1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2007-10-5
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
11 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
13 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
15 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
16 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
17 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
19 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
20 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
22 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additonal
23 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
28 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
30 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
31 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
33 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
34 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
36 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
39 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
41 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
42 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
45 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
46 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
50 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
52 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
54 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
59 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
60 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
61 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
63 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
64 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
66 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
68 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
70 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
71 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
72 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
73 site might have problems with the default behavior.
74 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
76 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
77 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
78 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
79 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
81 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
84 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
86 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
89 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
91 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
92 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
96 * More overflow detection functions.
98 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
99 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
101 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
102 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
103 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
104 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
105 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
106 by Masahide Washizawa.
108 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
109 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
111 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
112 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
113 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
114 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
116 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
117 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
119 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
121 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
122 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
123 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
125 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
126 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
128 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
129 for compatibility with some other systems.
131 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
135 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
137 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
138 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
139 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
140 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
141 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
142 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
144 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
146 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
148 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
152 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
154 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
155 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
156 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
157 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
159 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
163 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
164 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
166 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
167 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
168 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
170 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
171 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
173 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
175 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
177 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
178 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
181 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
182 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
183 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
186 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
188 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
189 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
190 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
191 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
193 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
194 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
195 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
196 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
198 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
199 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
200 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
201 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
202 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
206 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
207 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
209 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
210 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
212 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
213 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
215 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
216 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
218 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
221 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
224 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
229 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
230 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
231 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
232 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
233 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
234 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
235 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
236 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
237 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
239 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
240 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
241 and are now also available on the Hurd.
243 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
245 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
246 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
248 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
249 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
251 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
253 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
254 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
256 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
257 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
258 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
259 of weak definition in ld.so.
261 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
262 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
264 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
265 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
269 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
272 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
273 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
275 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
276 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
278 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
279 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
281 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
282 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
283 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
285 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
286 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
288 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
289 implementation of regex.
291 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
294 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
295 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
297 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
298 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
299 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
301 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
302 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
304 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
305 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
306 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
308 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
309 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
311 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
312 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
315 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
319 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
320 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
322 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
323 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
327 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
328 128-bit long double format.
330 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
331 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
333 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
335 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
337 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
340 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
341 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
343 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
347 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
348 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
350 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
353 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
354 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
356 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
358 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
359 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
360 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
362 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
363 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
365 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
366 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
368 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
372 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
373 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
374 in float, double, and long double format.
376 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
377 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
378 128-bit long double format.
380 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
381 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
382 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
383 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
385 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
386 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
387 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
389 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
390 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
392 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
393 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
395 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
396 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
397 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
399 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
400 family of functions for Linux/S390.
402 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
403 of functions for Linux/x86.
405 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
409 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
410 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
411 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
412 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
413 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
414 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
417 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
418 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
420 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
421 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
422 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
423 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
425 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
430 only lists the names of the supported locales
434 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
435 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
439 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
440 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
441 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
442 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
443 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
447 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
449 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
451 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
452 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
453 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
455 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
456 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
458 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
459 changed from the default "C" locale.
461 * The usual bug fixes.
465 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
466 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
469 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
471 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
473 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
474 obviously requires a database library being available.
476 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
478 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
480 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
481 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
483 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
485 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
486 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
489 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
490 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
491 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
493 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
494 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
496 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
497 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
498 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
500 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
501 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
502 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
503 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
505 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
506 structures for the wide character tables.
508 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
510 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
512 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
514 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
517 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
519 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
521 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
523 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
525 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
527 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
528 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
529 implemented for Linux.
531 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
532 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
533 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
536 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
539 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
541 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
542 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
543 ******************************************
545 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
546 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
549 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
550 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
553 Recommended Tools for Compilation
554 =================================
556 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
557 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
559 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
560 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
561 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
563 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
564 the recommended solution):
566 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
567 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
568 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
570 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
571 =================================================
573 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
574 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
575 is currently untested. Hence the following options
576 are required for configuring the library:
578 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
580 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
581 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
582 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
583 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
585 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
590 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
594 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
599 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
601 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
615 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
617 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
619 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
621 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
623 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
625 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
627 * Update timezone data files.
