1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2008-4-9
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 locales: bo_CN, bo_IN.
12 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
14 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
15 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
17 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
19 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
20 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
22 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
23 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
26 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
27 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
29 * Faster memset for x86-64.
30 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
32 * Faster memcpy on x86.
33 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
35 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
36 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
39 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
43 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
44 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
46 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
48 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
49 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
50 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
52 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
53 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
55 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
56 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
58 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
60 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
61 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
63 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
64 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
66 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
67 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
69 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
72 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
74 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
75 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
78 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
79 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
83 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
85 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
87 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
92 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
93 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
94 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
96 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
97 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
99 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
101 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
103 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
104 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
105 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
106 site might have problems with the default behavior.
107 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
109 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
110 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
111 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
112 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
114 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
117 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
119 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
122 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
124 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
125 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
129 * More overflow detection functions.
131 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
132 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
134 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
135 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
136 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
137 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
138 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
139 by Masahide Washizawa.
141 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
142 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
144 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
145 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
146 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
147 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
149 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
150 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
152 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
154 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
155 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
156 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
158 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
159 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
161 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
162 for compatibility with some other systems.
164 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
168 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
170 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
171 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
172 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
173 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
174 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
175 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
177 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
179 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
181 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
185 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
187 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
188 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
189 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
190 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
192 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
196 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
197 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
199 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
200 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
201 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
203 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
204 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
206 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
208 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
210 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
211 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
214 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
215 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
216 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
218 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
219 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
221 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
222 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
223 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
224 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
226 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
227 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
228 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
229 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
231 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
232 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
233 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
234 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
235 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
239 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
240 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
242 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
243 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
245 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
246 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
248 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
249 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
251 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
254 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
257 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
262 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
263 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
264 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
265 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
266 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
267 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
268 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
269 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
270 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
272 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
273 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
274 and are now also available on the Hurd.
276 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
278 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
279 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
281 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
282 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
284 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
286 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
287 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
289 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
290 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
291 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
292 of weak definition in ld.so.
294 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
295 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
297 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
298 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
302 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
305 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
306 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
308 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
309 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
311 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
312 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
314 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
315 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
316 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
318 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
319 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
321 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
322 implementation of regex.
324 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
327 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
328 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
330 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
331 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
332 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
334 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
335 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
337 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
338 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
339 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
341 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
342 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
344 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
345 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
348 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
352 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
353 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
355 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
356 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
360 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
361 128-bit long double format.
363 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
364 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
366 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
368 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
370 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
373 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
374 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
376 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
380 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
381 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
383 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
386 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
387 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
389 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
391 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
392 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
393 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
395 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
396 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
398 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
399 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
401 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
405 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
406 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
407 in float, double, and long double format.
409 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
410 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
411 128-bit long double format.
413 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
414 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
415 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
416 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
418 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
419 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
420 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
422 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
423 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
425 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
426 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
428 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
429 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
430 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
432 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
433 family of functions for Linux/S390.
435 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
436 of functions for Linux/x86.
438 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
442 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
443 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
444 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
445 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
446 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
447 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
450 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
451 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
453 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
454 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
455 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
456 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
458 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
463 only lists the names of the supported locales
467 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
468 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
472 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
473 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
474 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
475 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
476 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
480 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
482 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
484 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
485 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
486 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
488 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
489 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
491 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
492 changed from the default "C" locale.
494 * The usual bug fixes.
498 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
499 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
502 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
504 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
506 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
507 obviously requires a database library being available.
509 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
511 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
513 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
514 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
516 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
518 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
519 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
522 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
523 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
524 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
526 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
527 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
529 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
530 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
531 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
533 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
534 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
535 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
536 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
538 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
539 structures for the wide character tables.
541 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
543 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
545 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
547 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
550 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
552 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
554 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
556 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
558 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
560 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
561 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
562 implemented for Linux.
