1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-5-15
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * checking version of longjmp added that fails if an uninitialized stack
11 frame would be created. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * New interfaces: preadv, preadv64, pwritev, pwritev64, malloc_info
17 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
19 * New Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
20 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
22 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
23 could lead to compile errors for invalid C++ code.
25 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
28 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
29 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
31 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
32 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
34 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
35 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
37 * The libcrypt library can now use the hash function implementations in
38 NSS. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
40 * The malloc implementation can be compiled to be less memory efficient
41 but higher performing in multi-threaded programs.
42 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
44 * New locales: nan_TW@latin, ks_IN
46 * Faster strlen, strchr, strchrnul, strrchr, memchr, and rawmemchr for x86-64.
47 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
49 * Extended printf hook support. It is possible to use user-defined types
50 and extend existing format specifiers.
51 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
53 * Handling for group shadow files has been added.
54 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
56 * DNS IPv4-IPv6 parallel lookup now deals better with broken DNS
57 servers (the case, e.g., for some people using the built-in DNS
58 server in ADSL modems/routers). There is a once-per-process timeout
59 in case of a broken server. To avoid it, users can run nscd or put
60 'options single-request' in /etc/resolv.conf.
61 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
66 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
67 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
70 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
72 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
73 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
75 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
76 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
77 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
79 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
80 Implemented by Eric Blake.
82 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
84 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
85 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
87 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
88 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
89 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
90 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
92 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
93 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
95 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
97 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
99 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
103 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
105 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
107 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
108 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
110 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
112 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
113 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
115 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
116 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
118 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
119 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
120 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
122 * Faster memset for x86-64.
123 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
125 * Faster memcpy on x86.
126 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
128 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
129 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
131 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
132 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
136 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
137 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
139 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
141 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
142 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
143 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
145 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
146 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
148 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
149 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
151 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
153 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
154 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
156 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
157 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
159 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
160 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
162 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
164 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
165 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
167 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
168 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
171 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
172 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
176 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
178 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
180 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
186 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
187 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
189 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
190 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
192 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
194 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
196 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
197 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
198 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
199 site might have problems with the default behavior.
200 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
202 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
203 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
204 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
205 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
207 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
210 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
212 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
215 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
217 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
218 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
222 * More overflow detection functions.
224 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
225 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
227 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
228 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
229 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
230 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
231 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
232 by Masahide Washizawa.
234 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
235 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
237 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
238 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
239 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
240 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
242 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
243 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
245 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
247 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
248 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
249 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
251 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
252 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
254 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
255 for compatibility with some other systems.
257 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
261 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
263 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
264 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
265 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
266 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
267 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
268 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
270 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
272 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
274 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
278 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
280 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
281 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
282 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
283 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
285 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
289 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
290 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
292 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
293 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
294 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
296 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
297 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
299 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
301 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
303 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
304 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
307 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
308 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
309 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
311 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
312 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
314 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
315 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
316 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
317 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
319 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
320 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
321 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
322 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
324 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
325 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
326 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
327 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
328 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
332 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
333 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
335 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
336 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
338 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
339 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
341 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
342 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
344 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
347 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
350 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
355 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
356 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
357 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
358 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
359 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
360 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
361 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
362 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
363 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
365 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
366 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
367 and are now also available on the Hurd.
369 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
371 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
372 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
374 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
375 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
377 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
379 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
380 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
382 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
383 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
384 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
385 of weak definition in ld.so.
387 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
388 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
390 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
391 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
395 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
398 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
399 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
401 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
402 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
404 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
405 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
407 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
408 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
409 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
411 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
412 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
414 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
415 implementation of regex.
417 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
420 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
421 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
423 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
424 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
425 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
427 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
428 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
430 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
431 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
432 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
434 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
435 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
437 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
438 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
441 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
445 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
446 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
448 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
449 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
453 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
454 128-bit long double format.
456 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
457 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
459 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
461 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
463 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
466 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
467 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
469 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
473 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
474 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
476 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
479 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
480 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
482 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
484 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
485 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
486 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
488 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
489 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
491 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
492 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
494 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
498 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
499 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
500 in float, double, and long double format.
502 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
503 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
504 128-bit long double format.
506 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
507 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
508 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
509 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
511 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
512 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
513 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
515 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
516 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
518 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
519 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
521 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
522 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
523 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
525 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
526 family of functions for Linux/S390.
528 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
529 of functions for Linux/x86.