629 * lots of charmaps corrections
631 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
636 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
637 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
638 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
639 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
640 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
641 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
643 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
644 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
646 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
649 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
650 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
652 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
654 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
657 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
659 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
660 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
662 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
665 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
666 functions from ISO C 9X.
668 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
669 real valued functions.
671 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
673 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
675 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
677 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
679 * Optimized string functions have been added.
681 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
683 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
685 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
686 daemon for NSS (nscd).
688 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
689 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
693 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
695 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
697 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
699 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
701 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
703 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
705 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
706 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
709 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
710 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
712 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
714 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
716 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
717 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
719 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
721 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
724 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
725 latest draft standards.
727 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
729 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
730 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
731 addseverity NEW: Unix98
733 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
734 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
735 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
736 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
737 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
738 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
739 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
740 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
741 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
742 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
743 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
744 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
745 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
746 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
747 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
748 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
752 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
753 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
763 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
764 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
769 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
770 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
772 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
785 clearerr_locked REMOVED
786 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
789 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
790 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
821 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
822 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
823 endutxent NEW: Unix98
835 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
836 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
837 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
838 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
839 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
841 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
842 ferror_locked REMOVED
843 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
844 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
845 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
846 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
847 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
848 fflush_locked REMOVED
852 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
853 fileno_locked REMOVED
866 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
867 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
878 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
879 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
883 getchar_locked REMOVED
885 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
886 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
888 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
889 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
891 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
893 getutxent NEW: Unix98
895 getutxline NEW: Unix98
897 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
898 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
899 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
900 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
901 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
903 iconv_close NEW: iconv
904 iconv_open NEW: iconv
905 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
906 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
907 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
908 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
909 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
910 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
911 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
912 isastream NEW: STREAMS
913 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
914 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
915 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
916 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
917 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
918 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
919 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
920 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
921 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
922 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
924 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
925 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
926 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
927 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
928 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
936 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
937 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
939 makecontext NEW: Unix98
940 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
943 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
947 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
948 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
949 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
950 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
951 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
952 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
953 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
954 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
958 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
964 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
965 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
966 profil_counter REMOVED
967 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
968 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
969 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
970 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
972 putchar_locked REMOVED
973 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
976 pututxline NEW: Unix98
982 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
983 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
988 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
989 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
990 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
993 setcontext NEW: Unix98
995 setutxent NEW: Unix98
997 sigignore NEW: Unix98
998 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1000 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1001 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1002 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1003 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1004 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1005 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1009 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1010 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1011 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1012 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1013 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1014 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1015 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1016 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1017 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1018 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1019 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1020 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1021 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1025 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1026 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1028 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1029 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1030 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1031 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1032 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1033 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1035 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1036 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1037 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1038 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1039 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1040 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1041 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1043 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1044 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1045 write_profiling REMOVED
1046 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1047 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1048 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1049 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1050 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1051 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1052 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1053 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1054 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1055 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1056 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1057 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1058 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1059 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1060 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1061 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1072 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1074 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1076 * rewrite of cbrt function
1078 * update of timezone data
1092 * add atoll function
1094 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1096 * fix math functions
1100 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1102 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1104 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1105 the ELF dynamic loader.
1107 * support for parallel builds is improved
1111 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1112 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1115 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1116 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1117 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1118 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1119 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1120 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1121 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1122 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1123 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1124 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1125 files in the ELF format.
1127 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1128 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1130 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1131 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1132 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1133 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1134 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1135 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1136 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1137 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1138 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1139 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1140 about dynamically linked binaries.
