1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-4-23
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 * New interfaces: preadv, preadv64, pwritev, pwritev64, malloc_info
11 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
13 * New Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
14 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
16 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
17 could lead to compile errors for invalid C++ code.
19 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
22 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
23 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
26 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
28 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
29 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
31 * The libcrypt library can now use the hash function implementations in
32 NSS. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
34 * The malloc implementation can be compiled to be less memory efficient
35 but higher performing in multi-threaded programs.
36 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * New locales: nan_TW@latin, ks_IN
40 * Faster strlen, strchr, strchrnul, strrchr, memchr, and rawmemchr for x86-64.
41 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
43 * Extended printf hook support. It is possible to use user-defined types
44 and extend existing format specifiers.
45 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
47 * Handling for group shadow files has been added.
48 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
50 * DNS IPv4-IPv6 parallel lookup now deals better with broken DNS
51 servers (the case, e.g., for some people using the built-in DNS
52 server in ADSL modems/routers). There is a once-per-process timeout
53 in case of a broken server. To avoid it, users can run nscd or put
54 'options single-request' in /etc/resolv.conf.
55 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
60 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
61 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
63 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
64 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
66 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
67 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
69 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
70 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
71 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
73 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
74 Implemented by Eric Blake.
76 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
78 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
79 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
81 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
82 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
83 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
84 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
86 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
87 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
89 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
91 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
93 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
97 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
99 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
101 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
102 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
104 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
106 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
107 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
109 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
110 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
112 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
113 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
114 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
116 * Faster memset for x86-64.
117 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
119 * Faster memcpy on x86.
120 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
122 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
123 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
125 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
126 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
130 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
131 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
133 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
135 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
136 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
137 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
139 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
140 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
142 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
143 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
145 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
147 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
148 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
150 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
151 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
153 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
154 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
156 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
158 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
159 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
161 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
162 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
165 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
166 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
170 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
172 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
174 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
179 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
180 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
181 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
183 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
184 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
186 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
188 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
190 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
191 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
192 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
193 site might have problems with the default behavior.
194 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
196 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
197 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
198 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
199 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
201 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
204 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
206 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
209 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
211 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
212 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
216 * More overflow detection functions.
218 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
219 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
221 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
222 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
223 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
224 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
225 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
226 by Masahide Washizawa.
228 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
229 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
231 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
232 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
233 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
234 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
236 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
237 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
239 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
241 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
242 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
243 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
245 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
246 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
248 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
249 for compatibility with some other systems.
251 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
255 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
257 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
258 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
259 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
260 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
261 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
262 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
264 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
266 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
268 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
272 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
274 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
275 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
276 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
277 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
279 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
283 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
284 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
286 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
287 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
288 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
290 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
291 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
293 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
295 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
297 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
298 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
301 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
302 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
303 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
305 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
306 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
308 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
309 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
310 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
311 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
313 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
314 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
315 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
316 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
318 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
319 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
320 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
321 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
322 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
326 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
327 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
329 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
330 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
332 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
333 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
335 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
336 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
338 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
341 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
344 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
349 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
350 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
351 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
352 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
353 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
354 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
355 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
356 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
357 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
359 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
360 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
361 and are now also available on the Hurd.
363 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
365 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
366 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
368 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
369 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
371 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
373 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
374 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
376 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
377 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
378 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
379 of weak definition in ld.so.
381 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
382 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
384 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
385 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
389 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
392 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
393 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
395 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
396 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
398 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
399 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
401 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
402 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
403 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
405 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
406 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
408 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
409 implementation of regex.
411 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
414 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
415 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
417 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
418 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
419 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
421 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
422 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
424 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
425 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
426 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
428 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
429 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
431 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
432 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
435 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
439 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
440 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
442 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
443 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
447 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
448 128-bit long double format.
450 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
451 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
453 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
455 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
457 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
460 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
461 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
463 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
467 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
468 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
470 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
473 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
474 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
476 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
478 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
479 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
480 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
482 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
483 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
485 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
486 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
488 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
492 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
493 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
494 in float, double, and long double format.
496 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
497 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
498 128-bit long double format.
500 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
501 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
502 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
503 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
505 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
506 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
507 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
509 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
510 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
512 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
513 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
515 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
516 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
517 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
519 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
520 family of functions for Linux/S390.
522 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
523 of functions for Linux/x86.
