1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2002-12-2
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2001, 2002 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>. Please send questions and suggestions to <bug-glibc@gnu.org>.
10 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
11 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
12 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
13 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
14 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
15 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
16 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
17 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
18 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
20 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
21 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
22 and are now also available on the Hurd.
24 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
26 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
27 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
29 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
30 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
32 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
34 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
35 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
39 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
42 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
43 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
45 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
46 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
48 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
49 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
51 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
52 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
53 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
55 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
56 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
58 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
59 implementation of regex.
61 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
64 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
65 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
67 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
68 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
69 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
71 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
72 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
74 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
75 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
76 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
78 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
79 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
81 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
82 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
85 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
89 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
90 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
92 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
93 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
97 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
98 128-bit long double format.
100 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
101 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
103 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
105 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
107 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
110 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
111 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
113 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
117 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
118 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
120 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
123 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
124 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
126 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
128 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
129 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
130 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
132 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
133 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
135 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
136 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
138 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
142 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
143 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
144 in float, double, and long double format.
146 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
147 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
148 128-bit long double format.
150 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
151 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
152 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
153 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
155 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
156 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
157 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
159 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
160 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
162 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
163 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
165 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
166 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
167 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
169 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
170 family of functions for Linux/S390.
172 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
173 of functions for Linux/x86.
175 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
179 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
180 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
181 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
182 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
183 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
184 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
187 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
188 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
190 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
191 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
192 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
193 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
195 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
200 only lists the names of the supported locales
204 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
205 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
209 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
210 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
211 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
212 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
213 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
217 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
219 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
221 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
222 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
223 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
225 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
226 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
228 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
229 changed from the default "C" locale.
231 * The usual bug fixes.
235 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
236 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
239 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
241 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
243 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
244 obviously requires a database library being available.
246 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
248 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
250 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
251 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
253 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
255 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
256 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
259 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
260 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
261 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
263 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
264 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
266 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
267 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
268 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
270 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
271 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
272 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
273 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
275 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
276 structures for the wide character tables.
278 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
280 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
282 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
284 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
287 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
289 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
291 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
293 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
295 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
297 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
298 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
299 implemented for Linux.
301 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
302 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
303 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
306 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
309 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
311 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
312 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
313 ******************************************
315 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
316 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
319 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
320 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
323 Recommended Tools for Compilation
324 =================================
326 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
327 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
329 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
330 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
331 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
333 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
334 the recommended solution):
336 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
337 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
338 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
340 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
341 =================================================
343 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
344 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
345 is currently untested. Hence the following options
346 are required for configuring the library:
348 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
350 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
351 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
352 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
353 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
355 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
360 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
364 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
369 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
371 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
385 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
387 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
389 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
391 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
393 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
395 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
397 * Update timezone data files.
399 * lots of charmaps corrections
401 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
406 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
407 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
408 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
409 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
410 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
411 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
413 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
414 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
416 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
419 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
420 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
422 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
424 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
427 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
429 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
430 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
432 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
435 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
436 functions from ISO C 9X.
438 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
439 real valued functions.
441 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
443 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
445 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
447 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
449 * Optimized string functions have been added.
451 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
453 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
455 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
456 daemon for NSS (nscd).
458 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
459 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
463 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
465 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
467 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
469 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
471 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
473 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
475 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
476 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
479 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
480 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
482 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
484 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
486 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
487 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
489 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
491 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
494 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
495 latest draft standards.
497 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
499 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
500 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
501 addseverity NEW: Unix98
503 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
504 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
505 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
506 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
507 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
508 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
509 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
510 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
511 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
512 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
513 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
514 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
515 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
516 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
517 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
518 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
522 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
523 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
533 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
534 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
539 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
540 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
542 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
555 clearerr_locked REMOVED
556 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
559 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
560 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
591 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
592 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
593 endutxent NEW: Unix98
605 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
606 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
607 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
608 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
609 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
611 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
612 ferror_locked REMOVED
613 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
614 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
615 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
616 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
617 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
618 fflush_locked REMOVED
622 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
623 fileno_locked REMOVED
636 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
637 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
648 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
649 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
653 getchar_locked REMOVED
655 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
656 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
658 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
659 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
661 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
663 getutxent NEW: Unix98
665 getutxline NEW: Unix98
667 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
668 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
669 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
670 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
671 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
673 iconv_close NEW: iconv
674 iconv_open NEW: iconv
675 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
676 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
677 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
678 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
679 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
680 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
681 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
682 isastream NEW: STREAMS
683 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
684 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
685 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
686 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
687 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
688 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
689 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
690 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
691 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
692 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
694 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
695 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
696 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
697 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
698 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
706 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
707 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
709 makecontext NEW: Unix98
710 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
713 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
717 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
718 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
719 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
720 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
721 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
722 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
723 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
724 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
728 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
734 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
735 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
736 profil_counter REMOVED
737 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
738 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
739 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
740 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
742 putchar_locked REMOVED
743 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
746 pututxline NEW: Unix98
752 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
753 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
758 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
759 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
760 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
763 setcontext NEW: Unix98
765 setutxent NEW: Unix98
767 sigignore NEW: Unix98
768 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
771 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
772 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
774 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
775 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
779 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
780 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
781 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
782 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
783 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
784 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
785 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
786 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
787 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
788 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
790 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
791 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
798 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
800 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
801 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
802 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
803 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
805 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
806 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
807 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
808 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
809 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
810 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
811 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
814 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
815 write_profiling REMOVED
816 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
817 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
818 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
819 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
820 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
821 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
822 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
823 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
824 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
825 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
826 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
827 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
828 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
829 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
830 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
831 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
842 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
844 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
846 * rewrite of cbrt function
848 * update of timezone data
864 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
870 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
872 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
874 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
875 the ELF dynamic loader.
