1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-8-8
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2008, 2009 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 * New interfaces: execvpe
11 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * checking version of longjmp added that fails if an uninitialized stack
14 frame would be created. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * STT_GNU_IFUNC is now supported in static executables.
17 Implemented by H.J. Lu.
19 * New optimized string functions for x86-64: strstr, strcasestr, memcmp,
20 strcspn, strpbrk, strspn, strcpy, stpcpy, strncpy, strcmp (SSE2, SSE4.2),
21 strncmp (SSE2, SSE4.2).
22 Contributed by H.J. Lu.
24 strlen, rawmemchr, strcmp (SSSE3), strncmp (SSSE3).
25 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * New optimized string functions for x86: strlen, strcspn, strspn, strpbrk,
29 Contributed by H.J. Lu.
31 * Support for fma instruction in AVX on x86-64.
32 Implemented by H.J. Lu and Ulrich Drepper.
34 * AVX support in x86-64 auditing support in ld.so.
35 Implemented by H.J. Lu.
37 * STB_GNU_UNIQUE support added.
38 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
40 * Implement second fallback mode for optimized DNS lookup for even more
41 broken environments. If two requests from the same port are not
42 handled correctly close the socket and open a new one before sending
43 the second request. The 'single-request-reopen' option in /etc/resolv.conf
44 can be used to select this mode right away, instead of rediscovering the
45 necessity is every process again.
46 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
48 * New resolver flag RES_USE_DNSSEC to enable use of verified lookup.
49 Implemented by Adam Tkac.
51 * Optimized iconv conversions for S390x.
52 Implemented by Andreas Krebbel.
54 * Using condvars with PI mutexes is now more efficient due to kernel
55 support for requeueing to PI futexes. NPTL support added for x86-64.
56 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
61 * New interfaces: preadv, preadv64, pwritev, pwritev64, malloc_info
62 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
64 * New Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
65 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
67 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
68 could lead to compile errors for invalid C++ code.
70 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
73 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
74 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
76 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
77 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
79 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
80 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
82 * The libcrypt library can now use the hash function implementations in
83 NSS. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
85 * The malloc implementation can be compiled to be less memory efficient
86 but higher performing in multi-threaded programs.
87 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
89 * New locales: nan_TW@latin, ks_IN
91 * Faster strlen, strchr, strchrnul, strrchr, memchr, and rawmemchr for x86-64.
92 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
94 * Extended printf hook support. It is possible to use user-defined types
95 and extend existing format specifiers.
96 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
98 * Handling for group shadow files has been added.
99 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
101 * DNS IPv4-IPv6 parallel lookup now deals better with broken DNS
102 servers (the case, e.g., for some people using the built-in DNS
103 server in ADSL modems/routers). There is a once-per-process timeout
104 in case of a broken server. To avoid it, users can run nscd or put
105 'options single-request' in /etc/resolv.conf.
106 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
111 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
112 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
114 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
115 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
117 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
118 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
120 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
121 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
122 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
124 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
125 Implemented by Eric Blake.
127 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
129 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
130 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
132 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
133 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
134 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
135 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
137 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
138 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
140 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
142 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
144 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
148 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
150 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
152 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
153 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
155 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
157 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
158 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
160 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
161 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
163 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
164 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
165 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
167 * Faster memset for x86-64.
168 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
170 * Faster memcpy on x86.
171 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
173 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
174 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
176 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
177 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
181 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
182 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
184 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
186 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
187 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
188 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
190 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
191 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
193 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
194 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
196 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
198 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
199 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
201 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
202 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
204 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
205 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
207 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
209 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
210 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
212 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
213 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
216 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
217 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
221 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
223 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
225 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
230 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
231 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
232 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
234 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
235 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
237 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
239 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
241 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
242 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
243 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
244 site might have problems with the default behavior.
245 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
247 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
248 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
249 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
250 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
252 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
255 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
257 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
260 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
262 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
263 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
267 * More overflow detection functions.
