1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2008-12-2
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2007, 2008 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 interface: accept4
15 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
16 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
18 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
19 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
21 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
22 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
24 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
25 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
26 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
28 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
29 Implemented by Eric Blake.
31 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
33 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
34 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
36 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
37 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
38 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
39 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
41 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
42 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
44 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
46 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
48 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
52 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
54 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
56 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
57 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
59 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
61 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
62 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
64 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
65 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
67 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
68 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
69 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
71 * Faster memset for x86-64.
72 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
74 * Faster memcpy on x86.
75 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
77 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
78 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
80 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
81 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
85 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
86 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
88 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
90 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
91 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
92 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
94 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
95 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
97 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
98 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
100 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
102 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
103 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
105 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
106 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
108 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
109 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
111 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
113 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
114 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
116 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
117 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
120 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
121 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
125 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
127 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
129 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
134 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
135 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
136 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
138 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
139 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
141 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
143 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
145 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
146 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
147 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
148 site might have problems with the default behavior.
149 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
151 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
152 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
153 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
154 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
156 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
159 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
161 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
164 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
166 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
167 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
171 * More overflow detection functions.
173 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
174 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
176 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
177 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
178 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
179 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
180 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
181 by Masahide Washizawa.
183 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
184 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
186 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
187 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
188 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
189 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
191 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
192 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
194 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
196 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
197 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
198 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
200 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
201 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
203 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
204 for compatibility with some other systems.
206 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
210 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
212 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
213 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
214 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
215 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
216 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
217 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
219 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
221 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
223 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
227 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
229 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
230 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
231 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
232 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
234 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
238 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
239 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
241 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
242 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
243 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
245 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
246 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
248 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
250 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
252 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
253 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
256 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
257 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
258 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
260 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
261 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
263 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
264 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
265 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
266 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
268 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
269 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
270 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
271 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
273 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
274 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
275 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
276 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
277 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
281 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
282 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
284 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
285 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
287 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
288 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
290 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
291 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
293 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
296 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
299 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
304 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
305 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
306 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
307 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
308 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
309 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
310 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
311 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
312 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
314 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
315 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
316 and are now also available on the Hurd.
318 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
320 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
321 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
323 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
324 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
326 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
328 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
329 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
331 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
332 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
333 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
334 of weak definition in ld.so.
336 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
337 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
339 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
340 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
344 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
347 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
348 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
350 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
351 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
353 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
354 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
356 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
357 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
358 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
360 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
361 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
363 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
364 implementation of regex.
366 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
369 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
370 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
372 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
373 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
374 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
376 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
377 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
379 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
380 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
381 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
383 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
384 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
386 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
387 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
390 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
394 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
395 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
397 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
398 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
402 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
403 128-bit long double format.
405 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
406 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
408 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
410 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
412 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
415 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
416 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
418 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
422 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
423 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
425 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
428 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
429 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
431 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
433 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
434 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
435 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
437 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
438 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
440 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
441 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
443 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
447 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
448 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
449 in float, double, and long double format.
451 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
452 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
453 128-bit long double format.
455 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
456 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
457 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
458 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
460 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
461 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
462 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
464 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
465 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
467 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
468 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
470 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
471 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
472 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
474 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
475 family of functions for Linux/S390.
477 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
478 of functions for Linux/x86.
480 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
484 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
485 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
486 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
487 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
488 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
489 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
492 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
493 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
495 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
496 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
497 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
498 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
500 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
505 only lists the names of the supported locales
509 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
510 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
514 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
515 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
516 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
517 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
518 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
522 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
524 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
526 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
527 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
528 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
530 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
531 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
533 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
534 changed from the default "C" locale.
536 * The usual bug fixes.
540 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
541 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
544 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
546 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
548 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
549 obviously requires a database library being available.
551 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
553 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
555 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
556 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
558 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
560 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
561 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
564 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
565 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
566 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
568 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
569 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
571 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
572 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
573 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
575 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
576 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
577 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
578 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
580 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
581 structures for the wide character tables.
583 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
585 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
587 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
589 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
592 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
594 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
596 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
598 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
600 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
602 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
603 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
604 implemented for Linux.
