1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-4-20
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 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
12 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
13 in float, double, and long double format.
15 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
16 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
17 128-bit long double format.
19 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
20 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
21 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
22 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
24 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
25 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
26 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
28 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
29 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
31 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
32 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
34 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
35 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
36 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
39 family of functions for Linux/S390.
41 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
42 of functions for Linux/x86.
44 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
48 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
49 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
50 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
51 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
52 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
53 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
56 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
57 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
59 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
60 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
61 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
62 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
64 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
69 only lists the names of the supported locales
73 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
74 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
78 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
79 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
80 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
81 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
82 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
86 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
88 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
90 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
91 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
92 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
94 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
95 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
97 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
98 changed from the default "C" locale.
100 * The usual bug fixes.
104 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
105 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
108 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
110 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
112 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
113 obviously requires a database library being available.
115 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
117 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
119 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
120 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
122 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
124 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
125 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
128 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
129 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
130 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
132 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
133 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
135 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
136 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
137 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
139 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
140 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
141 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
142 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
144 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
145 structures for the wide character tables.
147 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
149 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
151 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
153 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
156 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
158 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
160 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
162 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
164 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
166 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
167 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
168 implemented for Linux.
170 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
171 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
172 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
175 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
178 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
180 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
181 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
182 ******************************************
184 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
185 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
188 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
189 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
192 Recommended Tools for Compilation
193 =================================
195 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
196 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
198 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
199 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
200 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
202 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
203 the recommended solution):
205 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
206 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
207 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
209 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
210 =================================================
212 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
213 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
214 is currently untested. Hence the following options
215 are required for configuring the library:
217 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
219 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
220 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
221 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
222 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
224 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
229 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
233 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
238 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
240 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
254 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
256 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
258 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
260 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
262 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
264 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
266 * Update timezone data files.
268 * lots of charmaps corrections
270 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
275 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
276 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
277 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
278 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
279 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
280 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
282 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
283 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
285 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
288 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
289 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
291 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
293 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
296 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
298 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
299 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
301 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
304 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
305 functions from ISO C 9X.
307 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
308 real valued functions.
310 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
312 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
314 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
316 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
318 * Optimized string functions have been added.
320 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
322 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
324 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
325 daemon for NSS (nscd).
327 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
328 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
332 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
334 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
336 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
338 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
340 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
342 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
344 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
345 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
348 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
349 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
351 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
353 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
355 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
356 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
358 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
360 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
363 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
364 latest draft standards.
366 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
368 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
369 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
370 addseverity NEW: Unix98
372 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
373 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
374 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
375 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
376 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
377 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
378 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
379 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
380 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
381 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
382 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
383 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
384 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
385 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
386 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
387 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
391 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
392 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
402 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
403 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
408 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
409 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
411 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
424 clearerr_locked REMOVED
425 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
428 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
429 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
460 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
461 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
462 endutxent NEW: Unix98
474 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
475 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
476 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
477 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
478 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
480 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
481 ferror_locked REMOVED
482 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
483 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
484 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
485 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
486 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
487 fflush_locked REMOVED
491 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
492 fileno_locked REMOVED
505 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
506 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
517 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
518 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
522 getchar_locked REMOVED
524 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
525 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
527 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
528 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
530 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
532 getutxent NEW: Unix98
534 getutxline NEW: Unix98
536 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
537 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
538 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
539 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
540 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
542 iconv_close NEW: iconv
543 iconv_open NEW: iconv
544 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
545 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
546 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
547 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
548 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
549 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
550 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
551 isastream NEW: STREAMS
552 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
553 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
554 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
555 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
556 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
557 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
558 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
559 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
560 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
561 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
563 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
564 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
565 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
566 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
567 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
575 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
576 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
578 makecontext NEW: Unix98
579 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
582 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
586 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
587 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
588 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
589 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
590 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
591 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
592 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
593 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
597 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
603 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
604 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
605 profil_counter REMOVED
606 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
607 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
608 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
609 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
611 putchar_locked REMOVED
612 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
615 pututxline NEW: Unix98
621 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
622 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
627 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
628 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
629 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
632 setcontext NEW: Unix98
634 setutxent NEW: Unix98
636 sigignore NEW: Unix98
637 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
640 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
641 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
643 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
644 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
648 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
649 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
650 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
651 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
652 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
653 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
654 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
655 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
656 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
657 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
659 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
660 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
667 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
669 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
670 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
671 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
672 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
674 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
675 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
676 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
677 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
678 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
679 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
680 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
683 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
684 write_profiling REMOVED
685 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
686 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
687 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
688 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
689 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
690 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
691 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
692 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
693 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
694 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
695 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
696 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
697 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
698 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
699 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
700 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
711 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
713 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
715 * rewrite of cbrt function
717 * update of timezone data
733 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
739 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
741 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
743 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
744 the ELF dynamic loader.