269 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
270 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
272 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
273 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
274 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
275 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
276 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
277 by Masahide Washizawa.
279 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
280 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
282 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
283 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
284 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
285 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
287 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
288 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
290 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
292 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
293 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
294 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
296 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
297 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
299 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
300 for compatibility with some other systems.
302 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
306 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
308 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
309 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
310 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
311 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
312 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
313 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
315 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
317 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
319 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
323 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
325 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
326 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
327 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
328 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
330 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
334 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
335 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
337 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
338 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
339 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
341 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
342 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
344 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
346 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
348 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
349 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
352 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
353 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
354 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
356 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
357 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
359 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
360 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
361 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
362 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
364 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
365 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
366 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
367 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
369 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
370 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
371 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
372 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
373 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
377 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
378 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
380 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
381 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
383 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
384 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
386 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
387 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
389 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
392 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
395 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
400 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
401 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
402 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
403 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
404 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
405 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
406 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
407 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
408 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
410 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
411 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
412 and are now also available on the Hurd.
414 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
416 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
417 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
419 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
420 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
422 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
424 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
425 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
427 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
428 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
429 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
430 of weak definition in ld.so.
432 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
433 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
435 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
436 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
440 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
443 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
444 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
446 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
447 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
449 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
450 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
452 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
453 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
454 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
456 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
457 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
459 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
460 implementation of regex.
462 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
465 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
466 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
468 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
469 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
470 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
472 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
473 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
475 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
476 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
477 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
479 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
480 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
482 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
483 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
486 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
490 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
491 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
493 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
494 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
498 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
499 128-bit long double format.
501 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
502 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
504 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
506 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
508 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
511 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
512 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
514 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
518 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
519 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
521 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
524 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
525 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
527 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
529 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
530 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
531 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
533 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
534 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
536 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
537 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
539 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
543 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
544 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
545 in float, double, and long double format.
547 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
548 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
549 128-bit long double format.
551 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
552 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
553 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
554 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
556 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
557 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
558 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
560 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
561 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
563 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
564 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
566 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
567 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
568 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
570 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
571 family of functions for Linux/S390.
573 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
574 of functions for Linux/x86.
576 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
580 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
581 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
582 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
583 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
584 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
585 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
588 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
589 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
591 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
592 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
593 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
594 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
596 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
601 only lists the names of the supported locales
605 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
606 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
610 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
611 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
612 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
613 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
614 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
618 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
620 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
622 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
623 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
624 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
626 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
627 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
629 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
630 changed from the default "C" locale.
632 * The usual bug fixes.
636 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
637 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
640 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
642 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
644 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
645 obviously requires a database library being available.
647 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
649 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
651 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
652 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
654 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
656 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
657 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
660 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
661 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
662 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
664 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
665 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
667 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
668 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
669 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
671 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
672 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
673 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
674 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
676 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
677 structures for the wide character tables.
679 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
681 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
683 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
685 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
688 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
690 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
692 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
694 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
696 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
698 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
699 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
700 implemented for Linux.
702 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
703 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
704 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
707 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
710 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
712 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
713 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
714 ******************************************
716 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
717 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
720 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
721 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
724 Recommended Tools for Compilation
725 =================================
727 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
728 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
730 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
731 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
732 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
734 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
735 the recommended solution):
737 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
738 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
739 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
741 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
742 =================================================
744 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
745 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
746 is currently untested. Hence the following options
747 are required for configuring the library:
749 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
751 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
752 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
753 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
754 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
756 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
761 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
765 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
770 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
772 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
786 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
788 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
790 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
792 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
794 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
796 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
798 * Update timezone data files.
800 * lots of charmaps corrections
802 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
807 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
808 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
809 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
810 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
811 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
812 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
814 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
815 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
817 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
820 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
821 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
823 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
825 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
828 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
830 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
831 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
833 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
836 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
837 functions from ISO C 9X.
