1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-6-18
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
6 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
11 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
12 asinh for the 128-bit long double format.
14 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
17 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
18 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
22 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
23 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
24 in float, double, and long double format.
26 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
27 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
28 128-bit long double format.
30 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
31 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
32 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
33 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
35 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
36 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
37 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
39 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
40 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
42 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
43 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
45 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
46 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
47 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
49 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
50 family of functions for Linux/S390.
52 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
53 of functions for Linux/x86.
55 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
59 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
60 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
61 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
62 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
63 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
64 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
67 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
68 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
70 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
71 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
72 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
73 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
75 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
80 only lists the names of the supported locales
84 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
85 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
89 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
90 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
91 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
92 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
93 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
97 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
99 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
101 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
102 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
103 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
105 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
106 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
108 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
109 changed from the default "C" locale.
111 * The usual bug fixes.
115 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
116 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
119 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
121 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
123 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
124 obviously requires a database library being available.
126 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
128 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
130 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
131 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
133 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
135 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
136 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
139 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
140 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
141 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
143 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
144 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
146 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
147 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
148 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
150 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
151 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
152 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
153 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
155 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
156 structures for the wide character tables.
158 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
160 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
162 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
164 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
167 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
169 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
171 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
173 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
175 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
177 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
178 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
179 implemented for Linux.
181 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
182 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
183 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
186 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
189 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
191 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
192 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
193 ******************************************
195 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
196 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
199 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
200 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
203 Recommended Tools for Compilation
204 =================================
206 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
207 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
209 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
210 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
211 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
213 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
214 the recommended solution):
216 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
217 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
218 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
220 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
221 =================================================
223 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
224 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
225 is currently untested. Hence the following options
226 are required for configuring the library:
228 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
230 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
231 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
232 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
233 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
235 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
240 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
244 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
249 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
251 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
265 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
267 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
269 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
271 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
273 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
275 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
277 * Update timezone data files.
279 * lots of charmaps corrections
281 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
286 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
287 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
288 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
289 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
290 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
291 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
293 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
294 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
296 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
299 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
300 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
302 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
304 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
307 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
309 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
310 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
312 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
315 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
316 functions from ISO C 9X.
318 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
319 real valued functions.
321 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
323 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
325 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
327 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
329 * Optimized string functions have been added.
331 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
333 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
335 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
336 daemon for NSS (nscd).
338 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
339 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
343 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
345 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
347 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
349 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
351 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
353 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
355 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
356 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
359 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
360 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
362 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
364 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
366 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
367 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
369 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
371 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
374 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
375 latest draft standards.
377 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
379 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
380 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
381 addseverity NEW: Unix98
383 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
384 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
385 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
386 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
387 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
388 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
389 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
390 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
391 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
392 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
393 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
394 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
395 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
396 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
397 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
398 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
402 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
403 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
413 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
414 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
419 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
420 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
422 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
435 clearerr_locked REMOVED
436 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
439 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
440 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
471 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
472 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
473 endutxent NEW: Unix98
485 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
486 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
487 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
488 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
489 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
491 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
492 ferror_locked REMOVED
493 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
494 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
495 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
496 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
497 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
498 fflush_locked REMOVED
502 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
503 fileno_locked REMOVED
516 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
517 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
528 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
529 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
533 getchar_locked REMOVED
535 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
536 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
538 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
539 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
541 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
543 getutxent NEW: Unix98
545 getutxline NEW: Unix98
547 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
548 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
549 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
550 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
551 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
553 iconv_close NEW: iconv
554 iconv_open NEW: iconv
555 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
556 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
557 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
558 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
559 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
560 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
561 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
562 isastream NEW: STREAMS
563 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
564 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
565 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
566 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
567 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
568 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
569 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
570 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
571 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
572 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
574 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
575 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
576 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
577 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
578 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
586 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
587 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
589 makecontext NEW: Unix98
590 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
593 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
597 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
598 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
599 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
600 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
601 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
602 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
603 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
604 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
608 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
614 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
615 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
616 profil_counter REMOVED
617 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
618 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
619 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
620 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
622 putchar_locked REMOVED
623 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
626 pututxline NEW: Unix98
632 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
633 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
638 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
639 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
640 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
643 setcontext NEW: Unix98
645 setutxent NEW: Unix98
647 sigignore NEW: Unix98
648 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
651 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
652 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
654 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
655 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
659 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
660 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
661 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
662 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
663 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
664 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
665 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
666 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
667 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
668 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
670 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
671 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
678 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
680 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
681 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
682 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
683 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
685 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
686 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
687 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
688 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
689 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
690 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
691 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
694 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
695 write_profiling REMOVED
696 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
697 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
698 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
699 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
700 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
701 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
702 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
703 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
704 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
705 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
706 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
707 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
708 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
709 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
710 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
711 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
722 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
724 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
726 * rewrite of cbrt function
728 * update of timezone data
744 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
750 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
752 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
754 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
755 the ELF dynamic loader.
