1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2007-1-13
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait.
12 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
17 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
18 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
19 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
21 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
22 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
24 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
26 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
28 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
29 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
30 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
31 site might have problems with the default behavior.
32 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
34 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
35 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
36 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
37 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
39 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
42 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
44 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
47 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
49 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
50 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
54 * More overflow detection functions.
56 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
57 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
59 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
60 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
61 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
62 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
63 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
64 by Masahide Washizawa.
66 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
67 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
70 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
71 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
72 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
74 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
75 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
77 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
79 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
80 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
81 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
83 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
84 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
86 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
87 for compatibility with some other systems.
89 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
93 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
95 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
96 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
97 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
98 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
99 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
100 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
102 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
104 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
106 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
110 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
112 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
113 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
114 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
115 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
117 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
121 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
122 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
124 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
125 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
126 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
128 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
129 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
131 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
133 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
135 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
136 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
139 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
140 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
141 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
143 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
144 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
146 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
147 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
148 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
149 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
151 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
152 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
153 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
154 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
156 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
157 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
158 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
159 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
160 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
164 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
165 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
167 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
168 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
170 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
171 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
173 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
174 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
176 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
179 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
182 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
187 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
188 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
189 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
190 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
191 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
192 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
193 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
194 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
195 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
197 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
198 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
199 and are now also available on the Hurd.
201 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
203 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
204 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
206 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
207 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
209 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
211 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
212 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
214 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
215 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
216 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
217 of weak definition in ld.so.
219 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
220 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
222 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
223 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
227 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
230 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
231 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
233 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
234 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
236 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
237 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
239 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
240 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
241 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
243 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
244 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
246 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
247 implementation of regex.
249 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
252 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
253 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
255 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
256 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
257 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
259 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
260 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
262 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
263 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
264 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
266 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
267 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
269 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
270 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
273 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
277 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
278 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
280 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
281 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
285 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
286 128-bit long double format.
288 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
289 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
291 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
293 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
295 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
298 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
299 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
301 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
305 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
306 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
308 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
311 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
312 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
314 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
316 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
317 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
318 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
320 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
321 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
323 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
324 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
326 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
330 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
331 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
332 in float, double, and long double format.
334 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
335 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
336 128-bit long double format.
338 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
339 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
340 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
341 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
343 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
344 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
345 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
347 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
348 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
350 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
351 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
353 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
354 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
355 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
357 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
358 family of functions for Linux/S390.
360 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
361 of functions for Linux/x86.
363 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
367 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
368 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
369 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
370 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
371 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
372 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
375 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
376 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
378 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
379 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
380 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
381 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
383 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
388 only lists the names of the supported locales
392 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
393 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
397 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
398 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
399 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
400 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
401 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
405 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
407 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
409 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
410 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
411 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
413 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
414 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
416 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
417 changed from the default "C" locale.
419 * The usual bug fixes.
423 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
424 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
427 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
429 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
431 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
432 obviously requires a database library being available.
434 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
436 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
438 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
439 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
441 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
443 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
444 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
447 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
448 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
449 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
451 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
452 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
454 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
455 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
456 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
458 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
459 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
460 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
461 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
463 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
464 structures for the wide character tables.
466 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
468 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
470 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
472 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
475 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
477 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
479 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
481 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
483 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
485 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
486 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
487 implemented for Linux.
489 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
490 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
491 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
494 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
497 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
499 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
500 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
501 ******************************************
503 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
504 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
507 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
508 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
511 Recommended Tools for Compilation
512 =================================
514 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
515 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
517 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
518 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
519 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
521 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
522 the recommended solution):
524 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
525 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
526 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
528 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
529 =================================================
531 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
532 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
533 is currently untested. Hence the following options
534 are required for configuring the library:
536 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
538 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
539 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
540 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
541 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
543 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
548 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
552 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
557 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
559 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
573 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
575 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
577 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
579 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
581 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
583 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
585 * Update timezone data files.
587 * lots of charmaps corrections
589 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
594 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
595 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
596 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
597 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
598 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
599 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
601 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
602 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
604 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
607 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
608 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
610 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
612 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
615 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
617 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
618 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
620 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
623 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
624 functions from ISO C 9X.
626 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
627 real valued functions.
629 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
631 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
633 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
635 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
637 * Optimized string functions have been added.
639 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
641 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
643 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
644 daemon for NSS (nscd).
646 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
647 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
651 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
653 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
655 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
657 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
659 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
661 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
663 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
664 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
667 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
668 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
670 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
672 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
674 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
675 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
677 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
679 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
682 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
683 latest draft standards.
