1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-7-21
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * New interfaces: execvpe
11 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * checking version of longjmp added that fails if an uninitialized stack
14 frame would be created. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * STT_GNU_IFUNC is now supported in static executables.
17 Implemented by H.J. Lu.
19 * New optimized string functions for x86-64: strstr, strcasestr, memcmp,
20 strcspn, strpbrk, strspn, strcpy, stpcpy, strncpy, strcmp, strncmp.
21 Contributed by H.J. Lu.
24 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
26 * AVX support in x86-64 auditing support in ld.so.
27 Implemented by H.J. Lu.
29 * STB_GNU_UNIQUE support added.
30 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
32 * Implement second fallback mode for optimized DNS lookup for even more
33 broken environments. If two requests from the same port are not
34 handled correctly close the socket and open a new one before sending
35 the second request. The 'single-request-reopen' option in /etc/resolv.conf
36 can be used to select this mode right away, instead of rediscovering the
37 necessity is every process again.
38 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
43 * New interfaces: preadv, preadv64, pwritev, pwritev64, malloc_info
44 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
46 * New Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
47 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
49 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
50 could lead to compile errors for invalid C++ code.
52 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
55 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
56 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
58 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
59 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
61 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
62 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
64 * The libcrypt library can now use the hash function implementations in
65 NSS. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
67 * The malloc implementation can be compiled to be less memory efficient
68 but higher performing in multi-threaded programs.
69 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * New locales: nan_TW@latin, ks_IN
73 * Faster strlen, strchr, strchrnul, strrchr, memchr, and rawmemchr for x86-64.
74 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
76 * Extended printf hook support. It is possible to use user-defined types
77 and extend existing format specifiers.
78 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
80 * Handling for group shadow files has been added.
81 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
83 * DNS IPv4-IPv6 parallel lookup now deals better with broken DNS
84 servers (the case, e.g., for some people using the built-in DNS
85 server in ADSL modems/routers). There is a once-per-process timeout
86 in case of a broken server. To avoid it, users can run nscd or put
87 'options single-request' in /etc/resolv.conf.
88 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
93 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
94 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
96 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
97 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
99 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
100 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
102 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
103 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
104 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
106 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
107 Implemented by Eric Blake.
109 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
111 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
112 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
114 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
115 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
116 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
117 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
119 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
120 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
122 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
124 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
126 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
130 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
132 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
134 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
135 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
137 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
139 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
140 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
142 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
143 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
145 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
146 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
147 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
149 * Faster memset for x86-64.
150 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
152 * Faster memcpy on x86.
153 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
155 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
156 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
158 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
159 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
163 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
164 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
166 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
168 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
169 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
170 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
172 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
173 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
175 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
176 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
178 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
180 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
181 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
183 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
184 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
186 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
187 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
189 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
191 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
192 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
194 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
195 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
198 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
199 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
203 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
205 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
207 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
212 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
213 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
214 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
216 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
217 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
219 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
221 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
223 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
224 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
225 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
226 site might have problems with the default behavior.
227 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
229 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
230 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
231 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
232 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
234 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
237 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
239 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
242 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
244 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
245 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
249 * More overflow detection functions.
251 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
252 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
254 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
255 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
256 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
257 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
258 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
259 by Masahide Washizawa.
261 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
262 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
264 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
265 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
266 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
267 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
269 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
270 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
272 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
274 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
275 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
276 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
278 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
279 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
281 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
282 for compatibility with some other systems.
284 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
288 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
290 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
291 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
292 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
293 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
294 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
295 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
297 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
299 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
301 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
305 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
307 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
308 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
309 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
310 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
312 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
316 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
317 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
319 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
320 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
321 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
323 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
324 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
326 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
328 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
330 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
331 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
334 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
335 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
336 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
338 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
339 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
341 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
342 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
343 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
344 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
346 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
347 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
348 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
349 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
351 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
352 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
353 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
354 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
355 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
359 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
360 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
362 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
363 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
365 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
366 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
368 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
369 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
371 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
374 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
377 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
382 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
383 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
384 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
385 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
386 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
387 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
388 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
389 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
390 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
392 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
393 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
394 and are now also available on the Hurd.
396 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
398 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
399 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
401 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
402 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
404 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
406 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
407 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
409 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
410 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
411 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
412 of weak definition in ld.so.
414 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
415 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
417 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
418 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
422 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
425 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
426 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
428 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
429 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
431 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
432 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
434 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
435 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
436 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
438 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
439 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
441 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
442 implementation of regex.
444 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
447 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
448 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
450 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
451 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
452 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
454 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
455 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
457 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
458 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
459 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
461 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
462 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
464 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
465 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
468 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
472 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
473 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
475 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
476 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
480 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
481 128-bit long double format.
