1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-13
3 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 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 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
13 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
16 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
18 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
20 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
21 obviously requires a database library being available.
23 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
27 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
28 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
30 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
32 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
33 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
36 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
37 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
38 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
40 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
41 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
43 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
44 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
45 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
47 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
48 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
49 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
50 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
52 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
53 structures for the wide character tables.
55 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
57 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
59 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
61 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
64 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
66 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
68 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
70 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
72 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
74 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
75 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
76 implemented for Linux.
78 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
79 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
80 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
83 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
86 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
88 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
89 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
90 ******************************************
92 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
93 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
96 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
97 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
100 Recommended Tools for Compilation
101 =================================
103 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
104 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
106 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
107 including the provided set of patches.
109 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
110 the recommended solution):
112 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
113 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
114 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
116 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
117 =================================================
119 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
120 later to funtion properly. Besides that it currently does not have
121 support for debug and profiling libraries. Hence the following options
122 are required for configuring the library:
124 --disable-debug --disable-profile --enable-kernel=2.4.0
126 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
127 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
128 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
129 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
131 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
137 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
141 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
146 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
148 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
162 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
164 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
166 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
168 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
170 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
172 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
174 * Update timezone data files.
176 * lots of charmaps corrections
178 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
183 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
184 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
185 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
186 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
187 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
188 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
190 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
191 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
193 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
196 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
197 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
199 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
201 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
204 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
206 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
207 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
209 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
212 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
213 functions from ISO C 9X.
215 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
216 real valued functions.
218 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
220 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
222 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
224 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
226 * Optimized string functions have been added.
228 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
230 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
232 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
233 daemon for NSS (nscd).
235 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
236 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
240 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
242 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
244 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
246 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
248 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
250 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
252 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
253 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
256 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
257 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
259 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
261 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
263 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
264 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
266 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
268 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
271 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
272 latest draft standards.
274 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
276 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
277 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
278 addseverity NEW: Unix98
280 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
281 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
282 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
283 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
284 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
285 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
286 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
287 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
288 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
289 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
290 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
291 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
292 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
293 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
294 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
295 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
299 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
300 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
310 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
311 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
316 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
317 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
319 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
332 clearerr_locked REMOVED
333 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
336 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
337 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
368 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
369 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
370 endutxent NEW: Unix98
382 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
383 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
384 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
385 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
386 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
388 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
389 ferror_locked REMOVED
390 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
391 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
392 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
393 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
394 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
395 fflush_locked REMOVED
399 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
400 fileno_locked REMOVED
413 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
414 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
425 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
426 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
430 getchar_locked REMOVED
432 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
433 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
435 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
436 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
438 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
440 getutxent NEW: Unix98
442 getutxline NEW: Unix98
444 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
445 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
446 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
447 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
448 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
450 iconv_close NEW: iconv
451 iconv_open NEW: iconv
452 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
453 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
454 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
455 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
456 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
457 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
458 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
459 isastream NEW: STREAMS
460 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
461 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
462 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
463 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
464 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
465 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
466 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
467 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
468 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
469 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
471 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
472 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
473 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
474 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
475 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
483 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
484 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
486 makecontext NEW: Unix98
487 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
490 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
494 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
495 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
496 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
497 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
498 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
499 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
500 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
501 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
505 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
511 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
512 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
513 profil_counter REMOVED
514 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
515 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
516 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
517 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
519 putchar_locked REMOVED
520 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
523 pututxline NEW: Unix98
529 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
530 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
535 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
536 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
537 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
540 setcontext NEW: Unix98
542 setutxent NEW: Unix98
544 sigignore NEW: Unix98
545 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
548 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
549 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
551 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
552 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
556 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
557 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
558 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
559 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
560 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
561 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
562 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
563 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
564 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
565 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
567 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
568 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
575 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
577 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
578 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
579 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
580 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
582 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
583 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
584 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
585 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
586 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
587 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
588 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
591 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
592 write_profiling REMOVED
593 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
594 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
595 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
596 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
597 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
598 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
599 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
600 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
601 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
602 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
603 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
604 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
605 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
606 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
607 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
608 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
619 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
621 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
623 * rewrite of cbrt function
625 * update of timezone data
641 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
647 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
649 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
651 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
652 the ELF dynamic loader.