564 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
565 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
566 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
569 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
572 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
574 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
575 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
576 ******************************************
578 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
579 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
582 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
583 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
586 Recommended Tools for Compilation
587 =================================
589 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
590 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
592 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
593 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
594 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
596 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
597 the recommended solution):
599 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
600 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
601 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
603 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
604 =================================================
606 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
607 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
608 is currently untested. Hence the following options
609 are required for configuring the library:
611 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
613 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
614 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
615 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
616 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
618 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
623 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
627 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
632 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
634 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
648 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
650 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
652 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
654 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
656 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
658 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
660 * Update timezone data files.
662 * lots of charmaps corrections
664 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
669 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
670 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
671 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
672 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
673 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
674 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
676 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
677 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
679 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
682 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
683 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
685 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
687 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
690 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
692 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
693 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
695 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
698 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
699 functions from ISO C 9X.
701 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
702 real valued functions.
704 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
706 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
708 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
710 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
712 * Optimized string functions have been added.
714 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
716 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
718 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
719 daemon for NSS (nscd).
721 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
722 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
726 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
728 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
730 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
732 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
734 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
736 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
738 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
739 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
742 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
743 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
745 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
747 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
749 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
750 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
752 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
754 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
757 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
758 latest draft standards.
760 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
762 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
763 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
764 addseverity NEW: Unix98
766 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
767 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
768 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
769 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
770 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
771 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
772 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
773 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
774 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
775 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
776 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
777 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
778 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
779 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
780 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
781 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
785 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
786 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
796 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
797 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
802 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
803 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
805 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
818 clearerr_locked REMOVED
819 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
822 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
823 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
854 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
855 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
856 endutxent NEW: Unix98
868 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
869 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
870 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
871 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
872 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
874 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
875 ferror_locked REMOVED
876 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
877 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
878 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
879 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
880 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
881 fflush_locked REMOVED
885 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
886 fileno_locked REMOVED
899 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
900 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
911 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
912 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
916 getchar_locked REMOVED
918 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
919 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
921 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
922 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
924 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
926 getutxent NEW: Unix98
928 getutxline NEW: Unix98
930 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
931 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
932 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
933 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
934 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
936 iconv_close NEW: iconv
937 iconv_open NEW: iconv
938 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
939 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
940 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
941 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
942 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
943 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
944 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
945 isastream NEW: STREAMS
946 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
947 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
948 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
949 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
950 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
951 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
952 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
953 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
954 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
955 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
957 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
958 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
959 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
960 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
961 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
969 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
970 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
972 makecontext NEW: Unix98
973 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
976 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
980 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
981 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
982 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
983 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
984 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
985 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
986 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
987 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
991 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
997 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
998 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
999 profil_counter REMOVED
1000 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1001 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1002 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1003 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1005 putchar_locked REMOVED
1006 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1008 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1009 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1013 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1014 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1015 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1016 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1019 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1021 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1022 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1023 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1025 sendfile NEW: kernel
1026 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1027 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1028 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1030 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1031 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1032 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1033 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1034 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1035 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1036 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1037 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1038 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1042 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1043 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1044 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1045 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1046 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1047 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1048 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1049 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1050 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1051 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1052 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1053 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1054 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1058 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1059 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1061 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1062 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1063 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1064 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1065 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1066 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1068 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1069 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1070 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1071 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1072 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1073 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1074 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1076 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1077 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1078 write_profiling REMOVED
1079 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1080 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1081 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1082 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1083 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1084 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1085 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1086 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1087 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1088 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1089 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1090 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1091 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1092 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1093 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1094 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1105 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1107 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1109 * rewrite of cbrt function
1111 * update of timezone data
1125 * add atoll function
1127 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1129 * fix math functions
1133 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1135 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1137 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1138 the ELF dynamic loader.
1140 * support for parallel builds is improved
1144 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1145 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1148 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1149 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1150 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1151 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1152 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1153 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1154 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1155 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1156 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1157 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1158 files in the ELF format.
1160 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1161 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1163 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1164 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1165 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1166 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1167 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1168 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1169 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1170 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1171 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1172 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1173 about dynamically linked binaries.