483 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
484 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
486 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
488 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
490 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
493 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
494 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
496 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
500 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
501 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
503 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
506 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
507 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
509 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
511 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
512 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
513 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
515 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
516 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
518 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
519 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
521 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
525 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
526 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
527 in float, double, and long double format.
529 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
530 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
531 128-bit long double format.
533 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
534 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
535 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
536 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
538 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
539 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
540 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
542 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
543 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
545 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
546 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
548 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
549 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
550 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
552 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
553 family of functions for Linux/S390.
555 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
556 of functions for Linux/x86.
558 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
562 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
563 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
564 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
565 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
566 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
567 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
570 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
571 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
573 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
574 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
575 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
576 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
578 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
583 only lists the names of the supported locales
587 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
588 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
592 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
593 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
594 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
595 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
596 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
600 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
602 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
604 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
605 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
606 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
608 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
609 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
611 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
612 changed from the default "C" locale.
614 * The usual bug fixes.
618 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
619 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
622 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
624 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
626 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
627 obviously requires a database library being available.
629 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
631 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
633 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
634 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
636 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
638 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
639 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
642 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
643 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
644 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
646 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
647 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
649 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
650 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
651 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
653 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
654 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
655 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
656 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
658 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
659 structures for the wide character tables.
661 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
663 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
665 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
667 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
670 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
672 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
674 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
676 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
678 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
680 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
681 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
682 implemented for Linux.
684 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
685 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
686 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
689 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
692 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
694 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
695 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
696 ******************************************
698 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
699 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
702 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
703 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
706 Recommended Tools for Compilation
707 =================================
709 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
710 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
712 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
713 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
714 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
716 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
717 the recommended solution):
719 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
720 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
721 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
723 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
724 =================================================
726 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
727 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
728 is currently untested. Hence the following options
729 are required for configuring the library:
731 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
733 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
734 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
735 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
736 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
738 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
743 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
747 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
752 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
754 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
768 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
770 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
772 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
774 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
776 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
778 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
780 * Update timezone data files.
782 * lots of charmaps corrections
784 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
789 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
790 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
791 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
792 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
793 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
794 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
796 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
797 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
799 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
802 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
803 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
805 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
807 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
810 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
812 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
813 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
815 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
818 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
819 functions from ISO C 9X.
821 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
822 real valued functions.
824 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
826 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
828 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
830 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
832 * Optimized string functions have been added.
834 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
836 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
838 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
839 daemon for NSS (nscd).
841 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
842 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
846 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
848 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
850 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
852 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
854 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
856 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
858 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
859 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
862 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
863 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
865 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
867 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
869 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
870 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
872 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
874 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
877 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
878 latest draft standards.
880 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
882 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
883 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
884 addseverity NEW: Unix98
886 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
887 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
888 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
889 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
890 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
891 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
892 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
893 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
894 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
895 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
896 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
897 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
898 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
899 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
900 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
901 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
905 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
906 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
916 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
917 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
922 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
923 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
925 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
938 clearerr_locked REMOVED
939 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
942 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
943 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
974 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
975 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
976 endutxent NEW: Unix98
988 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
989 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
990 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
991 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
992 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
994 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
995 ferror_locked REMOVED
996 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
997 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
998 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
999 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
1000 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
1001 fflush_locked REMOVED
1005 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1006 fileno_locked REMOVED
1018 fputc_locked REMOVED
1019 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1020 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1025 fstatvfs NEW: Unix98
1029 ftruncate64 NEW: LFS
1031 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1032 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
1036 getchar_locked REMOVED
1038 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
1039 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
1041 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
1042 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
1043 getpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1044 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1045 getrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1046 getutxent NEW: Unix98
1047 getutxid NEW: Unix98
1048 getutxline NEW: Unix98
1049 glob64 NEW: GNU ext.
1050 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
1051 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
1052 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
1053 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1054 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1056 iconv_close NEW: iconv
1057 iconv_open NEW: iconv
1058 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
1059 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
1060 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1061 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1062 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1063 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1064 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1065 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1066 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1067 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1068 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1069 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1070 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1071 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1072 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1073 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1074 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1075 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1076 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1077 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1078 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1079 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1080 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1081 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1086 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1087 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1088 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1089 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1090 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1092 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1093 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1096 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1100 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1101 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1102 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1103 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1104 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1105 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1106 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1107 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1111 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1113 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1114 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1117 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1118 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1119 profil_counter REMOVED
1120 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1121 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1122 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1123 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1125 putchar_locked REMOVED
1126 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1128 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1129 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1133 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1134 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1135 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1136 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1138 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1139 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1141 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1142 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1143 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1145 sendfile NEW: kernel
1146 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1147 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1148 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1150 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1151 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1152 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1153 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1154 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1155 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1156 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1157 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1158 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1162 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1163 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1164 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1165 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1166 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1167 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1168 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1169 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1170 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1171 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1172 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1173 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1174 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1178 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1179 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1181 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1182 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1183 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1184 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1185 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1186 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1188 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1189 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1190 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1191 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1192 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1193 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1194 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1196 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1197 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1198 write_profiling REMOVED
1199 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1200 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1201 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1202 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1203 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1204 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1205 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1206 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1207 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1208 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1209 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1210 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1211 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1212 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1213 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1214 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1225 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1227 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1229 * rewrite of cbrt function
1231 * update of timezone data
1245 * add atoll function
1247 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1249 * fix math functions
1253 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1255 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1257 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1258 the ELF dynamic loader.