746 * support for parallel builds is improved
750 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
751 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
754 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
755 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
756 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
757 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
758 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
759 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
760 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
761 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
762 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
763 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
764 files in the ELF format.
766 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
767 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
769 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
770 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
771 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
772 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
773 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
774 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
775 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
776 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
777 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
778 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
779 about dynamically linked binaries.
781 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
782 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
783 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
784 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
785 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
787 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
788 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
789 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
790 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
791 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
793 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
795 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
796 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
797 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
798 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
799 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
800 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
801 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
802 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
803 NSS services available.
805 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
806 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
807 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
809 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
810 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
811 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
813 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
814 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
815 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
816 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
818 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
819 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
820 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
822 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
823 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
824 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
826 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
827 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
829 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
830 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
831 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
832 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
834 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
835 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
836 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
838 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
839 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
840 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
841 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
842 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
843 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
844 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
845 the header file <printf.h> for details.
847 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
848 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
849 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
850 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
851 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
852 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
853 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
855 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
856 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
857 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
858 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
859 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
860 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
862 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
863 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
865 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
866 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
867 NSS scheme used in glibc.
869 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
871 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
872 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
873 their use is discouraged.
875 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
876 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
878 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
879 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
881 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
882 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
884 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
887 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
888 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
889 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
890 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
891 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
893 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
894 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
895 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
896 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
898 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
899 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
901 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
902 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
903 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
904 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
907 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
908 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
910 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
911 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
913 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
914 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
915 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
916 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
918 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
920 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
921 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
922 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
924 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
925 for arithmetic and string handling.
927 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
928 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
929 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
930 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
932 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
933 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
934 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
935 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
936 programs already written to use it.)
938 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
941 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
944 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
945 a given effective group ID.
947 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
948 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
949 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
950 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
952 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
953 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
954 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
955 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
956 doing the same thing.
958 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
959 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
961 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
962 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
964 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
966 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
967 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
968 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
969 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
970 `-ldb' to get these functions.
972 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
973 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
975 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
976 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
977 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
980 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
982 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
983 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
986 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
987 and writing the utmp file.
989 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
992 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
993 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
994 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
996 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
997 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
999 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1000 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1003 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1004 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1005 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1006 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1008 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1009 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1010 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1012 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1013 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1014 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1017 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1020 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1023 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1025 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1026 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1027 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1031 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1033 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1034 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1036 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1037 want to put themselves in the background.
1039 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1040 run without an operating system.
1042 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1043 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1045 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1046 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1048 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1050 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1051 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1054 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1057 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1058 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1062 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1063 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1064 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1066 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1067 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1069 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1070 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1072 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1074 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1076 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1079 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1080 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1081 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1083 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1085 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1086 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1087 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1089 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1090 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1091 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1092 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1093 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1096 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1097 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1098 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1099 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1100 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1103 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1104 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1108 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1109 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1111 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1112 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1113 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1115 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1116 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1117 address of the last character written.
1119 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1120 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1122 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1123 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1125 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1126 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1127 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1128 you dereference this pointer.
1130 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1131 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1133 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1134 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1135 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1136 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1138 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1139 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1140 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1141 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1145 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1146 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1147 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1148 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1149 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1151 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1153 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1155 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1156 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1158 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1159 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1161 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1162 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1164 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1165 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1166 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1167 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1168 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1170 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1171 to the error code in `errno'.
1173 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1174 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1175 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1178 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1179 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1180 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1182 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1183 uniquely-named temporary file.
1187 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1188 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1189 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1191 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1194 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1195 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1197 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1201 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1202 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1203 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1204 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1206 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1207 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1208 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1210 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1211 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1213 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1214 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1215 made itself into a shared library.
1217 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1218 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1220 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1221 with limited length.
1223 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1225 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1227 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1229 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1230 function for traversing a directory tree.
1232 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1233 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1234 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1235 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1237 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1238 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1240 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1242 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1243 things to your strings.
1245 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1247 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1248 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1249 supporting those systems.
1251 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1252 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1253 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1254 configuration files.
1256 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1257 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1259 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1260 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1263 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1264 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1265 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1266 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1267 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1268 required storage is not available.
1270 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1271 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1273 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1274 latest files released from Berkeley.
1276 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1277 Copyright information:
1279 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1281 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1282 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1283 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1284 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1286 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1287 of this document, or of portions of it,
1288 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1289 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1292 version-control: never