1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-3-3
3 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 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 large integrated. It provides fast and
13 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
14 in float, double, and long double format.
16 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
17 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
18 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
22 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
23 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
24 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
25 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
26 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
27 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
30 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
31 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
33 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
34 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
35 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
36 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
43 only lists the names of the supported locales
47 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
48 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
52 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
53 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
54 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
55 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
56 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
60 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
62 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
64 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
65 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
66 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
68 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
69 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
71 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
72 changed from the default "C" locale.
74 * The usual bug fixes.
78 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
79 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
82 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
84 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
86 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
87 obviously requires a database library being available.
89 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
91 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
93 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
94 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
96 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
98 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
99 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
102 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
103 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
104 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
106 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
107 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
109 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
110 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
111 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
113 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
114 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
115 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
116 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
118 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
119 structures for the wide character tables.
121 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
123 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
125 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
127 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
130 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
132 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
134 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
136 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
138 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
140 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
141 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
142 implemented for Linux.
144 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
145 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
146 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
149 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
152 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
154 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
155 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
156 ******************************************
158 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
159 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
162 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
163 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
166 Recommended Tools for Compilation
167 =================================
169 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
170 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
172 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
173 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
174 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
176 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
177 the recommended solution):
179 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
180 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
181 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
183 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
184 =================================================
186 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
187 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
188 is currently untested. Hence the following options
189 are required for configuring the library:
191 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
193 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
194 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
195 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
196 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
198 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
203 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
207 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
212 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
214 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
230 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
232 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
234 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
236 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
238 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
240 * Update timezone data files.
242 * lots of charmaps corrections
244 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
249 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
250 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
251 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
252 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
253 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
254 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
256 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
257 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
259 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
262 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
263 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
265 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
267 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
270 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
272 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
273 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
275 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
278 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
279 functions from ISO C 9X.
281 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
282 real valued functions.
284 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
286 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
288 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
290 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
292 * Optimized string functions have been added.
294 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
296 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
298 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
299 daemon for NSS (nscd).
301 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
302 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
306 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
308 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
310 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
312 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
314 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
316 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
318 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
319 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
322 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
323 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
325 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
327 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
329 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
330 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
332 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
334 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
337 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
338 latest draft standards.
340 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
342 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
343 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
344 addseverity NEW: Unix98
346 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
347 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
348 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
349 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
350 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
351 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
352 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
353 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
354 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
355 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
356 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
357 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
358 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
359 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
360 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
361 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
365 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
366 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
376 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
377 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
382 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
383 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
385 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
398 clearerr_locked REMOVED
399 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
402 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
403 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
434 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
435 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
436 endutxent NEW: Unix98
448 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
449 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
450 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
451 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
452 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
454 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
455 ferror_locked REMOVED
456 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
457 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
458 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
459 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
460 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
461 fflush_locked REMOVED
465 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
466 fileno_locked REMOVED
479 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
480 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
491 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
492 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
496 getchar_locked REMOVED
498 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
499 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
501 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
502 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
504 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
506 getutxent NEW: Unix98
508 getutxline NEW: Unix98
510 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
511 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
512 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
513 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
514 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
516 iconv_close NEW: iconv
517 iconv_open NEW: iconv
518 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
519 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
520 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
521 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
522 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
523 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
524 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
525 isastream NEW: STREAMS
526 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
527 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
528 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
529 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
530 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
531 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
532 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
533 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
534 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
535 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
537 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
538 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
539 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
540 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
541 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
549 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
550 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
552 makecontext NEW: Unix98
553 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
556 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
560 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
561 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
562 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
563 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
564 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
565 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
566 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
567 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
571 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
577 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
578 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
579 profil_counter REMOVED
580 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
581 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
582 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
583 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
585 putchar_locked REMOVED
586 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
589 pututxline NEW: Unix98
595 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
596 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
601 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
602 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
603 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
606 setcontext NEW: Unix98
608 setutxent NEW: Unix98
610 sigignore NEW: Unix98
611 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
614 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
615 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
617 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
618 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
622 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
623 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
624 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
625 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
626 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
627 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
628 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
629 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
630 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
631 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
633 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
634 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
641 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
643 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
644 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
645 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
646 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
648 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
649 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
650 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
651 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
652 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
653 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
654 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
657 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
658 write_profiling REMOVED
659 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
660 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
661 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
662 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
663 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
664 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
665 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
666 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
667 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
668 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
669 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
670 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
671 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
672 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
673 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
674 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
685 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
687 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
689 * rewrite of cbrt function
691 * update of timezone data
707 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
713 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
715 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
717 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
718 the ELF dynamic loader.
