53 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
55 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
56 EUC-JISX0213, and TISCII.
58 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
59 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
60 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
62 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
63 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
65 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
66 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
69 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
73 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
74 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
76 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
77 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
81 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
82 128-bit long double format.
84 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
85 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
87 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
89 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
91 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
94 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
95 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
97 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
101 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
102 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
104 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
107 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
108 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
110 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
112 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
113 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
114 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
116 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
117 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
119 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
120 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
122 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
126 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
127 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
128 in float, double, and long double format.
130 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
131 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
132 128-bit long double format.
134 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
135 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
136 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
137 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
139 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
140 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
141 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
143 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
144 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
146 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
147 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
149 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
150 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
151 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
153 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
154 family of functions for Linux/S390.
156 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
157 of functions for Linux/x86.
159 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
163 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
164 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
165 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
166 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
167 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
168 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
171 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
172 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
174 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
175 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
176 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
177 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
179 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
184 only lists the names of the supported locales
188 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
189 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
193 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
194 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
195 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
196 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
197 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
201 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
203 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
205 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
206 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
207 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
209 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
210 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
212 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
213 changed from the default "C" locale.
215 * The usual bug fixes.
219 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
220 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
223 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
225 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
227 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
228 obviously requires a database library being available.
230 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
232 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
234 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
235 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
237 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
239 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
240 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
243 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
244 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
245 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
247 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
248 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
250 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
251 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
252 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
254 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
255 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
256 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
257 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
259 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
260 structures for the wide character tables.
262 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
264 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
266 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
268 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
271 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
273 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
275 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
277 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
279 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
281 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
282 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
283 implemented for Linux.
285 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
286 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
287 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
290 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
293 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
295 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
296 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
297 ******************************************
299 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
300 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
303 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
304 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
307 Recommended Tools for Compilation
308 =================================
310 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
311 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
313 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
314 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
315 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
317 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
318 the recommended solution):
320 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
321 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
322 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
324 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
325 =================================================
327 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
328 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
329 is currently untested. Hence the following options
330 are required for configuring the library:
332 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
334 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
335 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
336 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
337 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
339 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
344 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
348 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
353 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
355 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
369 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
371 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
373 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
375 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
377 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
379 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
381 * Update timezone data files.
383 * lots of charmaps corrections
385 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
390 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
391 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
392 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
393 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
394 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
395 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
397 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
398 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
400 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
403 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
404 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
406 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
408 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
411 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
413 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
414 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
416 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
419 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
420 functions from ISO C 9X.
422 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
423 real valued functions.
425 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
427 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
429 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
431 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
433 * Optimized string functions have been added.
435 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
437 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
439 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
440 daemon for NSS (nscd).
442 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
443 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
447 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
449 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
451 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
453 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
455 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
457 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
459 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
460 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
463 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
464 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
466 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
468 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
470 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
471 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
473 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
475 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
478 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
479 latest draft standards.
481 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
483 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
484 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
485 addseverity NEW: Unix98
487 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
488 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
489 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
490 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
491 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
492 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
493 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
494 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
495 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
496 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
497 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
498 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
499 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
500 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
501 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
502 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
506 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
507 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
517 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
518 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
523 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
524 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
526 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
539 clearerr_locked REMOVED
540 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
543 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
544 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
575 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
576 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
577 endutxent NEW: Unix98
589 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
590 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
591 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
592 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
593 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
595 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
596 ferror_locked REMOVED
597 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
598 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
599 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
600 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
601 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
602 fflush_locked REMOVED
606 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
607 fileno_locked REMOVED
620 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
621 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
632 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
633 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
637 getchar_locked REMOVED
639 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
640 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
642 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
643 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
645 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
647 getutxent NEW: Unix98
649 getutxline NEW: Unix98
651 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
652 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
653 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
654 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
655 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
657 iconv_close NEW: iconv
658 iconv_open NEW: iconv
659 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
660 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
661 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
662 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
663 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
664 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
665 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
666 isastream NEW: STREAMS
667 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
668 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
669 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
670 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
671 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
672 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
673 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
674 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
675 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
676 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
678 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
679 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
680 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
681 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
682 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
690 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
691 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
693 makecontext NEW: Unix98
694 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
697 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
701 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
702 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
703 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
704 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
705 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
706 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
707 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
708 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
712 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
718 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
719 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
720 profil_counter REMOVED
721 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
722 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
723 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
724 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
726 putchar_locked REMOVED
727 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
730 pututxline NEW: Unix98
736 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
737 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
742 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
743 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
744 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
747 setcontext NEW: Unix98
749 setutxent NEW: Unix98
751 sigignore NEW: Unix98
752 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
755 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
756 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
758 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
759 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
763 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
764 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
765 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
766 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
767 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
768 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
769 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
770 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
771 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
772 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
774 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
775 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
782 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
784 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
785 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
786 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
787 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
789 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
790 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
791 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
792 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
793 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
794 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
795 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
798 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
799 write_profiling REMOVED
800 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
801 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
802 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
803 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
804 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
805 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
806 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
807 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
808 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
809 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
810 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
811 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
812 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
813 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
814 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
815 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
826 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
828 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
830 * rewrite of cbrt function
832 * update of timezone data
848 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
854 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
856 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
858 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
859 the ELF dynamic loader.
