1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2007-12-12
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 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN.
12 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
16 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
17 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
19 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
21 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
22 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
23 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
25 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
26 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
28 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
29 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
31 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
33 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
34 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
36 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
37 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
39 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
40 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
42 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
44 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
45 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
47 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
48 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
51 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
52 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
56 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
58 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
60 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
65 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
66 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
67 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
70 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
72 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
74 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
76 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
77 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
78 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
79 site might have problems with the default behavior.
80 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
82 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
83 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
84 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
85 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
87 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
90 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
92 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
95 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
97 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
98 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
102 * More overflow detection functions.
104 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
105 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
107 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
108 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
109 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
110 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
111 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
112 by Masahide Washizawa.
114 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
115 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
117 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
118 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
119 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
120 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
122 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
123 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
125 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
127 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
128 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
129 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
131 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
132 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
134 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
135 for compatibility with some other systems.
137 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
141 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
143 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
144 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
145 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
146 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
147 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
148 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
150 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
152 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
154 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
158 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
160 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
161 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
162 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
163 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
165 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
169 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
170 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
172 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
173 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
174 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
176 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
177 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
179 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
181 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
183 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
184 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
187 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
188 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
189 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
191 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
192 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
194 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
195 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
196 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
197 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
199 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
200 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
201 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
202 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
204 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
205 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
206 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
207 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
208 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
212 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
213 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
215 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
216 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
218 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
219 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
221 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
222 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
224 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
227 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
230 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
235 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
236 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
237 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
238 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
239 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
240 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
241 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
242 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
243 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
245 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
246 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
247 and are now also available on the Hurd.
249 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
251 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
252 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
254 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
255 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
257 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
259 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
260 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
262 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
263 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
264 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
265 of weak definition in ld.so.
267 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
268 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
270 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
271 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
275 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
278 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
279 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
281 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
282 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
284 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
285 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
287 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
288 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
289 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
291 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
292 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
294 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
295 implementation of regex.
297 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
300 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
301 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
303 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
304 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
305 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
307 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
308 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
310 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
311 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
312 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
314 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
315 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
317 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
318 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
321 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
325 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
326 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
328 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
329 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
333 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
334 128-bit long double format.
336 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
337 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
339 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
341 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
343 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
346 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
347 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
349 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
353 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
354 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
356 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
359 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
360 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
362 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
364 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
365 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
366 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
368 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
369 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
371 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
372 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
374 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
378 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
379 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
380 in float, double, and long double format.
382 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
383 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
384 128-bit long double format.
386 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
387 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
388 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
389 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
391 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
392 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
393 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
395 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
396 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
398 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
399 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
401 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
402 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
403 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
405 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
406 family of functions for Linux/S390.
408 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
409 of functions for Linux/x86.
411 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
415 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
416 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
417 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
418 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
419 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
420 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
423 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
424 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
426 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
427 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
428 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
429 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
431 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
436 only lists the names of the supported locales
440 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
441 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
445 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
446 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
447 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
448 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
449 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
453 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
455 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
457 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
458 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
459 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
461 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
462 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
464 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
465 changed from the default "C" locale.
467 * The usual bug fixes.
471 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
472 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
475 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
477 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
479 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
480 obviously requires a database library being available.
482 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
484 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
486 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
487 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
489 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
491 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
492 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
495 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
496 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
497 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
499 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
500 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
502 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
503 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
504 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
506 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
507 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
508 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
509 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
511 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
512 structures for the wide character tables.
514 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
516 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
518 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
520 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
523 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
525 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
527 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
529 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
531 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
533 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
534 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
535 implemented for Linux.
