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 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
80 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
81 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
82 ******************************************
84 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
85 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
88 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
89 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
92 Recommended Tools for Compilation
93 =================================
95 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
96 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
98 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
99 including the provided set of patches.
101 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
102 the recommended solution):
104 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
105 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
106 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
108 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
109 =================================================
111 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
112 later to funtion properly. Besides that it currently does not have
113 support for debug and profiling libraries. Hence the following options
114 are required for configuring the library:
116 --disable-debug --disable-profile --enable-kernel=2.4.0
118 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
119 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
120 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
121 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
123 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
129 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
133 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
138 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
140 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
154 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
156 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
158 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
160 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
162 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
164 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
166 * Update timezone data files.
168 * lots of charmaps corrections
170 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
175 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
176 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
177 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
178 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
179 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
180 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
182 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
183 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
185 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
188 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
189 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
191 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
193 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
196 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
198 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
199 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
201 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
204 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
205 functions from ISO C 9X.
207 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
208 real valued functions.
210 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
212 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
214 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
216 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
218 * Optimized string functions have been added.
220 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
222 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
224 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
225 daemon for NSS (nscd).
227 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
228 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
232 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
234 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
236 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
238 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
240 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
242 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
244 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
245 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
248 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
249 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
251 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
253 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
255 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
256 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
258 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
260 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
263 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
264 latest draft standards.
266 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
268 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
269 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
270 addseverity NEW: Unix98
272 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
273 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
274 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
275 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
276 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
277 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
278 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
279 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
280 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
281 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
282 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
283 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
284 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
285 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
286 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
287 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
291 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
292 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
302 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
303 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
308 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
309 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
311 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
324 clearerr_locked REMOVED
325 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
328 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
329 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
360 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
361 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
362 endutxent NEW: Unix98
374 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
375 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
376 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
377 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
378 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
380 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
381 ferror_locked REMOVED
382 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
383 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
384 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
385 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
386 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
387 fflush_locked REMOVED
391 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
392 fileno_locked REMOVED
405 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
406 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
417 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
418 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
422 getchar_locked REMOVED
424 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
425 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
427 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
428 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
430 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
432 getutxent NEW: Unix98
434 getutxline NEW: Unix98
436 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
437 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
438 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
439 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
440 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
442 iconv_close NEW: iconv
443 iconv_open NEW: iconv
444 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
445 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
446 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
447 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
448 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
449 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
450 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
451 isastream NEW: STREAMS
452 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
453 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
454 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
455 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
456 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
457 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
458 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
459 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
460 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
461 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
463 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
464 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
465 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
466 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
467 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
475 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
476 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
478 makecontext NEW: Unix98
479 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
482 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
486 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
487 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
488 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
489 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
490 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
491 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
492 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
493 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
497 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
503 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
504 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
505 profil_counter REMOVED
506 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
507 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
508 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
509 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
511 putchar_locked REMOVED
512 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
515 pututxline NEW: Unix98
521 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
522 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
527 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
528 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
529 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
532 setcontext NEW: Unix98
534 setutxent NEW: Unix98
536 sigignore NEW: Unix98
537 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
540 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
541 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
543 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
544 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
548 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
549 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
550 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
551 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
552 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
553 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
554 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
555 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
556 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
557 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
559 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
560 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
567 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
569 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
570 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
571 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
572 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
574 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
575 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
576 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
577 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
578 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
579 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
580 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
583 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
584 write_profiling REMOVED
585 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
586 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
587 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
588 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
589 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
590 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
591 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
592 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
593 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
594 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
595 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
596 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
597 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
598 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
599 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
600 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
611 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
613 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
615 * rewrite of cbrt function
617 * update of timezone data
633 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
639 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
641 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
643 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
644 the ELF dynamic loader.
646 * support for parallel builds is improved
650 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
651 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
654 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
655 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
656 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
657 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
658 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
659 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
660 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
661 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
662 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
663 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
664 files in the ELF format.
666 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
667 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
669 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
670 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
671 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
672 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
673 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
674 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
675 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
676 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
677 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
678 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
679 about dynamically linked binaries.