720 * support for parallel builds is improved
724 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
725 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
728 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
729 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
730 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
731 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
732 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
733 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
734 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
735 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
736 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
737 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
738 files in the ELF format.
740 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
741 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
743 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
744 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
745 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
746 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
747 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
748 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
749 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
750 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
751 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
752 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
753 about dynamically linked binaries.
755 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
756 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
757 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
758 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
759 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
761 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
762 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
763 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
764 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
765 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
767 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
769 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
770 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
771 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
772 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
773 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
774 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
775 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
776 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
777 NSS services available.
779 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
780 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
781 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
783 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
784 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
785 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
787 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
788 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
789 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
790 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
792 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
793 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
794 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
796 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
797 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
798 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
800 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
801 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
803 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
804 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
805 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
806 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
808 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
809 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
810 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
812 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
813 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
814 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
815 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
816 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
817 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
818 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
819 the header file <printf.h> for details.
821 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
822 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
823 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
824 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
825 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
826 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
827 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
829 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
830 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
831 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
832 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
833 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
834 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
836 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
837 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
839 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
840 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
841 NSS scheme used in glibc.
843 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
845 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
846 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
847 their use is discouraged.
849 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
850 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
852 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
853 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
855 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
856 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
858 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
861 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
862 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
863 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
864 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
865 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
867 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
868 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
869 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
870 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
872 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
873 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
875 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
876 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
877 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
878 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
881 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
882 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
884 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
885 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
887 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
888 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
889 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
890 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
892 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
894 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
895 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
896 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
898 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
899 for arithmetic and string handling.
901 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
902 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
903 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
904 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
906 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
907 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
908 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
909 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
910 programs already written to use it.)
912 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
915 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
918 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
919 a given effective group ID.
921 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
922 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
923 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
924 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
926 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
927 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
928 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
929 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
930 doing the same thing.
932 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
933 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
935 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
936 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
938 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
940 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
941 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
942 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
943 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
944 `-ldb' to get these functions.
946 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
947 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
949 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
950 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
951 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
954 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
956 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
957 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
960 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
961 and writing the utmp file.
963 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
966 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
967 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
968 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
970 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
971 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
973 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
974 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
977 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
978 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
979 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
980 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
982 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
983 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
984 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
986 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
987 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
988 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
991 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
994 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
997 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
999 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1000 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1001 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1005 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1007 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1008 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1010 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1011 want to put themselves in the background.
1013 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1014 run without an operating system.
1016 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1017 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1019 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1020 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1022 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1024 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1025 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1028 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1031 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1032 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1036 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1037 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1038 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1040 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1041 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1043 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1044 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1046 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1048 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1050 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1053 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1054 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1055 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1057 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1059 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1060 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1061 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1063 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1064 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1065 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1066 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1067 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1070 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1071 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1072 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1073 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1074 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1077 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1078 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1082 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1083 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1085 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1086 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1087 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1089 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1090 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1091 address of the last character written.
1093 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1094 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1096 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1097 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1099 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1100 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1101 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1102 you dereference this pointer.
1104 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1105 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1107 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1108 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1109 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1110 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1112 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1113 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1114 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1115 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1119 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1120 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1121 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1122 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1123 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1125 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1127 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1129 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1130 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1132 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1133 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1135 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1136 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1138 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1139 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1140 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1141 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1142 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1144 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1145 to the error code in `errno'.
1147 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1148 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1149 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1152 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1153 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1154 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1156 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1157 uniquely-named temporary file.
1161 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1162 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1163 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1165 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1168 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1169 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1171 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1175 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1176 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1177 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1178 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1180 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1181 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1182 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1184 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1185 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1187 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1188 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1189 made itself into a shared library.
1191 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1192 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1194 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1195 with limited length.
1197 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1199 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1201 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1203 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1204 function for traversing a directory tree.
1206 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1207 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1208 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1209 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1211 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1212 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1214 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1216 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1217 things to your strings.
1219 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1221 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1222 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1223 supporting those systems.
1225 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1226 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1227 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1228 configuration files.
1230 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1231 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1233 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1234 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1237 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1238 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1239 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1240 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1241 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1242 required storage is not available.
1244 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1245 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1247 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1248 latest files released from Berkeley.
1250 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1251 Copyright information:
1253 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1255 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1256 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1257 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1258 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1260 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1261 of this document, or of portions of it,
1262 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1263 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1266 version-control: never
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