525 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
529 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
530 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
531 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
532 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
533 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
534 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
537 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
538 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
540 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
541 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
542 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
543 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
545 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
550 only lists the names of the supported locales
554 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
555 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
559 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
560 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
561 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
562 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
563 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
567 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
569 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
571 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
572 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
573 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
575 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
576 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
578 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
579 changed from the default "C" locale.
581 * The usual bug fixes.
585 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
586 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
589 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
591 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
593 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
594 obviously requires a database library being available.
596 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
598 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
600 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
601 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
603 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
605 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
606 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
609 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
610 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
611 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
613 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
614 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
616 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
617 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
618 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
620 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
621 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
622 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
623 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
625 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
626 structures for the wide character tables.
628 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
630 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
632 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
634 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
637 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
639 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
641 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
643 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
645 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
647 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
648 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
649 implemented for Linux.
651 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
652 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
653 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
656 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
659 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
661 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
662 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
663 ******************************************
665 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
666 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
669 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
670 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
673 Recommended Tools for Compilation
674 =================================
676 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
677 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
679 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
680 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
681 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
683 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
684 the recommended solution):
686 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
687 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
688 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
690 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
691 =================================================
693 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
694 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
695 is currently untested. Hence the following options
696 are required for configuring the library:
698 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
700 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
701 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
702 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
703 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
705 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
710 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
714 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
719 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
721 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
735 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
737 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
739 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
741 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
743 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
745 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
747 * Update timezone data files.
749 * lots of charmaps corrections
751 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
756 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
757 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
758 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
759 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
760 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
761 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
763 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
764 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
766 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
769 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
770 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
772 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
774 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
777 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
779 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
780 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
782 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
785 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
786 functions from ISO C 9X.
788 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
789 real valued functions.
791 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
793 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
795 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
797 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
799 * Optimized string functions have been added.
801 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
803 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
805 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
806 daemon for NSS (nscd).
808 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
809 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
813 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
815 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
817 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
819 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
821 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
823 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
825 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
826 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
829 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
830 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
832 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
834 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
836 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
837 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
839 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
841 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
844 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
845 latest draft standards.
847 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
849 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
850 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
851 addseverity NEW: Unix98
853 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
854 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
855 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
856 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
857 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
858 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
859 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
860 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
861 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
862 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
863 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
864 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
865 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
866 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
867 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
868 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
872 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
873 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
883 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
884 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
889 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
890 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
892 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
905 clearerr_locked REMOVED
906 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
909 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
910 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
941 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
942 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
943 endutxent NEW: Unix98
955 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
956 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
957 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
958 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
959 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
961 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
962 ferror_locked REMOVED
963 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
964 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
965 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
966 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
967 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
968 fflush_locked REMOVED
972 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
973 fileno_locked REMOVED
986 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
987 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
998 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
999 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
1003 getchar_locked REMOVED
1005 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
1006 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
1008 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
1009 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
1010 getpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1011 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1012 getrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1013 getutxent NEW: Unix98
1014 getutxid NEW: Unix98
1015 getutxline NEW: Unix98
1016 glob64 NEW: GNU ext.
1017 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
1018 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
1019 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
1020 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1021 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1023 iconv_close NEW: iconv
1024 iconv_open NEW: iconv
1025 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
1026 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
1027 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1028 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1029 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1030 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1031 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1032 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1033 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1034 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1035 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1036 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1037 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1038 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1039 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1040 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1041 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1042 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1043 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1044 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1045 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1046 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1047 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1048 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1053 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1054 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1055 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1056 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1057 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1059 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1060 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1063 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1067 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1068 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1069 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1070 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1071 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1072 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1073 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1074 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1078 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1080 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1081 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1084 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1085 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1086 profil_counter REMOVED
1087 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1088 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1089 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1090 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1092 putchar_locked REMOVED
1093 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1095 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1096 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1100 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1101 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1102 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1103 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1105 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1106 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1108 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1109 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1110 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1112 sendfile NEW: kernel
1113 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1114 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1115 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1117 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1118 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1119 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1120 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1121 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1122 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1123 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1124 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1125 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1129 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1130 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1131 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1132 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1133 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1134 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1135 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1136 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1137 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1138 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1139 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1140 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1141 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1145 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1146 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1148 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1149 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1150 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1151 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1152 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1153 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1155 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1156 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1157 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1158 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1159 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1160 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1161 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1163 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1164 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1165 write_profiling REMOVED
1166 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1167 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1168 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1169 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1170 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1171 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1172 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1173 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1174 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1175 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1176 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1177 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1178 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1179 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1180 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1181 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1192 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1194 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1196 * rewrite of cbrt function
1198 * update of timezone data
1212 * add atoll function
1214 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1216 * fix math functions
1220 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1222 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1224 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1225 the ELF dynamic loader.
