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glibc 2.2.3


I've uploaded to

  ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/glibc/releases

the files

  glibc-2.2.3.tar.bz2                 (also .gz)
  glibc-2.2.2-2.2.3.diff.bz2          (also .gz)
  glibc-linuxthreads-2.2.3.tar.bz2    (also .gz)

which contain the third test release for glibc 2.2.3.  For those who
used the test releases there is also the file

  glibc-2.2.3pre3-2.2.3.diff.bz2      (also .gz)

This is not a pure bugfix release.  There were a few bigger problems
discovered since 2.2.2 so an upgrade is highly recommended.  But 2.2.3
also contains a quite large number of new features.  Coming from glibc
2.2.2 the user-visible changes include:

Version 2.2.3

* Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated.  It provides fast and
  accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
  in float, double, and long double format.

* Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
  and asin for the 96-bit long double format and logl for the 128-bit
  long double format.

* The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
  The basic double functions exist today.  Contributed by Abraham Ziv
  <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
  <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.

* An asynchronous name lookup library was added.  The interface is designed
  after POSIX AIO.  The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
  No negative ones came in.  Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.

* Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
  <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.

* David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
  of functions for Linux/IA-64.

* The RPC code is now thread safe.  Threads can now use the same service
  of different services at the same time.  Patch by Eric Norum
  <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.

* Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
  family of functions for Linux/S390.

* Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
  of functions for Linux/x86.

* Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.



The asynchronous name lookup code is not yet documented in the manual
but my original whitepaper is available at

  http://www.cygnus.com/~drepper/asynchnl.pdf


One other change is noting worthwhile.  To implement atexit() in the
present of dlopen() according to the upcoming Unix standard the
definition of atexit() is changed in a way which can cause problems
with most of today's gccs.  The problem is some code in gcc which was
necessary in libc5 but not with glibc.  A patch for gcc is available
at

  http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2001-03/msg01187.html

For a description of the problem look at

  http://sources.redhat.com/ml/libc-alpha/2001-03/msg00048.html


This release has be thoroughly tested but only with compilers which
are known to be working.  There are many compiler versions which are
not working correctly and the configure script is not able to catch
them all.  If something goes wrong during your compilation first try a
different compiler and less aggressive optimizations.

Some platforms (such as Arm and MIPS) are known to have some problems.
In the case of Arm it is suspected that the FPU emulator is broken.
The Cris and HP/PA ports are not yet complete.  Talk to the people who
are doing the ports and not to the glibc lists.


One final bit, the RPC code is now thread-safe but this didn't come
without a price.  Due to the "clever" (NOT!) design of the interface
it is not possible to transparently replace the use of the global
variable rpc_createerr with a hidden function call which does the
right thing.  The reason is that there is a data type with the same
name.  Very clever, Sun!  There are two possibilities implemented:

- use get_rpc_createerr() to the variable reference

- define _RPC_MT_VARS before including the RPC headers.  This will
  define a macro rpc_createerr which can cause the problem described
  above


As usual, report success and failures to
libc-alpha@sourceware.cygnus.com.


And my standard disclaimers:

- unless you are rolling your own distribution it is probably not wise
  to compile and install glibc yourself.  It's too risky, you can make
  your system unusable.

- never write to me directly about glibc issues.  I won't read it.
  Always use the mailing list.


I want to thank again all the people who contributed.  As usual of
major help were

  Andreas Jaeger
  Andreas Schwab
  Bruno Haible
  Jakub Jelinek
  Roland McGrath

Many others helped, please look at the ChangeLog to get an impression.

Thanks!

-- 
---------------.                          ,-.   1325 Chesapeake Terrace
Ulrich Drepper  \    ,-------------------'   \  Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA
Red Hat          `--' drepper at redhat.com   `------------------------


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