1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-4-5
3 Copyright (C) 1992-2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
7 <bugs@gnu.org>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
12 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
13 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
14 in float, double, and long double format.
16 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
17 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and logl for the 128-bit
20 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
21 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
22 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
23 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
25 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
26 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
27 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
29 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
30 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
32 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
33 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
35 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
36 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
37 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
39 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
40 family of functions for Linux/S390.
42 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
43 of functions for Linux/x86.
45 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
49 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
50 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
51 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
52 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
53 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
54 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
57 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
58 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
60 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
61 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
62 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
63 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
65 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
70 only lists the names of the supported locales
74 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
75 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
79 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
80 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
81 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
82 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
83 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
87 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
89 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
91 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
92 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
93 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
95 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
96 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
98 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
99 changed from the default "C" locale.
101 * The usual bug fixes.
105 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
106 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
109 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
111 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
113 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
114 obviously requires a database library being available.
116 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
118 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
120 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
121 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
123 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
125 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
126 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
129 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
130 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
131 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
133 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
134 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
136 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
137 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
138 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
140 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
141 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
142 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
143 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
145 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
146 structures for the wide character tables.
148 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
150 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
152 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
154 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
157 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
159 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
161 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
163 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
165 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
167 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
168 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
169 implemented for Linux.
171 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
172 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
173 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
176 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
179 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
181 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
182 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
183 ******************************************
185 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
186 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
189 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
190 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
193 Recommended Tools for Compilation
194 =================================
196 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
197 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
199 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
200 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
201 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
203 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
204 the recommended solution):
206 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
207 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
208 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
210 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
211 =================================================
213 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
214 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
215 is currently untested. Hence the following options
216 are required for configuring the library:
218 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
220 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
221 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
222 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
223 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
225 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
230 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
234 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
239 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
241 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
255 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
257 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
259 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
261 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
263 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
265 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
267 * Update timezone data files.
269 * lots of charmaps corrections
271 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
276 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
277 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
278 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
279 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
280 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
281 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
283 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
284 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
286 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
289 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
290 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
292 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
294 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
297 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
299 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
300 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
302 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
305 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
306 functions from ISO C 9X.
308 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
309 real valued functions.
311 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
313 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
315 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
317 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
319 * Optimized string functions have been added.
321 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
323 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
325 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
326 daemon for NSS (nscd).
328 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
329 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
333 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
335 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
337 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
339 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
341 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
343 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
345 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
346 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
349 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
350 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
352 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
354 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
356 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
357 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
359 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
361 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
364 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
365 latest draft standards.
367 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
369 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
370 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
371 addseverity NEW: Unix98
373 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
374 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
375 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
376 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
377 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
378 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
379 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
380 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
381 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
382 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
383 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
384 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
385 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
386 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
387 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
388 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
392 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
393 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
403 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
404 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
409 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
410 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
412 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
425 clearerr_locked REMOVED
426 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
429 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
430 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
461 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
462 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
463 endutxent NEW: Unix98
475 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
476 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
477 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
478 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
479 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
481 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
482 ferror_locked REMOVED
483 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
484 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
485 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
486 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
487 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
488 fflush_locked REMOVED
492 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
493 fileno_locked REMOVED
506 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
507 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
518 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
519 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
523 getchar_locked REMOVED
525 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
526 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
528 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
529 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
531 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
533 getutxent NEW: Unix98
535 getutxline NEW: Unix98
537 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
538 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
539 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
540 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
541 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
543 iconv_close NEW: iconv
544 iconv_open NEW: iconv
545 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
546 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
547 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
548 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
549 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
550 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
551 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
552 isastream NEW: STREAMS
553 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
554 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
555 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
556 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
557 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
558 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
559 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
560 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
561 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
562 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
564 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
565 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
566 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
567 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
568 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
576 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
577 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
579 makecontext NEW: Unix98
580 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
583 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
587 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
588 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
589 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
590 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
591 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
592 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
593 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
594 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
598 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
604 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
605 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
606 profil_counter REMOVED
607 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
608 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
609 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
610 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
612 putchar_locked REMOVED
613 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
616 pututxline NEW: Unix98
622 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
623 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
628 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
629 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
630 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
633 setcontext NEW: Unix98
635 setutxent NEW: Unix98
637 sigignore NEW: Unix98
638 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
641 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
642 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
644 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
645 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
649 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
650 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
651 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
652 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
653 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
654 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
655 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
656 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
657 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
658 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
660 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
661 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
668 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
670 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
671 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
672 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
673 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
675 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
676 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
677 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
678 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
679 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
680 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
681 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
684 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
685 write_profiling REMOVED
686 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
687 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
688 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
689 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
690 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
691 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
692 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
693 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
694 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
695 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
696 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
697 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
698 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
699 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
700 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
701 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
712 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
714 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
716 * rewrite of cbrt function
718 * update of timezone data
734 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
740 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
742 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
744 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
745 the ELF dynamic loader.
