1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-01-02
3 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
14 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
16 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
18 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
20 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
21 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
23 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
25 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.2-5 which supports
26 threads. No changes should be necessary for user programs. The
27 integration was done by Andreas Jaeger and Adam D. Bradley.
29 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
30 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
31 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
33 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
34 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
35 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
36 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
40 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
42 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
57 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
59 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
61 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
63 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
65 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
67 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
69 * Update timezone data files.
71 * lots of charmaps corrections
73 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
78 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
79 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
80 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
81 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
82 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
83 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
85 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
86 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
88 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
91 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
92 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
94 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
96 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
99 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
101 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
102 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
104 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
107 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
108 functions from ISO C 9X.
110 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
111 real valued functions.
113 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
115 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
117 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
119 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
121 * Optimized string functions have been added.
123 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
125 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
127 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
128 daemon for NSS (nscd).
130 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
131 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
135 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
137 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
139 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
141 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
143 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
145 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
147 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
148 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
151 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
152 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
154 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
156 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
158 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
159 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
161 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
163 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
166 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
167 latest draft standards.
169 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
171 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
172 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
173 addseverity NEW: Unix98
175 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
176 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
177 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
178 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
179 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
180 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
181 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
182 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
183 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
184 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
185 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
186 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
187 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
188 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
189 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
190 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
194 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
195 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
205 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
206 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
211 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
212 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
214 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
227 clearerr_locked REMOVED
228 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
231 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
232 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
263 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
264 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
265 endutxent NEW: Unix98
277 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
278 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
279 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
280 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
281 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
283 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
284 ferror_locked REMOVED
285 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
286 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
287 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
288 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
289 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
290 fflush_locked REMOVED
294 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
295 fileno_locked REMOVED
308 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
309 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
320 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
321 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
325 getchar_locked REMOVED
327 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
328 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
330 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
331 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
333 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
335 getutxent NEW: Unix98
337 getutxline NEW: Unix98
339 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
340 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
341 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
342 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
343 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
345 iconv_close NEW: iconv
346 iconv_open NEW: iconv
347 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
348 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
349 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
350 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
351 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
352 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
353 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
354 isastream NEW: STREAMS
355 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
356 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
357 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
358 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
359 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
360 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
361 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
362 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
363 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
364 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
366 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
367 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
368 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
369 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
370 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
378 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
379 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
381 makecontext NEW: Unix98
382 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
385 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
389 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
390 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
391 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
392 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
393 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
394 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
395 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
396 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
400 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
406 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
407 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
408 profil_counter REMOVED
409 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
410 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
411 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
412 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
414 putchar_locked REMOVED
415 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
418 pututxline NEW: Unix98
424 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
425 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
430 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
431 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
432 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
435 setcontext NEW: Unix98
437 setutxent NEW: Unix98
439 sigignore NEW: Unix98
440 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
443 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
444 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
446 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
447 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
451 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
452 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
453 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
454 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
455 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
456 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
457 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
458 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
459 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
460 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
462 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
463 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
470 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
472 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
473 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
474 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
475 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
477 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
478 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
479 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
480 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
481 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
482 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
483 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
486 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
487 write_profiling REMOVED
488 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
489 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
490 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
491 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
492 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
493 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
494 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
495 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
496 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
497 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
498 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
499 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
500 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
501 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
502 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
503 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
514 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
516 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
518 * rewrite of cbrt function
520 * update of timezone data
536 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
542 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
544 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
546 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
547 the ELF dynamic loader.
549 * support for parallel builds is improved
553 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
554 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
557 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
558 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
559 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
560 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
561 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
562 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
563 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
564 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
565 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
566 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
567 files in the ELF format.
569 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
570 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
572 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
573 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
574 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
575 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
576 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
577 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
578 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
579 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
580 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
581 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
582 about dynamically linked binaries.
584 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
585 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
586 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
587 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
588 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
590 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
591 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
592 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
593 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
594 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
596 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
598 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
599 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
600 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
601 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
602 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
603 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
604 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
605 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
606 NSS services available.
608 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
609 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
610 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
612 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
613 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
614 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
616 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
617 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
618 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
619 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
621 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
622 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
623 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
625 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
626 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
627 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
629 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
630 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
632 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
633 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
634 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
635 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
637 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
638 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
639 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
641 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
642 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
643 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
644 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
645 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
646 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
647 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
648 the header file <printf.h> for details.