685 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
687 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
688 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
689 addseverity NEW: Unix98
691 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
692 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
693 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
694 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
695 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
696 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
697 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
698 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
699 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
700 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
701 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
702 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
703 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
704 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
705 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
706 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
710 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
711 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
721 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
722 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
727 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
728 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
730 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
743 clearerr_locked REMOVED
744 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
747 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
748 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
779 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
780 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
781 endutxent NEW: Unix98
793 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
794 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
795 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
796 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
797 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
799 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
800 ferror_locked REMOVED
801 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
802 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
803 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
804 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
805 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
806 fflush_locked REMOVED
810 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
811 fileno_locked REMOVED
824 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
825 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
836 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
837 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
841 getchar_locked REMOVED
843 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
844 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
846 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
847 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
849 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
851 getutxent NEW: Unix98
853 getutxline NEW: Unix98
855 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
856 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
857 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
858 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
859 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
861 iconv_close NEW: iconv
862 iconv_open NEW: iconv
863 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
864 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
865 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
866 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
867 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
868 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
869 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
870 isastream NEW: STREAMS
871 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
872 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
873 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
874 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
875 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
876 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
877 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
878 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
879 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
880 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
882 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
883 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
884 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
885 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
886 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
894 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
895 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
897 makecontext NEW: Unix98
898 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
901 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
905 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
906 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
907 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
908 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
909 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
910 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
911 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
912 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
916 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
922 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
923 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
924 profil_counter REMOVED
925 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
926 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
927 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
928 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
930 putchar_locked REMOVED
931 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
934 pututxline NEW: Unix98
940 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
941 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
946 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
947 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
948 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
951 setcontext NEW: Unix98
953 setutxent NEW: Unix98
955 sigignore NEW: Unix98
956 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
959 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
960 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
962 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
963 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
967 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
968 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
969 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
970 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
971 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
972 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
973 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
974 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
975 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
976 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
978 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
979 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
986 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
988 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
989 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
990 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
991 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
993 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
994 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
995 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
996 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
997 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
998 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
999 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1001 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1002 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1003 write_profiling REMOVED
1004 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1005 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1006 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1007 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1008 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1009 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1010 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1011 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1012 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1013 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1014 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1015 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1016 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1017 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1018 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1019 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1030 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1032 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1034 * rewrite of cbrt function
1036 * update of timezone data
1050 * add atoll function
1052 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1054 * fix math functions
1058 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1060 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1062 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1063 the ELF dynamic loader.
1065 * support for parallel builds is improved
1069 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1070 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1073 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1074 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1075 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1076 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1077 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1078 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1079 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1080 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1081 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1082 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1083 files in the ELF format.
1085 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1086 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1088 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1089 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1090 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1091 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1092 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1093 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1094 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1095 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1096 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1097 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1098 about dynamically linked binaries.
1100 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1101 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1102 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1103 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1104 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1106 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1107 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1108 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1109 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1110 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1112 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1114 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1115 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1116 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1117 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1118 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1119 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1120 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1121 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1122 NSS services available.
1124 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1125 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1126 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1128 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1129 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1130 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1132 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1133 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1134 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1135 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1137 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1138 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1139 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1141 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1142 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1143 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1145 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1146 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1148 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1149 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1150 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1151 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1153 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1154 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1155 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1157 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1158 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1159 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1160 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1161 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1162 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1163 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1164 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1166 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1167 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1168 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1169 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1170 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1171 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1172 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1174 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1175 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1176 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1177 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1178 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1179 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1181 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1182 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1184 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1185 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1186 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1188 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1190 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1191 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1192 their use is discouraged.
1194 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1195 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1197 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1198 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1200 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1201 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1203 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1206 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1207 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1208 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1209 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1210 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1212 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1213 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1214 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1215 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1217 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1218 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1220 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1221 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1222 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1223 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1226 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1227 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1229 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1230 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1232 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1233 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1234 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1235 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1237 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1239 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1240 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1241 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1243 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1244 for arithmetic and string handling.
1246 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1247 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1248 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1249 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1251 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1252 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1253 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1254 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1255 programs already written to use it.)
1257 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1260 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1263 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1264 a given effective group ID.
1266 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1267 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1268 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1269 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1271 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1272 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1273 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1274 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1275 doing the same thing.
1277 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1278 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1280 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1281 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1283 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1285 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1286 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1287 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1288 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1289 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1291 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1292 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1294 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1295 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1296 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1299 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1301 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1302 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1305 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1306 and writing the utmp file.
1308 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1311 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1312 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1313 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1315 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1316 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1318 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1319 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1322 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1323 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1324 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1325 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1327 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1328 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1329 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1331 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1332 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1333 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1336 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1339 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1342 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1344 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1345 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1346 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1350 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1352 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1353 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1355 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1356 want to put themselves in the background.
1358 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1359 run without an operating system.
1361 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1362 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1364 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1365 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1367 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1369 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1370 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1373 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1376 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1377 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1381 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1382 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1383 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1385 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1386 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1388 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1389 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1391 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1393 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1395 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1398 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1399 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1400 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1402 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1404 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1405 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1406 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1408 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1409 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1410 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1411 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1412 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1415 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1416 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1417 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1418 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1419 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1422 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1423 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1427 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1428 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1430 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1431 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1432 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1434 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1435 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1436 address of the last character written.
1438 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1439 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1441 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1442 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1444 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1445 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1446 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1447 you dereference this pointer.
1449 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1450 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1452 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1453 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1454 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1455 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1457 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1458 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1459 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1460 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1464 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1465 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1466 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1467 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1468 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1470 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1472 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1474 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1475 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1477 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1478 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1480 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1481 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1483 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1484 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1485 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1486 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1487 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1489 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1490 to the error code in `errno'.
1492 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1493 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1494 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1497 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1498 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1499 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1501 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1502 uniquely-named temporary file.
1506 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1507 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1508 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1510 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1513 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1514 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1516 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1520 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1521 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1522 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1523 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1525 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1526 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1527 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1529 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1530 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1532 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1533 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1534 made itself into a shared library.
1536 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1537 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1539 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1540 with limited length.
1542 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1544 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1546 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1548 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1549 function for traversing a directory tree.
1551 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1552 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1553 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1554 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1556 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1557 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1559 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1561 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1562 things to your strings.
1564 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1566 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1567 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1568 supporting those systems.
1570 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1571 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1572 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1573 configuration files.
1575 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1576 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1578 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1579 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1582 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1583 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1584 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1585 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1586 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1587 required storage is not available.
1589 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1590 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1592 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1593 latest files released from Berkeley.
1595 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1596 Copyright information:
1598 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1599 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1601 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1602 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1603 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1604 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1606 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1607 of this document, or of portions of it,
1608 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1609 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1612 version-control: never