1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-3-14
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 Linux interfaces: accept4, fallocate, fallocate64.
12 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
13 could lead to compile error for invalid C++ code.
15 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment. Many GNU-specific functions are
18 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
19 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
21 * New ISO C++1x interfaces: quick_exit, at_quick_exit
22 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
24 * Support for selecting between multiple function definitions at runtime
25 using STT_GNU_IFUNC symbols. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * New locale: nan_TW@latin
32 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
33 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
35 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
36 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
38 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
39 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
41 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
42 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
43 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
45 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
46 Implemented by Eric Blake.
48 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
50 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
51 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
53 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
54 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
55 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
56 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
58 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
59 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
61 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
63 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
65 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
69 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
71 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
73 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
74 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
76 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
78 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
79 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
81 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
82 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
85 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
86 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
88 * Faster memset for x86-64.
89 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
91 * Faster memcpy on x86.
92 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
94 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
95 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
97 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
98 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
102 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
103 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
105 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
107 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
108 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
109 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
111 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
112 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
114 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
115 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
117 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
119 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
120 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
122 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
123 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
125 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
126 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
128 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
130 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
131 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
133 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
134 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
137 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
138 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
142 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
144 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
146 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
151 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
152 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
153 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
155 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
156 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
158 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
160 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
162 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
163 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
164 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
165 site might have problems with the default behavior.
166 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
168 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
169 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
170 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
171 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
173 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
176 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
178 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
181 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
183 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
184 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
188 * More overflow detection functions.
190 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
191 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
193 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
194 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
195 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
196 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
197 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
198 by Masahide Washizawa.
200 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
201 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
203 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
204 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
205 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
206 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
208 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
209 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
211 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
213 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
214 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
215 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
217 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
218 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
220 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
221 for compatibility with some other systems.
223 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
227 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
229 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
230 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
231 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
232 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
233 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
234 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
236 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
238 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
240 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
244 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
246 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
247 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
248 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
249 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
251 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
255 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
256 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
258 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
259 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
260 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
262 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
263 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
265 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
267 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
269 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
270 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
273 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
274 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
275 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
277 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
278 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
280 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
281 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
282 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
283 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
285 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
286 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
287 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
288 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
290 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
291 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
292 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
293 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
294 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
298 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
299 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
301 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
302 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
304 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
305 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
307 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
308 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
310 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
313 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
316 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
321 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
322 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
323 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
324 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
325 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
326 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
327 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
328 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
329 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
331 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
332 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
333 and are now also available on the Hurd.
335 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
337 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
338 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
340 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
341 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
343 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
345 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
346 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
348 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
349 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
350 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
351 of weak definition in ld.so.
353 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
354 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
356 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
357 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
361 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
364 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
365 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
367 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
368 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
370 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
371 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
373 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
374 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
375 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
377 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
378 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
380 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
381 implementation of regex.
383 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
386 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
387 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
389 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
390 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
391 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
393 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
394 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
396 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
397 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
398 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
400 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
401 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
403 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
404 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
407 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
411 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
412 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
414 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
415 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
419 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
420 128-bit long double format.
422 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
423 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
425 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
427 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
429 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
432 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
433 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
435 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
439 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
440 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
442 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
445 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
446 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
448 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
450 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
451 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
452 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
454 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
455 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
457 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
458 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
460 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
464 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
465 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
466 in float, double, and long double format.
468 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
469 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
470 128-bit long double format.
472 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
473 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
474 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
475 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
477 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
478 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
479 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
481 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
482 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
484 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
485 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
487 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
488 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
489 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
491 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
492 family of functions for Linux/S390.
494 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
495 of functions for Linux/x86.
497 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
501 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
502 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
503 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
504 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
505 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
506 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
509 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
510 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
512 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
513 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
514 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
515 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
517 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
522 only lists the names of the supported locales
526 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
527 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
531 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
532 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
533 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
534 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
535 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
539 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
541 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
543 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
544 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
545 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
547 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
548 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
550 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
551 changed from the default "C" locale.
553 * The usual bug fixes.
557 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
558 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
561 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
563 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
565 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
566 obviously requires a database library being available.