1227 * support for parallel builds is improved
1231 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1232 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1235 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1236 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1237 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1238 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1239 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1240 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1241 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1242 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1243 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1244 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1245 files in the ELF format.
1247 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1248 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1250 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1251 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1252 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1253 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1254 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1255 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1256 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1257 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1258 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1259 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1260 about dynamically linked binaries.
1262 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1263 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1264 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1265 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1266 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1268 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1269 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1270 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1271 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1272 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1274 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1276 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1277 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1278 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1279 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1280 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1281 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1282 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1283 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1284 NSS services available.
1286 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1287 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1288 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1290 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1291 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1292 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1294 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1295 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1296 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1297 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1299 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1300 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1301 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1303 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1304 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1305 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1307 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1308 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1310 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1311 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1312 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1313 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1315 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1316 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1317 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1319 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1320 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1321 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1322 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1323 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1324 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1325 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1326 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1328 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1329 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1330 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1331 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1332 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1333 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1334 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1336 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1337 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1338 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1339 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1340 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1341 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1343 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1344 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1346 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1347 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1348 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1350 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1352 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1353 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1354 their use is discouraged.
1356 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1357 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1359 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1360 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1362 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1363 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1365 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1368 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1369 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1370 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1371 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1372 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1374 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1375 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1376 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1377 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1379 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1380 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1382 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1383 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1384 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1385 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1388 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1389 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1391 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1392 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1394 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1395 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1396 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1397 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1399 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1401 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1402 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1403 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1405 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1406 for arithmetic and string handling.
1408 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1409 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1410 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1411 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1413 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1414 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1415 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1416 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1417 programs already written to use it.)
1419 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1422 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1425 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1426 a given effective group ID.
1428 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1429 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1430 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1431 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1433 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1434 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1435 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1436 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1437 doing the same thing.
1439 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1440 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1442 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1443 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1445 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1447 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1448 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1449 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1450 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1451 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1453 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1454 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1456 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1457 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1458 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1461 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1463 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1464 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1467 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1468 and writing the utmp file.
1470 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1473 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1474 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1475 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1477 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1478 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1480 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1481 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1484 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1485 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1486 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1487 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1489 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1490 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1491 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1493 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1494 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1495 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1498 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1501 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1504 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1506 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1507 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1508 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1512 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1514 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1515 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1517 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1518 want to put themselves in the background.
1520 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1521 run without an operating system.
1523 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1524 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1526 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1527 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1529 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1531 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1532 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1535 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1538 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1539 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1543 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1544 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1545 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1547 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1548 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1550 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1551 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1553 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1555 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1557 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1560 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1561 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1562 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1564 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1566 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1567 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1568 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1570 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1571 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1572 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1573 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1574 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1577 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1578 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1579 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1580 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1581 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1584 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1585 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1589 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1590 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1592 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1593 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1594 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1596 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1597 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1598 address of the last character written.
1600 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1601 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1603 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1604 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1606 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1607 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1608 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1609 you dereference this pointer.
1611 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1612 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1614 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1615 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1616 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1617 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1619 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1620 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1621 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1622 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1626 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1627 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1628 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1629 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1630 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1632 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1634 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1636 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1637 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1639 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1640 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1642 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1643 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1645 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1646 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1647 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1648 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1649 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1651 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1652 to the error code in `errno'.
1654 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1655 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1656 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1659 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1660 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1661 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1663 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1664 uniquely-named temporary file.
1668 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1669 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1670 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1672 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1675 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1676 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1678 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1682 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1683 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1684 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1685 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1687 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1688 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1689 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1691 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1692 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1694 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1695 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1696 made itself into a shared library.
1698 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1699 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1701 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1702 with limited length.
1704 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1706 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1708 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1710 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1711 function for traversing a directory tree.
1713 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1714 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1715 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1716 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1718 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1719 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1721 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1723 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1724 things to your strings.
1726 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1728 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1729 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1730 supporting those systems.
1732 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1733 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1734 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1735 configuration files.
1737 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1738 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1740 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1741 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1744 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1745 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1746 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1747 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1748 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1749 required storage is not available.
1751 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1752 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1754 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1755 latest files released from Berkeley.
1757 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1758 Copyright information:
1760 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1761 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1763 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1764 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1765 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1766 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1768 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1769 of this document, or of portions of it,
1770 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1771 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1774 version-control: never