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 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
54 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
56 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
58 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
61 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
63 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
65 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
67 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
69 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
84 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
86 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
88 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
90 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
92 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
94 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
96 * Update timezone data files.
98 * lots of charmaps corrections
100 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
105 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
106 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
107 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
108 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
109 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
110 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
112 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
113 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
115 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
118 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
119 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
121 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
123 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
126 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
128 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
129 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
131 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
134 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
135 functions from ISO C 9X.
137 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
138 real valued functions.
140 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
142 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
144 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
146 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
148 * Optimized string functions have been added.
150 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
152 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
154 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
155 daemon for NSS (nscd).
157 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
158 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
162 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
164 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
166 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
168 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
170 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
172 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
174 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
175 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
178 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
179 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
181 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
183 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
185 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
186 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
188 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
190 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
193 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
194 latest draft standards.
196 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
198 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
199 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
200 addseverity NEW: Unix98
202 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
203 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
204 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
205 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
206 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
207 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
208 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
209 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
210 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
211 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
212 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
213 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
214 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
215 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
216 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
217 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
221 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
222 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
232 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
233 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
238 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
239 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
241 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
254 clearerr_locked REMOVED
255 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
258 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
259 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
290 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
291 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
292 endutxent NEW: Unix98
304 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
305 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
306 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
307 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
308 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
310 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
311 ferror_locked REMOVED
312 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
313 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
314 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
315 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
316 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
317 fflush_locked REMOVED
321 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
322 fileno_locked REMOVED
335 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
336 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
347 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
348 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
352 getchar_locked REMOVED
354 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
355 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
357 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
358 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
360 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
362 getutxent NEW: Unix98
364 getutxline NEW: Unix98
366 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
367 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
368 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
369 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
370 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
372 iconv_close NEW: iconv
373 iconv_open NEW: iconv
374 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
375 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
376 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
377 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
378 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
379 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
380 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
381 isastream NEW: STREAMS
382 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
383 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
384 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
385 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
386 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
387 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
388 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
389 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
390 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
391 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
393 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
394 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
395 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
396 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
397 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
405 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
406 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
408 makecontext NEW: Unix98
409 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
412 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
416 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
417 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
418 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
419 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
420 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
421 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
422 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
423 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
427 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
433 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
434 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
435 profil_counter REMOVED
436 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
437 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
438 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
439 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
441 putchar_locked REMOVED
442 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
445 pututxline NEW: Unix98
451 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
452 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
457 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
458 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
459 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
462 setcontext NEW: Unix98
464 setutxent NEW: Unix98
466 sigignore NEW: Unix98
467 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
470 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
471 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
473 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
474 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
478 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
479 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
480 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
481 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
482 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
483 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
484 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
485 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
486 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
487 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
489 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
490 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
497 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
499 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
500 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
501 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
502 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
504 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
505 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
506 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
507 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
508 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
509 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
510 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
513 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
514 write_profiling REMOVED
515 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
516 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
517 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
518 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
519 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
520 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
521 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
522 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
523 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
524 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
525 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
526 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
527 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
528 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
529 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
530 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
541 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
543 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
545 * rewrite of cbrt function
547 * update of timezone data
563 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
569 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
571 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
573 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
574 the ELF dynamic loader.
576 * support for parallel builds is improved
580 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
581 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
584 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
585 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
586 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
587 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
588 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
589 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
590 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
591 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
592 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
593 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
594 files in the ELF format.
596 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
597 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
599 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
600 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
601 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
602 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
603 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
604 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
605 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
606 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
607 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
608 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
609 about dynamically linked binaries.
611 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
612 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
613 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
614 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
615 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
617 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
618 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
619 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
620 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
621 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
623 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
625 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
626 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
627 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
628 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
629 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
630 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
631 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
632 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
633 NSS services available.
635 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
636 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
637 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
639 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
640 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
641 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
643 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
644 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
645 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
646 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
648 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
649 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
650 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
652 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
653 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
654 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
656 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
657 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
659 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
660 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
661 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
662 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
664 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
665 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
666 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
668 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
669 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
670 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
671 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
672 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
673 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
674 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
675 the header file <printf.h> for details.