650 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
651 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
652 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
653 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
654 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
655 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
656 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
658 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
659 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
660 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
661 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
662 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
663 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
665 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
666 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
668 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
669 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
670 NSS scheme used in glibc.
672 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
674 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
675 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
676 their use is discouraged.
678 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
679 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
681 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
682 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
684 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
685 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
687 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
690 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
691 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
692 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
693 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
694 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
696 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
697 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
698 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
699 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
701 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
702 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
704 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
705 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
706 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
707 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
710 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
711 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
713 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
714 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
716 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
717 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
718 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
719 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
721 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
723 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
724 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
725 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
727 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
728 for arithmetic and string handling.
730 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
731 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
732 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
733 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
735 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
736 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
737 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
738 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
739 programs already written to use it.)
741 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
744 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
747 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
748 a given effective group ID.
750 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
751 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
752 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
753 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
755 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
756 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
757 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
758 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
759 doing the same thing.
761 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
762 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
764 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
765 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
767 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
769 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
770 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
771 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
772 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
773 `-ldb' to get these functions.
775 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
776 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
778 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
779 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
780 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
783 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
785 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
786 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
789 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
790 and writing the utmp file.
792 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
795 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
796 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
797 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
799 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
800 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
802 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
803 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
806 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
807 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
808 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
809 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
811 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
812 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
813 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
815 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
816 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
817 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
820 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
823 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
826 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
828 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
829 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
830 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
834 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
836 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
837 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
839 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
840 want to put themselves in the background.
842 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
843 run without an operating system.
845 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
846 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
848 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
849 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
851 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
853 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
854 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
857 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
860 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
861 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
865 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
866 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
867 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
869 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
870 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
872 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
873 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
875 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
877 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
879 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
882 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
883 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
884 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
886 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
888 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
889 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
890 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
892 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
893 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
894 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
895 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
896 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
899 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
900 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
901 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
902 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
903 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
906 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
907 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
911 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
912 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
914 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
915 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
916 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
918 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
919 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
920 address of the last character written.
922 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
923 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
925 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
926 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
928 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
929 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
930 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
931 you dereference this pointer.
933 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
934 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
936 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
937 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
938 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
939 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
941 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
942 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
943 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
944 EAGAIN in every system call function.
948 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
949 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
950 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
951 in Emacs or the `info' program.
952 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
954 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
956 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
958 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
959 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
961 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
962 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
964 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
965 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
967 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
968 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
969 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
970 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
971 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
973 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
974 to the error code in `errno'.
976 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
977 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
978 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
981 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
982 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
983 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
985 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
986 uniquely-named temporary file.
990 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
991 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
992 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
994 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
997 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
998 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1000 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1004 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1005 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1006 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1007 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1009 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1010 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1011 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1013 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1014 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1016 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1017 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1018 made itself into a shared library.
1020 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1021 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1023 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1024 with limited length.
1026 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1028 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1030 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1032 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1033 function for traversing a directory tree.
1035 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1036 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1037 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1038 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1040 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1041 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1043 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1045 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1046 things to your strings.
1048 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1050 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1051 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1052 supporting those systems.
1054 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1055 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1056 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1057 configuration files.
1059 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1060 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1062 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1063 bcmp, bzero, and ffs.
1065 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1066 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1067 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1068 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1069 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1070 required storage is not available.
1072 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1073 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1074 Because of the United States export restriction on DES implementations,
1075 we are distributing this code separately from the rest of the C library.
1076 There is an extra distribution tar file just for crypt; it is called
1077 `glibc-VERSION-crypt.tar.Z', e.g. `glibc-1.04-crypt.tar.Z'. You can just
1078 unpack the crypt distribution along with the rest of the C library and
1079 build; you can also build the library without getting crypt. Users
1080 outside the USA can get the crypt distribution via anonymous FTP from
1081 ftp.uni-c.dk [129.142.6.74], or another archive site outside the U.S.
1083 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1084 latest files released from Berkeley.
1086 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1087 Copyright information:
1089 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1091 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1092 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1093 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1094 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1096 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1097 of this document, or of portions of it,
1098 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1099 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1102 version-control: never