606 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
607 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
608 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
611 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
614 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
616 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
617 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
618 ******************************************
620 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
621 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
624 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
625 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
628 Recommended Tools for Compilation
629 =================================
631 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
632 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
634 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
635 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
636 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
638 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
639 the recommended solution):
641 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
642 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
643 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
645 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
646 =================================================
648 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
649 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
650 is currently untested. Hence the following options
651 are required for configuring the library:
653 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
655 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
656 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
657 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
658 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
660 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
665 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
669 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
674 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
676 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
690 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
692 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
694 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
696 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
698 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
700 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
702 * Update timezone data files.
704 * lots of charmaps corrections
706 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
711 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
712 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
713 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
714 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
715 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
716 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
718 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
719 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
721 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
724 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
725 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
727 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
729 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
732 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
734 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
735 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
737 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
740 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
741 functions from ISO C 9X.
743 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
744 real valued functions.
746 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
748 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
750 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
752 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
754 * Optimized string functions have been added.
756 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
758 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
760 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
761 daemon for NSS (nscd).
763 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
764 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
768 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
770 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
772 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
774 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
776 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
778 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
780 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
781 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
784 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
785 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
787 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
789 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
791 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
792 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
794 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
796 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
799 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
800 latest draft standards.
802 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
804 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
805 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
806 addseverity NEW: Unix98
808 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
809 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
810 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
811 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
812 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
813 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
814 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
815 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
816 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
817 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
818 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
819 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
820 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
821 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
822 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
823 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
827 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
828 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
838 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
839 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
844 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
845 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
847 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
860 clearerr_locked REMOVED
861 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
864 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
865 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
896 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
897 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
898 endutxent NEW: Unix98
910 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
911 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
912 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
913 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
914 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
916 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
917 ferror_locked REMOVED
918 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
919 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
920 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
921 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
922 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
923 fflush_locked REMOVED
927 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
928 fileno_locked REMOVED
941 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
942 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
953 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
954 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
958 getchar_locked REMOVED
960 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
961 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
963 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
964 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
966 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
968 getutxent NEW: Unix98
970 getutxline NEW: Unix98
972 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
973 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
974 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
975 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
976 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
978 iconv_close NEW: iconv
979 iconv_open NEW: iconv
980 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
981 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
982 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
983 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
984 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
985 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
986 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
987 isastream NEW: STREAMS
988 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
989 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
990 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
991 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
992 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
993 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
994 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
995 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
996 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
997 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
999 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1000 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1001 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1002 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1003 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1008 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1009 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1010 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1011 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1012 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1014 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1015 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1018 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1022 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1023 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1024 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1025 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1026 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1027 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1028 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1029 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1033 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1035 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1036 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1039 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1040 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1041 profil_counter REMOVED
1042 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1043 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1044 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1045 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1047 putchar_locked REMOVED
1048 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1050 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1051 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1055 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1056 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1057 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1058 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1060 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1061 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1063 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1064 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1065 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1067 sendfile NEW: kernel
1068 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1069 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1070 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1072 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1073 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1074 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1075 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1076 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1077 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1078 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1079 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1080 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1084 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1085 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1086 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1087 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1088 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1089 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1090 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1091 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1092 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1093 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1094 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1095 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1096 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1100 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1101 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1103 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1104 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1105 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1106 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1107 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1108 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1110 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1111 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1112 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1113 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1114 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1115 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1116 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1118 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1119 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1120 write_profiling REMOVED
1121 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1122 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1123 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1124 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1125 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1126 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1127 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1128 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1129 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1130 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1131 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1132 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1133 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1134 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1135 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1147 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1149 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1151 * rewrite of cbrt function
1153 * update of timezone data
1167 * add atoll function
1169 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1171 * fix math functions
1175 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1177 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1179 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1180 the ELF dynamic loader.
1182 * support for parallel builds is improved
1186 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1187 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1190 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1191 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1192 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1193 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1194 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1195 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1196 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1197 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1198 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1199 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1200 files in the ELF format.