877 * support for parallel builds is improved
881 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
882 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
885 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
886 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
887 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
888 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
889 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
890 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
891 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
892 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
893 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
894 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
895 files in the ELF format.
897 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
898 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
900 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
901 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
902 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
903 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
904 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
905 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
906 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
907 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
908 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
909 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
910 about dynamically linked binaries.
912 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
913 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
914 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
915 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
916 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
918 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
919 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
920 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
921 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
922 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
924 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
926 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
927 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
928 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
929 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
930 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
931 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
932 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
933 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
934 NSS services available.
936 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
937 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
938 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
940 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
941 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
942 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
944 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
945 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
946 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
947 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
949 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
950 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
951 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
953 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
954 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
955 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
957 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
958 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
960 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
961 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
962 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
963 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
965 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
966 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
967 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
969 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
970 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
971 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
972 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
973 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
974 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
975 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
976 the header file <printf.h> for details.
978 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
979 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
980 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
981 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
982 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
983 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
984 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
986 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
987 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
988 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
989 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
990 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
991 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
993 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
994 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
996 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
997 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
998 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1000 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1002 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1003 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1004 their use is discouraged.
1006 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1007 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1009 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1010 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1012 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1013 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1015 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1018 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1019 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1020 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1021 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1022 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1024 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1025 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1026 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1027 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1029 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1030 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1032 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1033 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1034 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1035 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1038 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1039 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1041 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1042 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1044 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1045 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1046 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1047 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1049 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1051 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1052 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1053 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1055 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1056 for arithmetic and string handling.
1058 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1059 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1060 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1061 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1063 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1064 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1065 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1066 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1067 programs already written to use it.)
1069 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1072 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1075 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1076 a given effective group ID.
1078 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1079 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1080 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1081 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1083 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1084 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1085 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1086 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1087 doing the same thing.
1089 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1090 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1092 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1093 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1095 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1097 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1098 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1099 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1100 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1101 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1103 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1104 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1106 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1107 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1108 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1111 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1113 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1114 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1117 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1118 and writing the utmp file.
1120 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1123 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1124 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1125 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1127 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1128 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1130 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1131 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1134 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1135 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1136 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1137 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1139 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1140 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1141 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1143 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1144 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1145 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1148 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1151 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1154 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1156 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1157 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1158 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1162 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1164 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1165 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1167 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1168 want to put themselves in the background.
1170 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1171 run without an operating system.
1173 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1174 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1176 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1177 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1179 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1181 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1182 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1185 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1188 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1189 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1193 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1194 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1195 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1197 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1198 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1200 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1201 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1203 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1205 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1207 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1210 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1211 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1212 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1214 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1216 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1217 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1218 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1220 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1221 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1222 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1223 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1224 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1227 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1228 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1229 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1230 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1231 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1234 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1235 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1239 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1240 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1242 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1243 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1244 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1246 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1247 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1248 address of the last character written.
1250 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1251 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1253 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1254 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1256 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1257 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1258 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1259 you dereference this pointer.
1261 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1262 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1264 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1265 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1266 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1267 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1269 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1270 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1271 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1272 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1276 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1277 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1278 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1279 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1280 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1282 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1284 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1286 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1287 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1289 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1290 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1292 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1293 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1295 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1296 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1297 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1298 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1299 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1301 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1302 to the error code in `errno'.
1304 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1305 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1306 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1309 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1310 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1311 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1313 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1314 uniquely-named temporary file.
1318 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1319 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1320 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1322 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1325 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1326 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1328 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1332 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1333 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1334 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1335 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1337 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1338 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1339 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1341 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1342 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1344 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1345 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1346 made itself into a shared library.
1348 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1349 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1351 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1352 with limited length.
1354 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1356 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1358 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1360 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1361 function for traversing a directory tree.
1363 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1364 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1365 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1366 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1368 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1369 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1371 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1373 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1374 things to your strings.
1376 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1378 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1379 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1380 supporting those systems.
1382 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1383 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1384 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1385 configuration files.
1387 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1388 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1390 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1391 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1394 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1395 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1396 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1397 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1398 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1399 required storage is not available.
1401 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1402 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1404 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1405 latest files released from Berkeley.
1407 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1408 Copyright information:
1410 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1412 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1413 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1414 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1415 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1417 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1418 of this document, or of portions of it,
1419 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1420 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1423 version-control: never