654 * support for parallel builds is improved
658 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
659 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
662 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
663 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
664 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
665 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
666 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
667 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
668 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
669 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
670 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
671 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
672 files in the ELF format.
674 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
675 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
677 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
678 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
679 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
680 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
681 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
682 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
683 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
684 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
685 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
686 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
687 about dynamically linked binaries.
689 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
690 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
691 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
692 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
693 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
695 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
696 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
697 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
698 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
699 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
701 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
703 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
704 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
705 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
706 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
707 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
708 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
709 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
710 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
711 NSS services available.
713 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
714 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
715 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
717 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
718 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
719 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
721 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
722 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
723 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
724 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
726 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
727 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
728 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
730 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
731 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
732 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
734 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
735 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
737 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
738 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
739 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
740 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
742 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
743 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
744 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
746 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
747 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
748 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
749 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
750 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
751 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
752 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
753 the header file <printf.h> for details.
755 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
756 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
757 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
758 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
759 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
760 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
761 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
763 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
764 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
765 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
766 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
767 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
768 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
770 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
771 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
773 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
774 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
775 NSS scheme used in glibc.
777 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
779 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
780 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
781 their use is discouraged.
783 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
784 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
786 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
787 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
789 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
790 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
792 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
795 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
796 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
797 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
798 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
799 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
801 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
802 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
803 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
804 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
806 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
807 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
809 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
810 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
811 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
812 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
815 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
816 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
818 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
819 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
821 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
822 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
823 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
824 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
826 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
828 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
829 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
830 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
832 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
833 for arithmetic and string handling.
835 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
836 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
837 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
838 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
840 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
841 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
842 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
843 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
844 programs already written to use it.)
846 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
849 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
852 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
853 a given effective group ID.
855 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
856 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
857 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
858 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
860 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
861 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
862 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
863 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
864 doing the same thing.
866 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
867 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
869 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
870 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
872 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
874 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
875 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
876 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
877 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
878 `-ldb' to get these functions.
880 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
881 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
883 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
884 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
885 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
888 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
890 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
891 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
894 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
895 and writing the utmp file.
897 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
900 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
901 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
902 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
904 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
905 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
907 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
908 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
911 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
912 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
913 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
914 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
916 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
917 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
918 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
920 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
921 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
922 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
925 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
928 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
931 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
933 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
934 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
935 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
939 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
941 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
942 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
944 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
945 want to put themselves in the background.
947 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
948 run without an operating system.
950 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
951 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
953 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
954 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
956 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
958 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
959 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
962 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
965 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
966 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
970 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
971 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
972 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
974 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
975 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
977 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
978 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
980 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
982 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
984 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
987 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
988 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
989 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
991 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
993 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
994 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
995 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
997 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
998 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
999 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1000 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1001 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1004 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1005 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1006 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1007 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1008 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1011 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1012 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1016 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1017 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1019 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1020 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1021 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1023 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1024 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1025 address of the last character written.
1027 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1028 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1030 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1031 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1033 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1034 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1035 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1036 you dereference this pointer.
1038 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1039 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1041 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1042 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1043 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1044 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1046 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1047 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1048 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1049 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1053 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1054 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1055 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1056 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1057 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1059 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1061 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1063 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1064 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1066 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1067 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1069 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1070 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1072 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1073 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1074 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1075 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1076 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1078 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1079 to the error code in `errno'.
1081 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1082 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1083 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1086 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1087 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1088 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1090 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1091 uniquely-named temporary file.
1095 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1096 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1097 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1099 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1102 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1103 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1105 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1109 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1110 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1111 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1112 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1114 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1115 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1116 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1118 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1119 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1121 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1122 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1123 made itself into a shared library.
1125 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1126 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1128 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1129 with limited length.
1131 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1133 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1135 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1137 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1138 function for traversing a directory tree.
1140 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1141 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1142 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1143 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1145 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1146 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1148 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1150 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1151 things to your strings.
1153 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1155 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1156 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1157 supporting those systems.
1159 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1160 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1161 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1162 configuration files.
1164 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1165 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1167 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1168 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1171 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1172 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1173 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1174 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1175 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1176 required storage is not available.
1178 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1179 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1181 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1182 latest files released from Berkeley.
1184 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1185 Copyright information:
1187 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1189 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1190 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1191 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1192 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1194 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1195 of this document, or of portions of it,
1196 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1197 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1200 version-control: never
git://sourceware.org / glibc.git / blob