681 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
682 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
683 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
684 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
685 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
687 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
688 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
689 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
690 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
691 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
693 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
695 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
696 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
697 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
698 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
699 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
700 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
701 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
702 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
703 NSS services available.
705 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
706 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
707 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
709 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
710 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
711 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
713 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
714 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
715 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
716 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
718 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
719 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
720 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
722 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
723 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
724 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
726 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
727 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
729 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
730 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
731 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
732 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
734 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
735 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
736 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
738 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
739 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
740 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
741 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
742 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
743 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
744 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
745 the header file <printf.h> for details.
747 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
748 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
749 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
750 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
751 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
752 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
753 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
755 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
756 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
757 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
758 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
759 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
760 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
762 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
763 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
765 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
766 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
767 NSS scheme used in glibc.
769 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
771 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
772 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
773 their use is discouraged.
775 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
776 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
778 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
779 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
781 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
782 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
784 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
787 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
788 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
789 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
790 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
791 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
793 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
794 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
795 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
796 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
798 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
799 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
801 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
802 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
803 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
804 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
807 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
808 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
810 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
811 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
813 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
814 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
815 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
816 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
818 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
820 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
821 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
822 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
824 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
825 for arithmetic and string handling.
827 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
828 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
829 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
830 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
832 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
833 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
834 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
835 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
836 programs already written to use it.)
838 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
841 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
844 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
845 a given effective group ID.
847 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
848 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
849 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
850 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
852 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
853 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
854 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
855 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
856 doing the same thing.
858 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
859 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
861 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
862 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
864 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
866 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
867 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
868 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
869 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
870 `-ldb' to get these functions.
872 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
873 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
875 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
876 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
877 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
880 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
882 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
883 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
886 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
887 and writing the utmp file.
889 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
892 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
893 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
894 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
896 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
897 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
899 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
900 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
903 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
904 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
905 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
906 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
908 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
909 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
910 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
912 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
913 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
914 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
917 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
920 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
923 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
925 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
926 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
927 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
931 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
933 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
934 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
936 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
937 want to put themselves in the background.
939 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
940 run without an operating system.
942 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
943 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
945 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
946 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
948 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
950 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
951 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
954 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
957 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
958 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
962 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
963 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
964 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
966 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
967 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
969 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
970 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
972 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
974 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
976 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
979 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
980 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
981 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
983 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
985 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
986 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
987 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
989 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
990 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
991 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
992 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
993 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
996 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
997 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
998 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
999 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1000 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1003 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1004 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1008 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1009 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1011 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1012 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1013 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1015 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1016 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1017 address of the last character written.
1019 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1020 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1022 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1023 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1025 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1026 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1027 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1028 you dereference this pointer.
1030 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1031 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1033 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1034 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1035 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1036 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1038 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1039 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1040 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1041 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1045 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1046 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1047 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1048 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1049 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1051 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1053 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1055 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1056 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1058 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1059 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1061 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1062 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1064 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1065 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1066 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1067 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1068 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1070 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1071 to the error code in `errno'.
1073 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1074 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1075 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1078 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1079 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1080 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1082 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1083 uniquely-named temporary file.
1087 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1088 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1089 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1091 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1094 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1095 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1097 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1101 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1102 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1103 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1104 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1106 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1107 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1108 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1110 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1111 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1113 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1114 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1115 made itself into a shared library.
1117 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1118 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1120 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1121 with limited length.
1123 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1125 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1127 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1129 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1130 function for traversing a directory tree.
1132 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1133 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1134 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1135 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1137 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1138 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1140 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1142 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1143 things to your strings.
1145 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1147 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1148 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1149 supporting those systems.
1151 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1152 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1153 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1154 configuration files.
1156 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1157 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1159 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1160 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1163 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1164 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1165 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1166 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1167 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1168 required storage is not available.
1170 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1171 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1173 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1174 latest files released from Berkeley.
1176 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1177 Copyright information:
1179 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1181 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1182 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1183 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1184 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1186 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1187 of this document, or of portions of it,
1188 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1189 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1192 version-control: never
git://sourceware.org / glibc.git / blob