839 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
840 real valued functions.
842 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
844 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
846 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
848 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
850 * Optimized string functions have been added.
852 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
854 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
856 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
857 daemon for NSS (nscd).
859 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
860 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
864 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
866 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
868 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
870 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
872 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
874 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
876 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
877 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
880 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
881 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
883 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
885 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
887 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
888 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
890 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
892 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
895 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
896 latest draft standards.
898 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
900 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
901 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
902 addseverity NEW: Unix98
904 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
905 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
906 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
907 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
908 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
909 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
910 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
911 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
912 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
913 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
914 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
915 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
916 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
917 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
918 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
919 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
923 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
924 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
934 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
935 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
940 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
941 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
943 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
956 clearerr_locked REMOVED
957 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
960 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
961 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
992 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
993 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
994 endutxent NEW: Unix98
1001 fattach NEW: STREAMS
1002 fdetach NEW: STREAMS
1006 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
1007 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
1008 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
1009 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
1010 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
1012 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
1013 ferror_locked REMOVED
1014 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
1015 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
1016 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
1017 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
1019 fflush_locked REMOVED
1023 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1024 fileno_locked REMOVED
1036 fputc_locked REMOVED
1037 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1038 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1043 fstatvfs NEW: Unix98
1047 ftruncate64 NEW: LFS
1049 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1050 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
1054 getchar_locked REMOVED
1056 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
1057 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
1059 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
1060 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
1061 getpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1062 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1063 getrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1064 getutxent NEW: Unix98
1065 getutxid NEW: Unix98
1066 getutxline NEW: Unix98
1067 glob64 NEW: GNU ext.
1068 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
1069 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
1070 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
1071 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1072 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1074 iconv_close NEW: iconv
1075 iconv_open NEW: iconv
1076 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
1077 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
1078 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1079 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1080 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1081 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1082 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1083 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1084 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1085 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1086 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1087 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1088 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1089 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1090 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1091 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1092 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1093 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1094 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1095 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1096 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1097 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1098 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1099 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1104 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1105 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1106 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1107 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1108 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1110 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1111 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1114 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1118 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1119 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1120 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1121 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1122 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1123 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1124 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1125 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1129 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1131 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1132 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1135 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1136 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1137 profil_counter REMOVED
1138 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1139 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1140 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1141 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1143 putchar_locked REMOVED
1144 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1146 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1147 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1151 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1152 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1153 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1154 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1156 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1157 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1159 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1160 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1161 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1163 sendfile NEW: kernel
1164 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1165 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1166 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1168 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1169 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1170 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1171 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1172 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1173 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1174 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1175 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1176 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1180 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1181 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1182 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1183 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1184 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1185 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1186 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1187 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1188 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1189 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1190 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1191 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1192 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1196 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1197 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1199 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1200 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1201 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1202 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1203 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1204 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1206 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1207 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1208 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1209 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1210 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1211 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1212 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1214 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1215 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1216 write_profiling REMOVED
1217 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1218 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1219 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1220 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1221 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1222 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1223 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1224 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1225 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1226 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1227 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1228 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1229 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1230 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1231 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1232 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1243 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1245 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1247 * rewrite of cbrt function
1249 * update of timezone data
1263 * add atoll function
1265 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1267 * fix math functions
1271 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1273 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1275 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1276 the ELF dynamic loader.
1278 * support for parallel builds is improved
1282 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1283 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1286 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1287 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1288 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1289 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1290 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1291 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1292 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1293 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1294 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1295 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1296 files in the ELF format.
1298 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1299 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1301 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1302 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1303 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1304 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1305 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1306 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1307 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1308 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1309 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1310 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1311 about dynamically linked binaries.
1313 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1314 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1315 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1316 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1317 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1319 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1320 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1321 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1322 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1323 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1325 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1327 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1328 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1329 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1330 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1331 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1332 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1333 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1334 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1335 NSS services available.