568 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
570 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
572 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
573 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
575 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
577 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
578 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
581 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
582 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
583 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
585 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
586 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
588 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
589 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
590 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
592 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
593 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
594 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
595 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
597 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
598 structures for the wide character tables.
600 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
602 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
604 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
606 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
609 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
611 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
613 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
615 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
617 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
619 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
620 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
621 implemented for Linux.
623 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
624 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
625 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
628 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
631 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
633 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
634 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
635 ******************************************
637 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
638 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
641 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
642 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
645 Recommended Tools for Compilation
646 =================================
648 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
649 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
651 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
652 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
653 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
655 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
656 the recommended solution):
658 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
659 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
660 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
662 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
663 =================================================
665 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
666 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
667 is currently untested. Hence the following options
668 are required for configuring the library:
670 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
672 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
673 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
674 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
675 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
677 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
682 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
686 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
691 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
693 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
707 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
709 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
711 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
713 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
715 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
717 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
719 * Update timezone data files.
721 * lots of charmaps corrections
723 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
728 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
729 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
730 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
731 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
732 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
733 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
735 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
736 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
738 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
741 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
742 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
744 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
746 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
749 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
751 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
752 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
754 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
757 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
758 functions from ISO C 9X.
760 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
761 real valued functions.
763 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
765 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
767 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
769 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
771 * Optimized string functions have been added.
773 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
775 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
777 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
778 daemon for NSS (nscd).
780 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
781 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
785 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
787 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
789 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
791 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
793 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
795 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
797 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
798 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
801 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
802 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
804 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
806 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
808 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
809 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
811 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
813 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
816 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
817 latest draft standards.
819 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
821 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
822 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
823 addseverity NEW: Unix98
825 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
826 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
827 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
828 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
829 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
830 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
831 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
832 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
833 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
834 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
835 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
836 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
837 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
838 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
839 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
840 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
844 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
845 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
855 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
856 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
861 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
862 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
864 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
877 clearerr_locked REMOVED
878 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
881 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
882 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
913 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
914 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
915 endutxent NEW: Unix98
927 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
928 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
929 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
930 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
931 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
933 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
934 ferror_locked REMOVED
935 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
936 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
937 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
938 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
939 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
940 fflush_locked REMOVED
944 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
945 fileno_locked REMOVED
958 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
959 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
970 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
971 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
975 getchar_locked REMOVED
977 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
978 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
980 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
981 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
983 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
985 getutxent NEW: Unix98
987 getutxline NEW: Unix98
989 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
990 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
991 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
992 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
993 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
995 iconv_close NEW: iconv
996 iconv_open NEW: iconv
997 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
998 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
999 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
1000 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
1001 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
1002 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
1003 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
1004 isastream NEW: STREAMS
1005 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
1006 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1007 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1008 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
1009 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1010 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1011 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1012 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1013 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1014 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1015 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1016 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1017 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1019 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1020 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1025 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1026 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1027 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1028 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1029 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1031 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1032 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1035 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1039 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1040 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1041 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1042 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1043 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1044 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1045 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1046 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1050 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1052 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1053 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1056 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1057 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1058 profil_counter REMOVED
1059 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1060 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1061 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1062 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1064 putchar_locked REMOVED
1065 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1067 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1068 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1072 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1073 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1074 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1075 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1077 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1078 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1080 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1081 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1082 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1084 sendfile NEW: kernel
1085 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1086 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1087 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1089 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1090 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1091 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1092 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1093 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1094 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1095 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1096 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1097 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1101 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1102 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1103 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1104 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1105 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1106 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1107 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1108 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1109 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1110 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1111 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1112 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1113 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1117 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1118 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1120 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1121 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1122 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1123 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1124 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1125 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1127 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1128 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1129 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1130 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1131 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1132 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1133 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1135 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1136 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1137 write_profiling REMOVED
1138 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1139 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1140 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1141 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1142 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1143 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1144 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1145 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1146 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1147 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1148 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1149 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1150 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1151 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1152 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1153 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1164 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1166 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1168 * rewrite of cbrt function
1170 * update of timezone data
1184 * add atoll function
1186 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1188 * fix math functions
1192 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1194 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1196 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1197 the ELF dynamic loader.
1199 * support for parallel builds is improved
1203 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1204 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1207 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1208 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1209 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1210 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1211 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1212 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1213 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1214 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1215 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1216 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1217 files in the ELF format.