677 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
678 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
679 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
680 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
681 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
682 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
683 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
685 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
686 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
687 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
688 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
689 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
690 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
692 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
693 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
695 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
696 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
697 NSS scheme used in glibc.
699 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
701 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
702 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
703 their use is discouraged.
705 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
706 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
708 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
709 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
711 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
712 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
714 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
717 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
718 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
719 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
720 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
721 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
723 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
724 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
725 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
726 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
728 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
729 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
731 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
732 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
733 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
734 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
737 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
738 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
740 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
741 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
743 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
744 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
745 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
746 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
748 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
750 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
751 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
752 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
754 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
755 for arithmetic and string handling.
757 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
758 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
759 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
760 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
762 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
763 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
764 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
765 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
766 programs already written to use it.)
768 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
771 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
774 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
775 a given effective group ID.
777 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
778 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
779 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
780 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
782 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
783 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
784 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
785 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
786 doing the same thing.
788 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
789 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
791 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
792 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
794 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
796 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
797 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
798 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
799 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
800 `-ldb' to get these functions.
802 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
803 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
805 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
806 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
807 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
810 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
812 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
813 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
816 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
817 and writing the utmp file.
819 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
822 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
823 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
824 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
826 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
827 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
829 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
830 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
833 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
834 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
835 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
836 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
838 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
839 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
840 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
842 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
843 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
844 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
847 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
850 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
853 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
855 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
856 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
857 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
861 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
863 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
864 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
866 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
867 want to put themselves in the background.
869 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
870 run without an operating system.
872 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
873 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
875 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
876 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
878 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
880 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
881 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
884 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
887 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
888 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
892 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
893 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
894 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
896 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
897 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
899 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
900 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
902 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
904 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
906 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
909 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
910 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
911 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
913 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
915 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
916 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
917 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
919 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
920 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
921 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
922 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
923 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
926 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
927 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
928 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
929 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
930 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
933 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
934 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
938 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
939 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
941 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
942 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
943 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
945 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
946 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
947 address of the last character written.
949 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
950 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
952 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
953 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
955 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
956 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
957 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
958 you dereference this pointer.
960 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
961 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
963 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
964 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
965 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
966 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
968 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
969 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
970 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
971 EAGAIN in every system call function.
975 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
976 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
977 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
978 in Emacs or the `info' program.
979 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
981 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
983 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
985 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
986 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
988 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
989 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
991 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
992 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
994 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
995 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
996 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
997 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
998 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1000 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1001 to the error code in `errno'.
1003 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1004 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1005 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1008 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1009 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1010 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1012 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1013 uniquely-named temporary file.
1017 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1018 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1019 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1021 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1024 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1025 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1027 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1031 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1032 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1033 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1034 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1036 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1037 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1038 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1040 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1041 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1043 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1044 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1045 made itself into a shared library.
1047 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1048 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1050 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1051 with limited length.
1053 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1055 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1057 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1059 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1060 function for traversing a directory tree.
1062 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1063 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1064 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1065 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1067 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1068 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1070 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1072 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1073 things to your strings.
1075 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1077 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1078 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1079 supporting those systems.
1081 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1082 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1083 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1084 configuration files.
1086 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1087 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1089 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1090 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1093 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1094 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1095 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1096 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1097 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1098 required storage is not available.
1100 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1101 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1103 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1104 latest files released from Berkeley.
1106 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1107 Copyright information:
1109 Copyright (C) 1992-1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1111 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1112 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1113 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1114 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1116 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1117 of this document, or of portions of it,
1118 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1119 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1122 version-control: never
git://sourceware.org / glibc.git / blob