1337 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1338 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1339 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1341 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1342 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1343 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1345 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1346 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1347 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1348 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1350 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1351 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1352 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1354 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1355 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1356 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1358 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1359 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1361 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1362 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1363 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1364 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1366 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1367 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1368 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1370 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1371 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1372 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1373 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1374 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1375 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1376 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1377 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1379 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1380 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1381 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1382 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1383 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1384 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1385 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1387 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1388 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1389 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1390 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1391 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1392 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1394 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1395 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1397 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1398 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1399 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1401 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1403 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1404 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1405 their use is discouraged.
1407 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1408 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1410 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1411 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1413 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1414 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1416 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1419 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1420 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1421 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1422 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1423 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1425 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1426 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1427 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1428 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1430 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1431 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1433 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1434 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1435 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1436 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1439 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1440 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1442 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1443 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1445 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1446 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1447 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1448 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1450 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1452 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1453 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1454 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1456 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1457 for arithmetic and string handling.
1459 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1460 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1461 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1462 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1464 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1465 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1466 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1467 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1468 programs already written to use it.)
1470 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1473 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1476 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1477 a given effective group ID.
1479 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1480 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1481 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1482 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1484 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1485 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1486 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1487 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1488 doing the same thing.
1490 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1491 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1493 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1494 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1496 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1498 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1499 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1500 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1501 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1502 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1504 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1505 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1507 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1508 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1509 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1512 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1514 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1515 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1518 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1519 and writing the utmp file.
1521 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1524 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1525 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1526 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1528 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1529 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1531 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1532 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1535 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1536 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1537 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1538 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1540 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1541 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1542 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1544 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1545 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1546 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1549 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1552 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1555 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1557 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1558 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1559 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1563 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1565 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1566 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1568 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1569 want to put themselves in the background.
1571 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1572 run without an operating system.
1574 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1575 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1577 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1578 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1580 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1582 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1583 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1586 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1589 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1590 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1594 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1595 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1596 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1598 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1599 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1601 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1602 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1604 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1606 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1608 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1611 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1612 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1613 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1615 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1617 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1618 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1619 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1621 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1622 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1623 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1624 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1625 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1628 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1629 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1630 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1631 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1632 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1635 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1636 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1640 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1641 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1643 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1644 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1645 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1647 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1648 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1649 address of the last character written.
1651 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1652 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1654 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1655 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1657 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1658 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1659 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1660 you dereference this pointer.
1662 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1663 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1665 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1666 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1667 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1668 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1670 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1671 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1672 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1673 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1677 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1678 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1679 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1680 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1681 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1683 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1685 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1687 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1688 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1690 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1691 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1693 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1694 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1696 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1697 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1698 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1699 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1700 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1702 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1703 to the error code in `errno'.
1705 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1706 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1707 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1710 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1711 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1712 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1714 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1715 uniquely-named temporary file.
1719 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1720 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1721 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1723 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1726 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1727 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1729 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1733 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1734 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1735 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1736 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1738 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1739 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1740 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1742 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1743 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1745 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1746 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1747 made itself into a shared library.
1749 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1750 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1752 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1753 with limited length.
1755 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1757 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1759 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1761 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1762 function for traversing a directory tree.
1764 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1765 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1766 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1767 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1769 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1770 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1772 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1774 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1775 things to your strings.
1777 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1779 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1780 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1781 supporting those systems.
1783 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1784 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1785 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1786 configuration files.
1788 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1789 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1791 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1792 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1795 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1796 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1797 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1798 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1799 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1800 required storage is not available.
1802 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1803 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1805 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1806 latest files released from Berkeley.
1808 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1809 Copyright information:
1811 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1812 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1814 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1815 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1816 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1817 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1819 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1820 of this document, or of portions of it,
1821 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1822 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1825 version-control: never