1219 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1220 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1222 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1223 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1224 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1225 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1226 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1227 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1228 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1229 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1230 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1231 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1232 about dynamically linked binaries.
1234 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1235 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1236 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1237 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1238 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1240 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1241 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1242 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1243 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1244 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1246 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1248 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1249 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1250 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1251 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1252 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1253 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1254 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1255 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1256 NSS services available.
1258 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1259 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1260 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1262 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1263 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1264 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1266 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1267 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1268 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1269 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1271 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1272 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1273 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1275 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1276 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1277 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1279 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1280 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1282 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1283 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1284 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1285 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1287 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1288 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1289 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1291 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1292 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1293 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1294 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1295 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1296 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1297 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1298 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1300 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1301 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1302 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1303 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1304 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1305 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1306 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1308 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1309 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1310 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1311 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1312 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1313 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1315 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1316 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1318 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1319 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1320 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1322 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1324 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1325 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1326 their use is discouraged.
1328 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1329 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1331 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1332 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1334 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1335 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1337 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1340 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1341 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1342 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1343 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1344 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1346 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1347 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1348 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1349 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1351 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1352 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1354 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1355 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1356 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1357 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1360 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1361 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1363 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1364 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1366 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1367 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1368 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1369 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1371 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1373 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1374 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1375 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1377 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1378 for arithmetic and string handling.
1380 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1381 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1382 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1383 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1385 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1386 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1387 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1388 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1389 programs already written to use it.)
1391 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1394 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1397 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1398 a given effective group ID.
1400 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1401 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1402 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1403 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1405 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1406 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1407 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1408 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1409 doing the same thing.
1411 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1412 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1414 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1415 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1417 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1419 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1420 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1421 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1422 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1423 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1425 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1426 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1428 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1429 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1430 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1433 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1435 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1436 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1439 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1440 and writing the utmp file.
1442 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1445 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1446 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1447 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1449 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1450 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1452 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1453 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1456 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1457 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1458 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1459 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1461 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1462 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1463 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1465 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1466 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1467 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1470 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1473 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1476 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1478 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1479 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1480 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1484 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1486 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1487 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1489 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1490 want to put themselves in the background.
1492 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1493 run without an operating system.
1495 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1496 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1498 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1499 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1501 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1503 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1504 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1507 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1510 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1511 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1515 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1516 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1517 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1519 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1520 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1522 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1523 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1525 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1527 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1529 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1532 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1533 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1534 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1536 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1538 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1539 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1540 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1542 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1543 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1544 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1545 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1546 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1549 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1550 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1551 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1552 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1553 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1556 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1557 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1561 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1562 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1564 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1565 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1566 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1568 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1569 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1570 address of the last character written.
1572 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1573 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1575 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1576 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1578 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1579 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1580 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1581 you dereference this pointer.
1583 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1584 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1586 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1587 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1588 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1589 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1591 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1592 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1593 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1594 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1598 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1599 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1600 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1601 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1602 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1604 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1606 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1608 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1609 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1611 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1612 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1614 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1615 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1617 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1618 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1619 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1620 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1621 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1623 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1624 to the error code in `errno'.
1626 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1627 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1628 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1631 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1632 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1633 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1635 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1636 uniquely-named temporary file.
1640 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1641 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1642 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1644 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1647 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1648 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1650 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1654 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1655 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1656 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1657 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1659 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1660 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1661 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1663 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1664 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1666 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1667 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1668 made itself into a shared library.
1670 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1671 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1673 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1674 with limited length.
1676 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1678 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1680 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1682 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1683 function for traversing a directory tree.
1685 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1686 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1687 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1688 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1690 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1691 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1693 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1695 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1696 things to your strings.
1698 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1700 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1701 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1702 supporting those systems.
1704 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1705 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1706 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1707 configuration files.
1709 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1710 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1712 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1713 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1716 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1717 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1718 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1719 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1720 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1721 required storage is not available.
1723 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1724 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1726 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1727 latest files released from Berkeley.
1729 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1730 Copyright information:
1732 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1733 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1735 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1736 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1737 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1738 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1740 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1741 of this document, or of portions of it,
1742 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1743 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1746 version-control: never