861 * support for parallel builds is improved
865 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
866 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
869 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
870 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
871 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
872 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
873 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
874 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
875 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
876 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
877 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
878 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
879 files in the ELF format.
881 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
882 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
884 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
885 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
886 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
887 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
888 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
889 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
890 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
891 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
892 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
893 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
894 about dynamically linked binaries.
896 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
897 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
898 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
899 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
900 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
902 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
903 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
904 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
905 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
906 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
908 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
910 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
911 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
912 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
913 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
914 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
915 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
916 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
917 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
918 NSS services available.
920 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
921 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
922 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
924 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
925 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
926 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
928 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
929 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
930 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
931 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
933 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
934 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
935 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
937 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
938 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
939 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
941 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
942 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
944 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
945 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
946 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
947 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
949 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
950 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
951 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
953 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
954 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
955 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
956 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
957 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
958 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
959 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
960 the header file <printf.h> for details.
962 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
963 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
964 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
965 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
966 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
967 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
968 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
970 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
971 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
972 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
973 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
974 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
975 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
977 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
978 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
980 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
981 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
982 NSS scheme used in glibc.
984 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
986 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
987 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
988 their use is discouraged.
990 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
991 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
993 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
994 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
996 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
997 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
999 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1002 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1003 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1004 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1005 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1006 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1008 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1009 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1010 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1011 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1013 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1014 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1016 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1017 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1018 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1019 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1022 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1023 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1025 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1026 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1028 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1029 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1030 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1031 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1033 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1035 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1036 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1037 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1039 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1040 for arithmetic and string handling.
1042 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1043 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1044 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1045 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1047 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1048 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1049 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1050 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1051 programs already written to use it.)
1053 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1056 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1059 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1060 a given effective group ID.
1062 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1063 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1064 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1065 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1067 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1068 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1069 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1070 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1071 doing the same thing.
1073 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1074 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1076 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1077 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1079 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1081 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1082 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1083 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1084 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1085 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1087 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1088 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1090 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1091 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1092 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1095 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1097 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1098 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1101 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1102 and writing the utmp file.
1104 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1107 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1108 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1109 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1111 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1112 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1114 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1115 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1118 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1119 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1120 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1121 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1123 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1124 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1125 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1127 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1128 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1129 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1132 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1135 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1138 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1140 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1141 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1142 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1146 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1148 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1149 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1151 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1152 want to put themselves in the background.
1154 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1155 run without an operating system.
1157 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1158 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1160 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1161 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1163 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1165 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1166 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1169 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1172 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1173 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1177 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1178 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1179 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1181 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1182 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1184 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1185 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1187 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1189 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1191 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1194 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1195 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1196 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1198 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1200 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1201 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1202 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1204 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1205 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1206 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1207 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1208 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1211 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1212 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1213 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1214 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1215 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1218 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1219 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1223 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1224 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1226 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1227 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1228 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1230 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1231 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1232 address of the last character written.
1234 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1235 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1237 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1238 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1240 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1241 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1242 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1243 you dereference this pointer.
1245 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1246 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1248 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1249 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1250 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1251 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1253 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1254 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1255 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1256 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1260 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1261 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1262 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1263 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1264 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1266 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1268 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1270 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1271 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1273 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1274 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1276 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1277 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1279 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1280 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1281 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1282 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1283 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1285 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1286 to the error code in `errno'.
1288 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1289 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1290 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1293 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1294 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1295 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1297 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1298 uniquely-named temporary file.
1302 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1303 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1304 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1306 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1309 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1310 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1312 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1316 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1317 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1318 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1319 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1321 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1322 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1323 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1325 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1326 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1328 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1329 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1330 made itself into a shared library.
1332 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1333 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1335 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1336 with limited length.
1338 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1340 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1342 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1344 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1345 function for traversing a directory tree.
1347 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1348 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1349 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1350 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1352 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1353 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1355 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1357 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1358 things to your strings.
1360 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1362 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1363 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1364 supporting those systems.
1366 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1367 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1368 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1369 configuration files.
1371 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1372 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1374 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1375 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1378 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1379 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1380 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1381 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1382 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1383 required storage is not available.
1385 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1386 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1388 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1389 latest files released from Berkeley.
1391 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1392 Copyright information:
1394 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,01,02 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1396 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1397 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1398 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1399 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1401 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1402 of this document, or of portions of it,
1403 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1404 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1407 version-control: never