1142 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1143 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1144 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1145 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1146 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1148 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1149 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1150 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1151 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1152 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1154 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1156 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1157 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1158 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1159 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1160 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1161 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1162 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1163 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1164 NSS services available.
1166 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1167 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1168 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1170 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1171 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1172 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1174 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1175 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1176 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1177 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1179 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1180 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1181 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1183 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1184 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1185 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1187 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1188 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1190 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1191 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1192 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1193 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1195 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1196 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1197 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1199 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1200 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1201 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1202 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1203 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1204 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1205 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1206 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1208 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1209 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1210 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1211 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1212 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1213 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1214 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1216 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1217 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1218 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1219 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1220 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1221 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1223 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1224 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1226 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1227 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1228 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1230 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1232 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1233 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1234 their use is discouraged.
1236 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1237 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1239 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1240 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1242 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1243 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1245 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1248 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1249 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1250 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1251 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1252 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1254 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1255 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1256 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1257 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1259 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1260 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1262 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1263 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1264 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1265 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1268 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1269 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1271 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1272 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1274 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1275 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1276 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1277 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1279 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1281 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1282 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1283 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1285 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1286 for arithmetic and string handling.
1288 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1289 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1290 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1291 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1293 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1294 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1295 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1296 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1297 programs already written to use it.)
1299 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1302 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1305 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1306 a given effective group ID.
1308 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1309 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1310 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1311 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1313 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1314 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1315 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1316 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1317 doing the same thing.
1319 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1320 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1322 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1323 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1325 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1327 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1328 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1329 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1330 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1331 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1333 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1334 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1336 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1337 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1338 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1341 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1343 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1344 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1347 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1348 and writing the utmp file.
1350 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1353 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1354 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1355 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1357 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1358 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1360 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1361 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1364 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1365 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1366 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1367 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1369 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1370 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1371 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1373 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1374 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1375 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1378 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1381 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1384 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1386 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1387 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1388 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1392 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1394 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1395 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1397 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1398 want to put themselves in the background.
1400 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1401 run without an operating system.
1403 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1404 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1406 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1407 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1409 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1411 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1412 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1415 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1418 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1419 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1423 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1424 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1425 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1427 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1428 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1430 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1431 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1433 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1435 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1437 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1440 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1441 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1442 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1444 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1446 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1447 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1448 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1450 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1451 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1452 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1453 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1454 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1457 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1458 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1459 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1460 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1461 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1464 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1465 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1469 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1470 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1472 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1473 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1474 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1476 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1477 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1478 address of the last character written.
1480 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1481 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1483 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1484 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1486 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1487 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1488 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1489 you dereference this pointer.
1491 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1492 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1494 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1495 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1496 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1497 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1499 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1500 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1501 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1502 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1506 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1507 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1508 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1509 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1510 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1512 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1514 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1516 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1517 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1519 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1520 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1522 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1523 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1525 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1526 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1527 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1528 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1529 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1531 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1532 to the error code in `errno'.
1534 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1535 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1536 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1539 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1540 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1541 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1543 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1544 uniquely-named temporary file.
1548 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1549 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1550 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1552 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1555 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1556 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1558 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1562 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1563 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1564 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1565 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1567 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1568 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1569 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1571 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1572 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1574 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1575 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1576 made itself into a shared library.
1578 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1579 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1581 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1582 with limited length.
1584 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1586 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1588 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1590 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1591 function for traversing a directory tree.
1593 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1594 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1595 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1596 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1598 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1599 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1601 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1603 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1604 things to your strings.
1606 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1608 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1609 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1610 supporting those systems.
1612 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1613 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1614 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1615 configuration files.
1617 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1618 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1620 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1621 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1624 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1625 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1626 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1627 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1628 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1629 required storage is not available.
1631 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1632 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1634 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1635 latest files released from Berkeley.
1637 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1638 Copyright information:
1640 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1641 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1643 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1644 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1645 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1646 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1648 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1649 of this document, or of portions of it,
1650 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1651 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1654 version-control: never