531 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
535 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
536 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
537 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
538 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
539 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
540 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
543 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
544 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
546 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
547 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
548 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
549 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
551 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
556 only lists the names of the supported locales
560 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
561 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
565 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
566 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
567 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
568 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
569 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
573 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
575 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
577 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
578 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
579 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
581 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
582 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
584 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
585 changed from the default "C" locale.
587 * The usual bug fixes.
591 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
592 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
595 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
597 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
599 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
600 obviously requires a database library being available.
602 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
604 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
606 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
607 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
609 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
611 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
612 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
615 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
616 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
617 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
619 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
620 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
622 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
623 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
624 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
626 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
627 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
628 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
629 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
631 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
632 structures for the wide character tables.
634 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
636 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
638 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
640 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
643 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
645 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
647 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
649 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
651 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
653 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
654 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
655 implemented for Linux.
657 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
658 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
659 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
662 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
665 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
667 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
668 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
669 ******************************************
671 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
672 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
675 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
676 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
679 Recommended Tools for Compilation
680 =================================
682 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
683 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
685 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
686 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
687 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
689 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
690 the recommended solution):
692 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
693 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
694 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
696 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
697 =================================================
699 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
700 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
701 is currently untested. Hence the following options
702 are required for configuring the library:
704 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
706 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
707 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
708 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
709 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
711 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
716 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
720 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
725 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
727 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
741 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
743 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
745 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
747 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
749 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
751 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
753 * Update timezone data files.
755 * lots of charmaps corrections
757 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
762 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
763 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
764 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
765 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
766 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
767 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
769 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
770 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
772 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
775 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
776 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
778 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
780 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
783 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
785 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
786 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
788 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
791 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
792 functions from ISO C 9X.
794 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
795 real valued functions.
797 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
799 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
801 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
803 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
805 * Optimized string functions have been added.
807 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
809 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
811 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
812 daemon for NSS (nscd).
814 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
815 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
819 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
821 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
823 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
825 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
827 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
829 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
831 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
832 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
835 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
836 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
838 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
840 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
842 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
843 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
845 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
847 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
850 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
851 latest draft standards.
853 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
855 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
856 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
857 addseverity NEW: Unix98
859 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
860 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
861 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
862 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
863 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
864 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
865 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
866 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
867 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
868 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
869 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
870 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
871 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
872 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
873 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
874 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
878 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
879 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
889 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
890 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
895 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
896 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
898 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
911 clearerr_locked REMOVED
912 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
915 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
916 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
947 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
948 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
949 endutxent NEW: Unix98
961 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
962 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
963 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
964 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
965 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
967 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
968 ferror_locked REMOVED
969 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
970 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
971 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
972 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
973 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
974 fflush_locked REMOVED
978 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
979 fileno_locked REMOVED
992 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
993 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1002 ftruncate64 NEW: LFS
1004 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
1005 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
1009 getchar_locked REMOVED
1011 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
1012 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
1014 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
1015 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
1016 getpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1017 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1018 getrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1019 getutxent NEW: Unix98
1020 getutxid NEW: Unix98
1021 getutxline NEW: Unix98
1022 glob64 NEW: GNU ext.
1023 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
1024 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
1025 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
1026 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1027 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1029 iconv_close NEW: iconv
1030 iconv_open NEW: iconv
1031 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
1032 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
1033 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1034 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1035 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1036 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1037 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1038 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1039 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1040 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1041 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1042 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1043 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1044 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1045 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1046 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1047 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1048 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1049 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1050 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1051 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1052 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1053 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1054 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1059 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1060 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1061 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1062 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1063 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1065 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1066 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1069 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1073 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1074 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1075 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1076 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1077 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1078 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1079 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1080 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1084 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1086 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1087 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1090 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1091 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1092 profil_counter REMOVED
1093 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1094 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1095 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1096 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1098 putchar_locked REMOVED
1099 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1101 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1102 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1106 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1107 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1108 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1109 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1111 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1112 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1114 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1115 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1116 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1118 sendfile NEW: kernel
1119 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1120 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1121 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1123 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1124 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1125 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1126 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1127 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1128 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1129 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1130 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1131 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1135 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1136 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1137 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1138 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1139 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1140 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1141 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1142 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1143 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1144 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1145 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1146 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1147 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1151 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1152 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1154 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1155 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1156 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1157 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1158 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1159 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1161 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1162 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1163 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1164 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1165 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1166 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1167 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1169 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1170 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1171 write_profiling REMOVED
1172 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1173 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1174 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1175 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1176 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1177 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1178 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1179 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1180 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1181 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1182 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1183 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1184 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1185 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1186 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1187 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1198 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1200 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1202 * rewrite of cbrt function
1204 * update of timezone data
1218 * add atoll function
1220 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1222 * fix math functions
1226 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1228 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1230 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1231 the ELF dynamic loader.