757 * support for parallel builds is improved
761 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
762 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
765 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
766 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
767 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
768 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
769 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
770 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
771 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
772 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
773 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
774 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
775 files in the ELF format.
777 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
778 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
780 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
781 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
782 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
783 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
784 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
785 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
786 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
787 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
788 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
789 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
790 about dynamically linked binaries.
792 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
793 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
794 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
795 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
796 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
798 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
799 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
800 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
801 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
802 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
804 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
806 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
807 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
808 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
809 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
810 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
811 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
812 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
813 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
814 NSS services available.
816 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
817 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
818 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
820 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
821 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
822 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
824 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
825 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
826 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
827 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
829 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
830 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
831 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
833 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
834 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
835 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
837 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
838 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
840 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
841 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
842 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
843 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
845 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
846 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
847 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
849 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
850 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
851 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
852 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
853 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
854 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
855 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
856 the header file <printf.h> for details.
858 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
859 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
860 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
861 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
862 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
863 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
864 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
866 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
867 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
868 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
869 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
870 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
871 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
873 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
874 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
876 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
877 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
878 NSS scheme used in glibc.
880 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
882 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
883 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
884 their use is discouraged.
886 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
887 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
889 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
890 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
892 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
893 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
895 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
898 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
899 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
900 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
901 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
902 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
904 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
905 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
906 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
907 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
909 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
910 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
912 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
913 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
914 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
915 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
918 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
919 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
921 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
922 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
924 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
925 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
926 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
927 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
929 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
931 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
932 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
933 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
935 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
936 for arithmetic and string handling.
938 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
939 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
940 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
941 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
943 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
944 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
945 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
946 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
947 programs already written to use it.)
949 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
952 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
955 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
956 a given effective group ID.
958 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
959 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
960 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
961 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
963 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
964 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
965 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
966 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
967 doing the same thing.
969 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
970 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
972 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
973 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
975 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
977 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
978 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
979 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
980 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
981 `-ldb' to get these functions.
983 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
984 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
986 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
987 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
988 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
991 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
993 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
994 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
997 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
998 and writing the utmp file.
1000 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1003 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1004 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1005 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1007 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1008 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1010 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1011 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1014 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1015 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1016 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1017 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1019 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1020 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1021 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1023 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1024 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1025 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1028 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1031 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1034 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1036 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1037 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1038 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1042 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1044 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1045 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1047 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1048 want to put themselves in the background.
1050 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1051 run without an operating system.
1053 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1054 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1056 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1057 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1059 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1061 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1062 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1065 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1068 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1069 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1073 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1074 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1075 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1077 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1078 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1080 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1081 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1083 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1085 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1087 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1090 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1091 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1092 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1094 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1096 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1097 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1098 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1100 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1101 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1102 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1103 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1104 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1107 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1108 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1109 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1110 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1111 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1114 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1115 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1119 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1120 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1122 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1123 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1124 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1126 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1127 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1128 address of the last character written.
1130 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1131 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1133 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1134 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1136 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1137 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1138 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1139 you dereference this pointer.
1141 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1142 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1144 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1145 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1146 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1147 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1149 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1150 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1151 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1152 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1156 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1157 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1158 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1159 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1160 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1162 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1164 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1166 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1167 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1169 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1170 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1172 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1173 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1175 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1176 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1177 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1178 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1179 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1181 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1182 to the error code in `errno'.
1184 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1185 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1186 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1189 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1190 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1191 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1193 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1194 uniquely-named temporary file.
1198 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1199 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1200 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1202 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1205 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1206 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1208 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1212 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1213 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1214 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1215 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1217 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1218 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1219 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1221 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1222 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1224 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1225 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1226 made itself into a shared library.
1228 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1229 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1231 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1232 with limited length.
1234 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1236 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1238 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1240 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1241 function for traversing a directory tree.
1243 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1244 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1245 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1246 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1248 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1249 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1251 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1253 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1254 things to your strings.
1256 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1258 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1259 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1260 supporting those systems.
1262 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1263 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1264 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1265 configuration files.
1267 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1268 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1270 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1271 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1274 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1275 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1276 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1277 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1278 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1279 required storage is not available.
1281 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1282 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1284 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1285 latest files released from Berkeley.
1287 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1288 Copyright information:
1290 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1292 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1293 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1294 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1295 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1297 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1298 of this document, or of portions of it,
1299 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1300 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1303 version-control: never