1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 1999-02-07
3 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
14 * New xdr functions are added.
16 * Fixed a number of bugs and incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
20 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
21 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
22 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
23 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
24 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
25 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
27 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
28 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
30 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
33 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
34 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
36 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
38 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
41 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
43 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
44 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
46 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
49 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
50 functions from ISO C 9X.
52 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
53 real valued functions.
55 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
57 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
59 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
61 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
63 * Optimized string functions have been added.
65 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
67 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
70 daemon for NSS (nscd).
72 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
73 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
77 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
79 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
81 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
83 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
85 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
87 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
89 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
90 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
93 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
94 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
96 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
98 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
100 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
101 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
103 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
105 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
108 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
109 latest draft standards.
111 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
113 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
114 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
115 addseverity NEW: Unix98
117 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
118 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
119 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
120 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
121 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
122 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
123 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
124 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
125 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
126 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
127 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
128 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
129 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
130 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
131 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
132 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
136 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
137 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
147 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
148 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
153 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
154 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
156 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
169 clearerr_locked REMOVED
170 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
173 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
174 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
205 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
206 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
207 endutxent NEW: Unix98
219 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
220 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
221 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
222 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
223 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
225 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
226 ferror_locked REMOVED
227 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
228 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
229 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
230 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
231 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
232 fflush_locked REMOVED
236 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
237 fileno_locked REMOVED
250 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
251 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
262 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
263 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
267 getchar_locked REMOVED
269 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
270 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
272 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
273 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
275 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
277 getutxent NEW: Unix98
279 getutxline NEW: Unix98
281 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
282 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
283 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
284 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
285 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
287 iconv_close NEW: iconv
288 iconv_open NEW: iconv
289 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
290 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
291 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
292 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
293 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
294 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
295 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
296 isastream NEW: STREAMS
297 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
298 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
299 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
300 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
301 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
302 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
303 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
304 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
305 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
306 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
308 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
309 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
310 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
311 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
312 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
320 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
321 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
323 makecontext NEW: Unix98
324 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
327 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
331 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
332 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
333 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
334 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
335 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
336 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
337 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
338 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
342 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
348 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
349 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
350 profil_counter REMOVED
351 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
352 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
353 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
354 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
356 putchar_locked REMOVED
357 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
360 pututxline NEW: Unix98
366 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
367 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
372 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
373 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
374 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
377 setcontext NEW: Unix98
379 setutxent NEW: Unix98
381 sigignore NEW: Unix98
382 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
385 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
386 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
388 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
389 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
393 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
394 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
395 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
396 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
397 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
398 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
399 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
400 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
401 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
402 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
404 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
405 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
412 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
414 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
415 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
416 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
417 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
419 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
420 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
421 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
422 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
423 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
424 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
425 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
428 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
429 write_profiling REMOVED
430 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
431 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
432 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
433 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
434 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
435 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
436 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
437 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
438 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
439 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
440 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
441 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
442 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
443 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
444 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
445 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
456 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
458 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
460 * rewrite of cbrt function
462 * update of timezone data
478 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
484 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
486 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
488 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
489 the ELF dynamic loader.
491 * support for parallel builds is improved
495 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
496 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
499 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
500 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
501 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
502 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
503 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
504 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
505 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
506 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
507 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
508 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
509 files in the ELF format.
511 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
512 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
514 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
515 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
516 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
517 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
518 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
519 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
520 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
521 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
522 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
523 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
524 about dynamically linked binaries.
526 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
527 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
528 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
529 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
530 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
532 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
533 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
534 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
535 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
536 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
538 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
540 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
541 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
542 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
543 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
544 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
545 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
546 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
547 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
548 NSS services available.
550 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
551 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
552 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
554 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
555 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
556 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
558 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
559 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
560 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
561 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
563 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
564 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
565 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
567 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
568 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
569 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
571 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
572 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
574 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
575 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
576 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
577 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
579 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
580 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
581 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
583 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
584 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
585 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
586 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
587 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
588 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
589 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
590 the header file <printf.h> for details.