1202 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1203 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1205 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1206 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1207 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1208 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1209 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1210 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1211 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1212 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1213 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1214 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1215 about dynamically linked binaries.
1217 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1218 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1219 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1220 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1221 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1223 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1224 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1225 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1226 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1227 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1229 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1231 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1232 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1233 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1234 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1235 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1236 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1237 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1238 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1239 NSS services available.
1241 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1242 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1243 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1245 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1246 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1247 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1249 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1250 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1251 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1252 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1254 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1255 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1256 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1258 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1259 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1260 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1262 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1263 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1265 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1266 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1267 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1268 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1270 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1271 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1272 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1274 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1275 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1276 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1277 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1278 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1279 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1280 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1281 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1283 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1284 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1285 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1286 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1287 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1288 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1289 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1291 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1292 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1293 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1294 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1295 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1296 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1298 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1299 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1301 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1302 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1303 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1305 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1307 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1308 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1309 their use is discouraged.
1311 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1312 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1314 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1315 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1317 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1318 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1320 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1323 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1324 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1325 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1326 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1327 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1329 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1330 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1331 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1332 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1334 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1335 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1337 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1338 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1339 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1340 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1343 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1344 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1346 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1347 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1349 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1350 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1351 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1352 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1354 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1356 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1357 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1358 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1360 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1361 for arithmetic and string handling.
1363 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1364 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1365 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1366 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1368 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1369 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1370 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1371 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1372 programs already written to use it.)
1374 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1377 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1380 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1381 a given effective group ID.
1383 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1384 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1385 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1386 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1388 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1389 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1390 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1391 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1392 doing the same thing.
1394 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1395 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1397 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1398 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1400 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1402 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1403 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1404 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1405 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1406 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1408 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1409 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1411 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1412 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1413 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1416 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1418 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1419 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1422 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1423 and writing the utmp file.
1425 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1428 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1429 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1430 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1432 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1433 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1435 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1436 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1439 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1440 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1441 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1442 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1444 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1445 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1446 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1448 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1449 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1450 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1453 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1456 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1459 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1461 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1462 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1463 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1467 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1469 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1470 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1472 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1473 want to put themselves in the background.
1475 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1476 run without an operating system.
1478 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1479 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1481 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1482 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1484 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1486 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1487 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1490 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1493 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1494 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1498 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1499 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1500 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1502 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1503 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1505 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1506 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1508 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1510 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1512 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1515 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1516 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1517 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1519 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1521 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1522 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1523 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1525 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1526 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1527 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1528 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1529 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1532 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1533 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1534 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1535 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1536 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1539 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1540 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1544 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1545 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1547 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1548 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1549 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1551 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1552 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1553 address of the last character written.
1555 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1556 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1558 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1559 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1561 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1562 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1563 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1564 you dereference this pointer.
1566 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1567 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1569 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1570 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1571 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1572 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1574 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1575 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1576 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1577 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1581 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1582 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1583 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1584 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1585 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1587 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1589 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1591 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1592 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1594 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1595 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1597 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1598 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1600 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1601 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1602 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1603 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1604 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1606 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1607 to the error code in `errno'.
1609 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1610 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1611 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1614 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1615 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1616 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1618 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1619 uniquely-named temporary file.
1623 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1624 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1625 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1627 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1630 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1631 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1633 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1637 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1638 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1639 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1640 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1642 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1643 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1644 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1646 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1647 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1649 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1650 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1651 made itself into a shared library.
1653 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1654 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1656 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1657 with limited length.
1659 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1661 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1663 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1665 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1666 function for traversing a directory tree.
1668 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1669 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1670 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1671 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1673 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1674 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1676 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1678 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1679 things to your strings.
1681 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1683 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1684 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1685 supporting those systems.
1687 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1688 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1689 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1690 configuration files.
1692 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1693 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1695 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1696 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1699 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1700 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1701 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1702 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1703 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1704 required storage is not available.
1706 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1707 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1709 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1710 latest files released from Berkeley.
1712 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1713 Copyright information:
1715 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1716 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1718 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1719 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1720 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1721 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1723 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1724 of this document, or of portions of it,
1725 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1726 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1729 version-control: never