1175 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1176 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1177 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1178 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1179 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1181 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1182 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1183 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1184 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1185 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1187 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1189 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1190 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1191 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1192 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1193 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1194 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1195 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1196 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1197 NSS services available.
1199 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1200 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1201 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1203 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1204 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1205 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1207 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1208 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1209 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1210 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1212 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1213 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1214 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1216 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1217 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1218 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1220 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1221 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1223 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1224 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1225 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1226 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1228 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1229 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1230 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1232 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1233 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1234 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1235 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1236 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1237 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1238 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1239 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1241 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1242 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1243 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1244 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1245 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1246 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1247 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1249 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1250 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1251 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1252 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1253 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1254 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1256 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1257 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1259 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1260 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1261 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1263 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1265 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1266 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1267 their use is discouraged.
1269 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1270 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1272 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1273 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1275 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1276 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1278 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1281 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1282 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1283 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1284 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1285 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1287 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1288 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1289 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1290 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1292 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1293 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1295 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1296 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1297 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1298 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1301 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1302 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1304 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1305 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1307 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1308 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1309 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1310 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1312 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1314 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1315 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1316 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1318 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1319 for arithmetic and string handling.
1321 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1322 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1323 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1324 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1326 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1327 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1328 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1329 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1330 programs already written to use it.)
1332 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1335 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1338 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1339 a given effective group ID.
1341 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1342 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1343 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1344 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1346 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1347 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1348 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1349 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1350 doing the same thing.
1352 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1353 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1355 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1356 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1358 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1360 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1361 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1362 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1363 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1364 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1366 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1367 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1369 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1370 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1371 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1374 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1376 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1377 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1380 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1381 and writing the utmp file.
1383 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1386 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1387 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1388 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1390 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1391 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1393 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1394 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1397 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1398 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1399 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1400 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1402 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1403 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1404 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1406 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1407 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1408 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1411 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1414 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1417 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1419 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1420 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1421 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1425 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1427 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1428 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1430 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1431 want to put themselves in the background.
1433 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1434 run without an operating system.
1436 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1437 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1439 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1440 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1442 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1444 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1445 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1448 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1451 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1452 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1456 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1457 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1458 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1460 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1461 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1463 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1464 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1466 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1468 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1470 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1473 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1474 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1475 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1477 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1479 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1480 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1481 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1483 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1484 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1485 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1486 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1487 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1490 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1491 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1492 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1493 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1494 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1497 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1498 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1502 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1503 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1505 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1506 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1507 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1509 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1510 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1511 address of the last character written.
1513 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1514 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1516 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1517 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1519 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1520 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1521 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1522 you dereference this pointer.
1524 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1525 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1527 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1528 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1529 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1530 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1532 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1533 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1534 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1535 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1539 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1540 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1541 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1542 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1543 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1545 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1547 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1549 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1550 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1552 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1553 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1555 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1556 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1558 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1559 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1560 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1561 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1562 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1564 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1565 to the error code in `errno'.
1567 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1568 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1569 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1572 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1573 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1574 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1576 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1577 uniquely-named temporary file.
1581 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1582 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1583 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1585 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1588 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1589 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1591 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1595 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1596 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1597 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1598 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1600 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1601 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1602 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1604 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1605 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1607 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1608 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1609 made itself into a shared library.
1611 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1612 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1614 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1615 with limited length.
1617 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1619 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1621 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1623 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1624 function for traversing a directory tree.
1626 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1627 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1628 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1629 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1631 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1632 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1634 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1636 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1637 things to your strings.
1639 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1641 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1642 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1643 supporting those systems.
1645 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1646 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1647 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1648 configuration files.
1650 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1651 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1653 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1654 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1657 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1658 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1659 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1660 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1661 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1662 required storage is not available.
1664 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1665 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1667 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1668 latest files released from Berkeley.
1670 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1671 Copyright information:
1673 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1674 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1676 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1677 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1678 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1679 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1681 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1682 of this document, or of portions of it,
1683 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1684 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1687 version-control: never