592 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
593 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
594 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
595 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
596 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
597 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
598 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
600 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
601 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
602 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
603 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
604 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
605 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
607 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
608 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
610 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
611 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
612 NSS scheme used in glibc.
614 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
616 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
617 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
618 their use is discouraged.
620 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
621 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
623 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
624 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
626 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
627 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
629 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
632 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
633 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
634 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
635 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
636 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
638 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
639 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
640 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
641 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
643 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
644 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
646 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
647 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
648 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
649 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
652 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
653 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
655 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
656 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
658 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
659 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
660 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
661 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
663 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
665 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
666 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
667 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
669 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
670 for arithmetic and string handling.
672 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
673 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
674 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
675 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
677 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
678 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
679 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
680 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
681 programs already written to use it.)
683 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
686 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
689 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
690 a given effective group ID.
692 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
693 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
694 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
695 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
697 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
698 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
699 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
700 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
701 doing the same thing.
703 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
704 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
706 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
707 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
709 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
711 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
712 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
713 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
714 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
715 `-ldb' to get these functions.
717 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
718 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
720 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
721 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
722 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
725 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
727 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
728 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
731 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
732 and writing the utmp file.
734 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
737 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
738 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
739 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
741 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
742 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
744 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
745 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
748 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
749 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
750 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
751 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
753 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
754 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
755 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
757 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
758 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
759 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
762 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
765 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
768 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
770 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
771 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
772 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
776 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
778 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
779 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
781 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
782 want to put themselves in the background.
784 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
785 run without an operating system.
787 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
788 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
790 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
791 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
793 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
795 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
796 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
799 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
802 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
803 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
807 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
808 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
809 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
811 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
812 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
814 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
815 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
817 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
819 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
821 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
824 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
825 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
826 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
828 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
830 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
831 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
832 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
834 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
835 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
836 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
837 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
838 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
841 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
842 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
843 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
844 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
845 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
848 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
849 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
853 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
854 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
856 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
857 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
858 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
860 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
861 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
862 address of the last character written.
864 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
865 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
867 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
868 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
870 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
871 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
872 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
873 you dereference this pointer.
875 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
876 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
878 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
879 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
880 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
881 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
883 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
884 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
885 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
886 EAGAIN in every system call function.
890 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
891 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
892 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
893 in Emacs or the `info' program.
894 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
896 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
898 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
900 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
901 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
903 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
904 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
906 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
907 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
909 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
910 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
911 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
912 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
913 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
915 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
916 to the error code in `errno'.
918 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
919 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
920 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
923 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
924 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
925 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
927 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
928 uniquely-named temporary file.
932 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
933 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
934 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
936 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
939 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
940 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
942 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
946 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
947 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
948 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
949 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
951 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
952 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
953 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
955 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
956 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
958 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
959 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
960 made itself into a shared library.
962 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
963 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
965 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
968 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
970 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
972 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
974 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
975 function for traversing a directory tree.
977 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
978 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
979 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
980 formatted output directly to an obstack.
982 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
983 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
985 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
987 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
988 things to your strings.
990 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
992 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
993 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
994 supporting those systems.
996 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
997 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
998 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1001 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1002 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1004 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1005 bcmp, bzero, and ffs.
1007 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1008 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1009 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1010 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1011 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1012 required storage is not available.
1014 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1015 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1016 Because of the United States export restriction on DES implementations,
1017 we are distributing this code separately from the rest of the C library.
1018 There is an extra distribution tar file just for crypt; it is called
1019 `glibc-VERSION-crypt.tar.Z', e.g. `glibc-1.04-crypt.tar.Z'. You can just
1020 unpack the crypt distribution along with the rest of the C library and
1021 build; you can also build the library without getting crypt. Users
1022 outside the USA can get the crypt distribution via anonymous FTP from
1023 ftp.uni-c.dk [129.142.6.74], or another archive site outside the U.S.
1025 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1026 latest files released from Berkeley.
1028 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1029 Copyright information:
1031 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1033 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1034 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1035 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1036 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1038 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1039 of this document, or of portions of it,
1040 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1041 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1044 version-control: never