537 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
538 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
539 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
542 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
545 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
547 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
548 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
549 ******************************************
551 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
552 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
555 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
556 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
559 Recommended Tools for Compilation
560 =================================
562 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
563 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
565 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
566 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
567 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
569 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
570 the recommended solution):
572 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
573 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
574 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
576 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
577 =================================================
579 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
580 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
581 is currently untested. Hence the following options
582 are required for configuring the library:
584 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
586 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
587 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
588 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
589 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
591 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
596 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
600 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
605 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
607 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
621 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
623 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
625 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
627 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
629 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
631 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
633 * Update timezone data files.
635 * lots of charmaps corrections
637 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
642 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
643 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
644 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
645 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
646 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
647 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
649 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
650 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
652 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
655 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
656 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
658 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
660 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
663 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
665 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
666 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
668 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
671 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
672 functions from ISO C 9X.
674 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
675 real valued functions.
677 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
679 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
681 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
683 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
685 * Optimized string functions have been added.
687 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
689 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
691 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
692 daemon for NSS (nscd).
694 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
695 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
699 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
701 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
703 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
705 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
707 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
709 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
711 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
712 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
715 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
716 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
718 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
720 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
722 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
723 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
725 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
727 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
730 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
731 latest draft standards.
733 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
735 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
736 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
737 addseverity NEW: Unix98
739 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
740 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
741 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
742 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
743 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
744 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
745 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
746 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
747 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
748 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
749 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
750 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
751 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
752 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
753 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
754 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
758 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
759 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
769 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
770 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
775 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
776 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
778 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
791 clearerr_locked REMOVED
792 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
795 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
796 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
827 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
828 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
829 endutxent NEW: Unix98
841 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
842 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
843 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
844 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
845 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
847 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
848 ferror_locked REMOVED
849 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
850 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
851 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
852 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
853 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
854 fflush_locked REMOVED
858 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
859 fileno_locked REMOVED
872 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
873 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
884 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
885 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
889 getchar_locked REMOVED
891 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
892 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
894 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
895 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
897 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
899 getutxent NEW: Unix98
901 getutxline NEW: Unix98
903 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
904 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
905 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
906 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
907 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
909 iconv_close NEW: iconv
910 iconv_open NEW: iconv
911 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
912 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
913 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
914 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
915 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
916 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
917 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
918 isastream NEW: STREAMS
919 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
920 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
921 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
922 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
923 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
924 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
925 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
926 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
927 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
928 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
930 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
931 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
932 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
933 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
934 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
942 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
943 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
945 makecontext NEW: Unix98
946 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
949 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
953 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
954 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
955 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
956 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
957 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
958 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
959 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
960 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
964 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
970 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
971 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
972 profil_counter REMOVED
973 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
974 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
975 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
976 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
978 putchar_locked REMOVED
979 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
982 pututxline NEW: Unix98
988 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
989 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
994 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
995 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
996 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
999 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1000 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1001 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1003 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1004 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1005 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1006 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1007 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1008 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1009 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1010 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1011 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1015 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1016 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1017 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1019 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1020 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1021 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1022 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1023 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1024 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1025 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1026 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1027 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1031 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1032 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1034 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1035 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1036 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1037 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1038 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1039 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1041 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1042 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1043 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1044 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1045 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1046 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1047 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1049 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1050 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1051 write_profiling REMOVED
1052 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1053 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1054 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1055 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1056 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1057 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1058 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1059 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1060 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1061 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1062 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1063 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1064 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1065 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1066 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1067 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1078 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1080 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1082 * rewrite of cbrt function
1084 * update of timezone data
1098 * add atoll function
1100 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1102 * fix math functions
1106 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1108 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1110 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1111 the ELF dynamic loader.
1113 * support for parallel builds is improved
1117 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1118 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1121 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1122 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1123 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1124 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1125 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1126 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1127 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1128 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1129 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1130 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1131 files in the ELF format.
1133 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1134 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1136 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1137 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1138 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1139 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1140 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1141 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1142 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1143 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1144 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1145 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1146 about dynamically linked binaries.
1148 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1149 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1150 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1151 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1152 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1154 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1155 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1156 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1157 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1158 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1160 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1162 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1163 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1164 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1165 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1166 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1167 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1168 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1169 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1170 NSS services available.