1260 * support for parallel builds is improved
1264 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1265 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1268 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1269 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1270 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1271 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1272 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1273 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1274 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1275 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1276 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1277 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1278 files in the ELF format.
1280 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1281 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1283 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1284 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1285 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1286 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1287 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1288 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1289 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1290 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1291 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1292 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1293 about dynamically linked binaries.
1295 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1296 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1297 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1298 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1299 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1301 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1302 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1303 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1304 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1305 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1307 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1309 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1310 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1311 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1312 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1313 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1314 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1315 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1316 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1317 NSS services available.
1319 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1320 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1321 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1323 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1324 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1325 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1327 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1328 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1329 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1330 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1332 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1333 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1334 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1336 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1337 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1338 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1340 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1341 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1343 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1344 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1345 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1346 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1348 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1349 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1350 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1352 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1353 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1354 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1355 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1356 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1357 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1358 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1359 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1361 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1362 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1363 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1364 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1365 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1366 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1367 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1369 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1370 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1371 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1372 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1373 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1374 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1376 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1377 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1379 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1380 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1381 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1383 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1385 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1386 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1387 their use is discouraged.
1389 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1390 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1392 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1393 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1395 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1396 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1398 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1401 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1402 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1403 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1404 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1405 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1407 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1408 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1409 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1410 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1412 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1413 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1415 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1416 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1417 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1418 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1421 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1422 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1424 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1425 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1427 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1428 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1429 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1430 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1432 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1434 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1435 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1436 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1438 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1439 for arithmetic and string handling.
1441 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1442 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1443 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1444 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1446 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1447 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1448 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1449 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1450 programs already written to use it.)
1452 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1455 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1458 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1459 a given effective group ID.
1461 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1462 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1463 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1464 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1466 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1467 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1468 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1469 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1470 doing the same thing.
1472 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1473 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1475 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1476 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1478 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1480 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1481 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1482 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1483 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1484 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1486 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1487 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1489 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1490 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1491 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1494 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1496 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1497 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1500 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1501 and writing the utmp file.
1503 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1506 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1507 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1508 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1510 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1511 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1513 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1514 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1517 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1518 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1519 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1520 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1522 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1523 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1524 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1526 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1527 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1528 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1531 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1534 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1537 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1539 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1540 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1541 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1545 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1547 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1548 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1550 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1551 want to put themselves in the background.
1553 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1554 run without an operating system.
1556 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1557 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1559 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1560 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1562 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1564 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1565 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1568 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1571 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1572 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1576 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1577 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1578 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1580 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1581 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1583 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1584 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1586 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1588 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1590 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1593 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1594 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1595 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1597 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1599 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1600 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1601 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1603 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1604 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1605 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1606 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1607 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1610 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1611 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1612 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1613 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1614 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1617 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1618 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1622 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1623 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1625 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1626 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1627 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1629 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1630 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1631 address of the last character written.
1633 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1634 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1636 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1637 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1639 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1640 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1641 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1642 you dereference this pointer.
1644 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1645 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1647 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1648 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1649 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1650 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1652 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1653 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1654 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1655 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1659 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1660 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1661 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1662 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1663 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1665 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1667 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1669 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1670 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1672 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1673 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1675 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1676 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1678 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1679 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1680 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1681 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1682 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1684 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1685 to the error code in `errno'.
1687 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1688 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1689 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1692 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1693 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1694 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1696 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1697 uniquely-named temporary file.
1701 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1702 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1703 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1705 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1708 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1709 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1711 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1715 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1716 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1717 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1718 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1720 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1721 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1722 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1724 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1725 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1727 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1728 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1729 made itself into a shared library.
1731 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1732 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1734 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1735 with limited length.
1737 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1739 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1741 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1743 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1744 function for traversing a directory tree.
1746 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1747 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1748 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1749 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1751 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1752 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1754 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1756 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1757 things to your strings.
1759 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1761 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1762 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1763 supporting those systems.
1765 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1766 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1767 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1768 configuration files.
1770 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1771 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1773 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1774 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1777 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1778 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1779 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1780 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1781 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1782 required storage is not available.
1784 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1785 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1787 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1788 latest files released from Berkeley.
1790 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1791 Copyright information:
1793 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1794 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1796 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1797 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1798 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1799 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1801 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1802 of this document, or of portions of it,
1803 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1804 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1807 version-control: never