1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2005-12-02
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2002,2003,2004,2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * More overflow detection functions.
12 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
13 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
15 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
16 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
17 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
18 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
19 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
20 by Masahide Washizawa.
22 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
23 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
26 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
27 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
28 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
30 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchownat, futimesat, renameat,
31 unlinkat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat.
35 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
37 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
38 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
39 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
40 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
41 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
42 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
44 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
46 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
48 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
52 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
54 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
55 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
56 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
57 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
59 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
63 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
64 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
66 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
67 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
68 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
70 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
71 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
73 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
75 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
77 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
78 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
81 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
82 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
83 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
85 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
86 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
88 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
89 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
90 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
91 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
93 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
94 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
95 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
96 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
98 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
99 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
100 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
101 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
102 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
106 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
107 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
109 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
110 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
112 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
113 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
115 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
116 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
118 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
121 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
124 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
129 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
130 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
131 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
132 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
133 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
134 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
135 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
136 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
137 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
139 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
140 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
141 and are now also available on the Hurd.
143 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
145 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
146 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
148 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
149 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
151 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
153 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
154 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
156 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
157 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
158 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
159 of weak definition in ld.so.
161 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
162 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
164 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
165 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
169 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
172 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
173 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
175 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
176 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
178 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
179 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
181 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
182 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
183 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
186 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
188 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
189 implementation of regex.
191 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
194 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
195 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
197 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
198 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
199 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
201 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
202 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
204 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
205 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
206 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
208 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
209 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
211 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
212 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
215 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
219 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
220 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
222 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
223 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
227 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
228 128-bit long double format.
230 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
231 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
233 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
235 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
237 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
240 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
241 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
243 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
247 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
248 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
250 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
253 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
254 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
256 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
258 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
259 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
260 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
262 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
263 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
265 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
266 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
268 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
272 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
273 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
274 in float, double, and long double format.
276 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
277 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
278 128-bit long double format.
280 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
281 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
282 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
283 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
285 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
286 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
287 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
289 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
290 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
292 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
293 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
295 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
296 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
297 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
299 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
300 family of functions for Linux/S390.
302 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
303 of functions for Linux/x86.
305 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
309 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
310 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
311 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
312 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
313 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
314 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
317 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
318 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
320 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
321 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
322 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
323 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
325 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
330 only lists the names of the supported locales
334 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
335 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
339 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
340 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
341 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
342 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
343 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
347 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
349 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
351 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
352 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
353 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
355 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
356 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
358 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
359 changed from the default "C" locale.
361 * The usual bug fixes.
365 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
366 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
369 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
371 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
373 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
374 obviously requires a database library being available.
376 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
378 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
380 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
381 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
383 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
385 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
386 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
389 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
390 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
391 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
393 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
394 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
396 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
397 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
398 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
400 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
401 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
402 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
403 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
405 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
406 structures for the wide character tables.
408 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
410 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
412 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
414 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
417 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
419 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
421 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
423 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
425 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
427 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
428 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
429 implemented for Linux.
431 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
432 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
433 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
436 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
439 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
441 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
442 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
443 ******************************************
445 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
446 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
449 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
450 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
453 Recommended Tools for Compilation
454 =================================
456 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
457 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
459 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
460 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
461 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
463 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
464 the recommended solution):
466 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
467 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
468 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
470 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
471 =================================================
473 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
474 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
475 is currently untested. Hence the following options
476 are required for configuring the library:
478 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
480 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
481 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
482 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
483 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
485 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
490 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
494 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
499 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
501 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
515 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
517 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
519 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
521 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
523 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
525 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
527 * Update timezone data files.
529 * lots of charmaps corrections
531 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
536 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
537 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
538 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
539 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
540 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
541 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
543 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
544 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
546 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
549 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
550 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
552 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
554 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
557 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
559 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
560 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
562 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
565 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
566 functions from ISO C 9X.
568 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
569 real valued functions.
571 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
573 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
575 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
577 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
579 * Optimized string functions have been added.
581 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
583 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
585 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
586 daemon for NSS (nscd).
588 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
589 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
593 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
595 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
597 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
599 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
601 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
603 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
605 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
606 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
609 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
610 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
612 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
614 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
616 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
617 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
619 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
621 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
624 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
625 latest draft standards.
627 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
629 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
630 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
631 addseverity NEW: Unix98
633 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
634 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
635 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
636 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
637 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
638 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
639 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
640 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
641 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
642 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
643 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
644 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
645 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
646 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
647 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
648 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
652 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
653 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
663 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
664 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
669 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
670 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
672 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
685 clearerr_locked REMOVED
686 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
689 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
690 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
721 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
722 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
723 endutxent NEW: Unix98
735 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
736 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
737 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
738 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
739 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
741 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
742 ferror_locked REMOVED
743 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
744 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
745 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
746 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
747 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
748 fflush_locked REMOVED
752 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
753 fileno_locked REMOVED
766 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
767 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
778 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
779 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
783 getchar_locked REMOVED
785 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
786 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
788 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
789 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
791 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
793 getutxent NEW: Unix98
795 getutxline NEW: Unix98
797 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
798 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
799 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
800 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
801 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
803 iconv_close NEW: iconv
804 iconv_open NEW: iconv
805 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
806 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
807 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
808 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
809 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
810 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
811 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
812 isastream NEW: STREAMS
813 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
814 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
815 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
816 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
817 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
818 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
819 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
820 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
821 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
822 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
824 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
825 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
826 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
827 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
828 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
836 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
837 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
839 makecontext NEW: Unix98
840 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
843 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
847 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
848 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
849 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
850 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
851 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
852 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
853 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
854 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
858 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
864 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
865 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
866 profil_counter REMOVED
867 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
868 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
869 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
870 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
872 putchar_locked REMOVED
873 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
876 pututxline NEW: Unix98
882 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
883 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
888 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
889 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
890 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
893 setcontext NEW: Unix98
895 setutxent NEW: Unix98
897 sigignore NEW: Unix98
898 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
901 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
902 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
904 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
905 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
909 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
910 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
911 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
912 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
913 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
914 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
915 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
916 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
917 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
918 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
920 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
921 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
928 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
930 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
931 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
932 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
933 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
935 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
936 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
937 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
938 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
939 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
940 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
941 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
944 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
945 write_profiling REMOVED
946 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
947 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
948 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
949 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
950 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
951 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
952 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
953 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
954 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
955 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
956 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
957 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
958 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
959 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
960 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
961 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
972 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
974 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
976 * rewrite of cbrt function
978 * update of timezone data
994 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1000 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1002 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1004 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1005 the ELF dynamic loader.