1172 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1173 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1174 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1176 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1177 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1178 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1180 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1181 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1182 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1183 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1185 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1186 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1187 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1189 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1190 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1191 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1193 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1194 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1196 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1197 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1198 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1199 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1201 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1202 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1203 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1205 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1206 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1207 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1208 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1209 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1210 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1211 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1212 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1214 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1215 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1216 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1217 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1218 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1219 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1220 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1222 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1223 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1224 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1225 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1226 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1227 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1229 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1230 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1232 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1233 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1234 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1236 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1238 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1239 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1240 their use is discouraged.
1242 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1243 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1245 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1246 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1248 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1249 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1251 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1254 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1255 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1256 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1257 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1258 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1260 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1261 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1262 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1263 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1265 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1266 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1268 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1269 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1270 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1271 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1274 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1275 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1277 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1278 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1280 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1281 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1282 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1283 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1285 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1287 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1288 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1289 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1291 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1292 for arithmetic and string handling.
1294 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1295 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1296 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1297 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1299 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1300 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1301 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1302 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1303 programs already written to use it.)
1305 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1308 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1311 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1312 a given effective group ID.
1314 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1315 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1316 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1317 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1319 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1320 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1321 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1322 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1323 doing the same thing.
1325 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1326 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1328 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1329 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1331 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1333 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1334 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1335 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1336 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1337 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1339 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1340 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1342 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1343 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1344 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1347 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1349 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1350 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1353 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1354 and writing the utmp file.
1356 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1359 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1360 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1361 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1363 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1364 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1366 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1367 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1370 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1371 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1372 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1373 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1375 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1376 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1377 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1379 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1380 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1381 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1384 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1387 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1390 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1392 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1393 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1394 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1398 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1400 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1401 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1403 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1404 want to put themselves in the background.
1406 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1407 run without an operating system.
1409 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1410 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1412 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1413 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1415 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1417 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1418 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1421 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1424 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1425 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1429 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1430 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1431 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1433 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1434 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1436 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1437 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1439 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1441 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1443 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1446 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1447 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1448 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1450 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1452 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1453 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1454 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1456 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1457 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1458 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1459 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1460 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1463 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1464 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1465 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1466 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1467 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1470 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1471 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1475 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1476 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1478 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1479 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1480 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1482 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1483 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1484 address of the last character written.
1486 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1487 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1489 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1490 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1492 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1493 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1494 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1495 you dereference this pointer.
1497 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1498 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1500 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1501 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1502 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1503 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1505 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1506 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1507 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1508 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1512 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1513 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1514 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1515 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1516 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1518 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1520 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1522 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1523 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1525 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1526 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1528 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1529 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1531 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1532 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1533 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1534 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1535 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1537 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1538 to the error code in `errno'.
1540 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1541 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1542 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1545 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1546 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1547 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1549 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1550 uniquely-named temporary file.
1554 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1555 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1556 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1558 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1561 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1562 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1564 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1568 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1569 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1570 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1571 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1573 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1574 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1575 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1577 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1578 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1580 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1581 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1582 made itself into a shared library.
1584 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1585 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1587 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1588 with limited length.
1590 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1592 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1594 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1596 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1597 function for traversing a directory tree.
1599 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1600 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1601 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1602 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1604 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1605 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1607 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1609 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1610 things to your strings.
1612 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1614 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1615 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1616 supporting those systems.
1618 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1619 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1620 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1621 configuration files.
1623 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1624 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1626 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1627 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1630 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1631 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1632 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1633 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1634 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1635 required storage is not available.
1637 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1638 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1640 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1641 latest files released from Berkeley.
1643 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1644 Copyright information:
1646 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1647 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1649 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1650 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1651 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1652 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1654 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1655 of this document, or of portions of it,
1656 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1657 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1660 version-control: never