1233 * support for parallel builds is improved
1237 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1238 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1241 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1242 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1243 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1244 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1245 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1246 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1247 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1248 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1249 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1250 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1251 files in the ELF format.
1253 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1254 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1256 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1257 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1258 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1259 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1260 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1261 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1262 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1263 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1264 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1265 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1266 about dynamically linked binaries.
1268 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1269 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1270 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1271 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1272 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1274 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1275 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1276 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1277 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1278 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1280 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1282 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1283 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1284 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1285 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1286 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1287 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1288 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1289 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1290 NSS services available.
1292 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1293 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1294 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1296 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1297 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1298 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1300 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1301 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1302 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1303 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1305 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1306 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1307 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1309 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1310 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1311 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1313 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1314 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1316 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1317 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1318 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1319 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1321 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1322 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1323 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1325 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1326 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1327 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1328 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1329 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1330 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1331 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1332 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1334 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1335 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1336 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1337 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1338 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1339 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1340 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1342 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1343 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1344 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1345 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1346 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1347 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1349 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1350 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1352 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1353 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1354 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1356 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1358 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1359 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1360 their use is discouraged.
1362 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1363 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1365 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1366 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1368 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1369 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1371 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1374 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1375 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1376 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1377 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1378 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1380 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1381 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1382 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1383 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1385 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1386 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1388 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1389 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1390 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1391 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1394 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1395 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1397 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1398 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1400 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1401 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1402 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1403 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1405 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1407 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1408 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1409 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1411 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1412 for arithmetic and string handling.
1414 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1415 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1416 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1417 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1419 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1420 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1421 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1422 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1423 programs already written to use it.)
1425 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1428 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1431 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1432 a given effective group ID.
1434 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1435 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1436 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1437 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1439 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1440 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1441 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1442 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1443 doing the same thing.
1445 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1446 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1448 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1449 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1451 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1453 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1454 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1455 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1456 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1457 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1459 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1460 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1462 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1463 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1464 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1467 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1469 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1470 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1473 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1474 and writing the utmp file.
1476 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1479 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1480 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1481 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1483 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1484 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1486 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1487 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1490 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1491 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1492 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1493 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1495 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1496 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1497 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1499 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1500 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1501 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1504 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1507 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1510 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1512 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1513 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1514 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1518 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1520 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1521 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1523 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1524 want to put themselves in the background.
1526 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1527 run without an operating system.
1529 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1530 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1532 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1533 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1535 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1537 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1538 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1541 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1544 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1545 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1549 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1550 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1551 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1553 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1554 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1556 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1557 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1559 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1561 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1563 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1566 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1567 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1568 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1570 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1572 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1573 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1574 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1576 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1577 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1578 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1579 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1580 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1583 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1584 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1585 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1586 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1587 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1590 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1591 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1595 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1596 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1598 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1599 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1600 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1602 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1603 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1604 address of the last character written.
1606 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1607 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1609 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1610 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1612 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1613 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1614 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1615 you dereference this pointer.
1617 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1618 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1620 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1621 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1622 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1623 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1625 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1626 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1627 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1628 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1632 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1633 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1634 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1635 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1636 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1638 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1640 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1642 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1643 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1645 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1646 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1648 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1649 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1651 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1652 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1653 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1654 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1655 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1657 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1658 to the error code in `errno'.
1660 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1661 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1662 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1665 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1666 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1667 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1669 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1670 uniquely-named temporary file.
1674 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1675 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1676 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1678 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1681 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1682 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1684 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1688 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1689 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1690 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1691 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1693 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1694 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1695 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1697 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1698 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1700 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1701 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1702 made itself into a shared library.
1704 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1705 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1707 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1708 with limited length.
1710 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1712 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1714 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1716 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1717 function for traversing a directory tree.
1719 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1720 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1721 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1722 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1724 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1725 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1727 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1729 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1730 things to your strings.
1732 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1734 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1735 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1736 supporting those systems.
1738 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1739 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1740 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1741 configuration files.
1743 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1744 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1746 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1747 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1750 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1751 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1752 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1753 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1754 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1755 required storage is not available.
1757 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1758 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1760 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1761 latest files released from Berkeley.
1763 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1764 Copyright information:
1766 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1767 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1769 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1770 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1771 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1772 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1774 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1775 of this document, or of portions of it,
1776 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1777 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1780 version-control: never