1007 * support for parallel builds is improved
1011 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1012 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1015 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1016 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1017 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1018 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1019 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1020 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1021 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1022 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1023 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1024 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1025 files in the ELF format.
1027 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1028 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1030 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1031 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1032 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1033 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1034 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1035 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1036 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1037 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1038 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1039 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1040 about dynamically linked binaries.
1042 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1043 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1044 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1045 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1046 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1048 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1049 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1050 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1051 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1052 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1054 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1056 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1057 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1058 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1059 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1060 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1061 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1062 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1063 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1064 NSS services available.
1066 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1067 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1068 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1070 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1071 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1072 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1074 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1075 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1076 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1077 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1079 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1080 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1081 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1083 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1084 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1085 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1087 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1088 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1090 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1091 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1092 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1093 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1095 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1096 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1097 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1099 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1100 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1101 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1102 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1103 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1104 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1105 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1106 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1108 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1109 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1110 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1111 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1112 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1113 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1114 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1116 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1117 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1118 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1119 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1120 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1121 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1123 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1124 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1126 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1127 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1128 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1130 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1132 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1133 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1134 their use is discouraged.
1136 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1137 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1139 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1140 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1142 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1143 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1145 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1148 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1149 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1150 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1151 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1152 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1154 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1155 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1156 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1157 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1159 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1160 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1162 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1163 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1164 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1165 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1168 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1169 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1171 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1172 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1174 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1175 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1176 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1177 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1179 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1181 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1182 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1183 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1185 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1186 for arithmetic and string handling.
1188 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1189 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1190 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1191 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1193 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1194 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1195 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1196 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1197 programs already written to use it.)
1199 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1202 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1205 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1206 a given effective group ID.
1208 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1209 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1210 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1211 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1213 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1214 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1215 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1216 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1217 doing the same thing.
1219 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1220 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1222 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1223 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1225 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1227 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1228 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1229 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1230 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1231 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1233 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1234 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1236 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1237 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1238 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1241 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1243 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1244 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1247 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1248 and writing the utmp file.
1250 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1253 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1254 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1255 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1257 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1258 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1260 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1261 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1264 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1265 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1266 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1267 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1269 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1270 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1271 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1273 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1274 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1275 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1278 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1281 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1284 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1286 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1287 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1288 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1292 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1294 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1295 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1297 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1298 want to put themselves in the background.
1300 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1301 run without an operating system.
1303 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1304 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1306 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1307 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1309 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1311 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1312 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1315 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1318 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1319 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1323 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1324 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1325 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1327 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1328 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1330 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1331 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1333 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1335 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1337 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1340 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1341 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1342 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1344 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1346 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1347 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1348 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1350 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1351 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1352 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1353 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1354 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1357 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1358 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1359 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1360 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1361 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1364 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1365 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1369 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1370 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1372 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1373 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1374 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1376 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1377 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1378 address of the last character written.
1380 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1381 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1383 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1384 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1386 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1387 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1388 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1389 you dereference this pointer.
1391 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1392 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1394 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1395 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1396 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1397 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1399 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1400 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1401 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1402 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1406 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1407 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1408 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1409 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1410 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1412 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1414 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1416 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1417 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1419 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1420 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1422 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1423 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1425 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1426 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1427 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1428 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1429 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1431 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1432 to the error code in `errno'.
1434 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1435 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1436 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1439 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1440 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1441 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1443 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1444 uniquely-named temporary file.
1448 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1449 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1450 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1452 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1455 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1456 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1458 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1462 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1463 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1464 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1465 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1467 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1468 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1469 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1471 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1472 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1474 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1475 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1476 made itself into a shared library.
1478 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1479 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1481 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1482 with limited length.
1484 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1486 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1488 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1490 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1491 function for traversing a directory tree.
1493 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1494 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1495 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1496 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1498 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1499 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1501 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1503 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1504 things to your strings.
1506 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1508 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1509 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1510 supporting those systems.
1512 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1513 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1514 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1515 configuration files.
1517 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1518 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1520 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1521 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1524 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1525 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1526 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1527 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1528 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1529 required storage is not available.
1531 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1532 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1534 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1535 latest files released from Berkeley.
1537 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1538 Copyright information:
1540 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005
1541 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1543 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1544 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1545 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1546 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1548 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1549 of this document, or of portions of it,
1550 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1551 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1554 version-control: never