747 * support for parallel builds is improved
751 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
752 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
755 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
756 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
757 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
758 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
759 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
760 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
761 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
762 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
763 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
764 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
765 files in the ELF format.
767 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
768 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
770 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
771 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
772 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
773 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
774 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
775 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
776 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
777 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
778 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
779 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
780 about dynamically linked binaries.
782 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
783 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
784 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
785 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
786 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
788 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
789 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
790 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
791 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
792 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
794 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
796 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
797 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
798 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
799 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
800 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
801 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
802 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
803 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
804 NSS services available.
806 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
807 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
808 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
810 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
811 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
812 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
814 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
815 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
816 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
817 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
819 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
820 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
821 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
823 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
824 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
825 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
827 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
828 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
830 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
831 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
832 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
833 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
835 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
836 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
837 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
839 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
840 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
841 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
842 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
843 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
844 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
845 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
846 the header file <printf.h> for details.
848 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
849 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
850 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
851 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
852 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
853 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
854 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
856 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
857 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
858 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
859 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
860 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
861 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
863 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
864 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
866 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
867 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
868 NSS scheme used in glibc.
870 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
872 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
873 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
874 their use is discouraged.
876 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
877 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
879 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
880 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
882 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
883 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
885 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
888 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
889 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
890 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
891 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
892 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
894 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
895 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
896 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
897 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
899 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
900 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
902 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
903 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
904 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
905 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
908 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
909 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
911 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
912 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
914 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
915 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
916 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
917 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
919 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
921 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
922 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
923 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
925 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
926 for arithmetic and string handling.
928 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
929 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
930 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
931 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
933 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
934 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
935 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
936 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
937 programs already written to use it.)
939 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
942 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
945 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
946 a given effective group ID.
948 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
949 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
950 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
951 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
953 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
954 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
955 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
956 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
957 doing the same thing.
959 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
960 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
962 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
963 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
965 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
967 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
968 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
969 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
970 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
971 `-ldb' to get these functions.
973 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
974 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
976 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
977 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
978 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
981 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
983 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
984 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
987 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
988 and writing the utmp file.
990 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
993 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
994 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
995 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
997 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
998 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1000 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1001 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1004 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1005 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1006 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1007 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1009 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1010 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1011 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1013 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1014 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1015 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1018 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1021 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1024 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1026 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1027 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1028 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1032 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1034 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1035 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1037 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1038 want to put themselves in the background.
1040 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1041 run without an operating system.
1043 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1044 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1046 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1047 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1049 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1051 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1052 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1055 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1058 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1059 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1063 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1064 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1065 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1067 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1068 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1070 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1071 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1073 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1075 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1077 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1080 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1081 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1082 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1084 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1086 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1087 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1088 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1090 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1091 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1092 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1093 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1094 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1097 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1098 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1099 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1100 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1101 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1104 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1105 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1109 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1110 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1112 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1113 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1114 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1116 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1117 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1118 address of the last character written.
1120 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1121 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1123 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1124 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1126 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1127 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1128 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1129 you dereference this pointer.
1131 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1132 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1134 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1135 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1136 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1137 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1139 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1140 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1141 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1142 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1146 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1147 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1148 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1149 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1150 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1152 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1154 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1156 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1157 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1159 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1160 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1162 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1163 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1165 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1166 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1167 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1168 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1169 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1171 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1172 to the error code in `errno'.
1174 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1175 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1176 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1179 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1180 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1181 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1183 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1184 uniquely-named temporary file.
1188 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1189 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1190 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1192 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1195 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1196 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1198 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1202 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1203 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1204 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1205 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1207 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1208 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1209 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1211 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1212 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1214 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1215 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1216 made itself into a shared library.
1218 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1219 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1221 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1222 with limited length.
1224 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1226 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1228 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1230 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1231 function for traversing a directory tree.
1233 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1234 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1235 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1236 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1238 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1239 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1241 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1243 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1244 things to your strings.
1246 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1248 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1249 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1250 supporting those systems.
1252 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1253 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1254 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1255 configuration files.
1257 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1258 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1260 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1261 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1264 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1265 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1266 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1267 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1268 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1269 required storage is not available.
1271 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1272 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1274 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1275 latest files released from Berkeley.
1277 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1278 Copyright information:
1280 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1282 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1283 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1284 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1285 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1287 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1288 of this document, or of portions of it,
1289 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1290 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1293 version-control: never
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