1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-01-02
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 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
14 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
16 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
18 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
20 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
21 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
23 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
25 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.2-5 which supports
26 threads. No changes should be necessary for user programs. The
27 integration was done by Andreas Jaeger and Adam D. Bradley.
29 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
30 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
31 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
33 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
34 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
35 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
36 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
38 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
53 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
55 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
57 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
59 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
61 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
63 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
65 * Update timezone data files.
67 * lots of charmaps corrections
69 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
74 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
75 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
76 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
77 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
78 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
79 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
81 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
82 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
87 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
88 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
90 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
92 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
95 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
97 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
98 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
100 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
103 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
104 functions from ISO C 9X.
106 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
107 real valued functions.
109 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
111 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
113 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
115 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
117 * Optimized string functions have been added.
119 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
121 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
123 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
124 daemon for NSS (nscd).
126 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
127 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
131 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
133 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
135 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
137 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
139 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
141 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
143 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
144 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
147 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
148 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
150 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
152 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
154 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
155 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
157 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
159 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
162 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
163 latest draft standards.
165 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
167 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
168 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
169 addseverity NEW: Unix98
171 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
172 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
173 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
174 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
175 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
176 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
177 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
178 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
179 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
180 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
181 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
182 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
183 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
184 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
185 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
186 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
190 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
191 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
201 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
202 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
207 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
208 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
210 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
223 clearerr_locked REMOVED
224 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
227 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
228 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
259 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
260 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
261 endutxent NEW: Unix98
273 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
274 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
275 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
276 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
277 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
279 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
280 ferror_locked REMOVED
281 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
282 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
283 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
284 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
285 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
286 fflush_locked REMOVED
290 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
291 fileno_locked REMOVED
304 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
305 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
316 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
317 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
321 getchar_locked REMOVED
323 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
324 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
326 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
327 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
329 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
331 getutxent NEW: Unix98
333 getutxline NEW: Unix98
335 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
336 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
337 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
338 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
339 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
341 iconv_close NEW: iconv
342 iconv_open NEW: iconv
343 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
344 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
345 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
346 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
347 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
348 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
349 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
350 isastream NEW: STREAMS
351 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
352 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
353 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
354 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
355 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
356 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
357 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
358 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
359 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
360 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
362 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
363 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
364 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
365 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
366 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
374 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
375 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
377 makecontext NEW: Unix98
378 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
381 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
385 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
386 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
387 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
388 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
389 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
390 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
391 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
392 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
396 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
402 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
403 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
404 profil_counter REMOVED
405 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
406 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
407 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
408 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
410 putchar_locked REMOVED
411 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
414 pututxline NEW: Unix98
420 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
421 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
426 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
427 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
428 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
431 setcontext NEW: Unix98
433 setutxent NEW: Unix98
435 sigignore NEW: Unix98
436 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
439 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
440 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
442 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
443 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
447 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
448 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
449 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
450 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
451 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
452 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
453 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
454 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
455 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
456 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
458 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
459 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
466 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
468 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
469 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
470 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
471 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
473 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
474 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
475 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
476 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
477 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
478 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
479 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
482 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
483 write_profiling REMOVED
484 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
485 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
486 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
487 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
488 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
489 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
490 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
491 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
492 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
493 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
494 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
495 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
496 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
497 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
498 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
499 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
510 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
512 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
514 * rewrite of cbrt function
516 * update of timezone data
532 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
538 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
540 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
542 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
543 the ELF dynamic loader.
545 * support for parallel builds is improved
549 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
550 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
553 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
554 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
555 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
556 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
557 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
558 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
559 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
560 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
561 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
562 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
563 files in the ELF format.
565 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
566 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
568 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
569 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
570 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
571 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
572 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
573 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
574 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
575 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
576 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
577 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
578 about dynamically linked binaries.
580 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
581 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
582 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
583 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
584 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
586 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
587 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
588 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
589 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
590 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
592 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
594 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
595 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
596 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
597 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
598 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
599 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
600 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
601 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
602 NSS services available.
604 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
605 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
606 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
608 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
609 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
610 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
612 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
613 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
614 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
615 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
617 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
618 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
619 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
621 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
622 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
623 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
625 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
626 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
628 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
629 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
630 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
631 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
633 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
634 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
635 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
637 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
638 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
639 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
640 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
641 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
642 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
643 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
644 the header file <printf.h> for details.
646 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
647 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
648 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
649 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
650 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
651 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
652 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
654 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
655 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
656 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
657 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
658 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
659 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
661 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
662 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
664 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
665 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
666 NSS scheme used in glibc.
668 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
670 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
671 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
672 their use is discouraged.
674 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
675 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
677 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
678 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
680 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
681 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
683 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
686 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
687 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
688 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
689 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
690 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
692 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
693 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
694 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
695 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
697 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
698 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
700 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
701 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
702 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
703 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
706 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
707 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
709 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
710 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
712 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
713 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
714 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
715 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
717 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
719 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
720 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
721 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
723 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
724 for arithmetic and string handling.
726 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
727 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
728 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
729 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
731 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
732 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
733 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
734 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
735 programs already written to use it.)
737 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
740 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
743 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
744 a given effective group ID.
746 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
747 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
748 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
749 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
751 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
752 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
753 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
754 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
755 doing the same thing.
757 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
758 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
760 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
761 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
763 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
765 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
766 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
767 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
768 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
769 `-ldb' to get these functions.
771 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
772 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
774 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
775 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
776 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
779 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
781 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
782 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
785 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
786 and writing the utmp file.
788 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
791 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
792 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
793 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
795 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
796 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
798 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
799 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
802 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
803 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
804 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
805 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
807 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
808 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
809 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
811 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
812 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
813 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
816 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
819 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
822 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
824 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
825 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
826 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
830 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
832 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
833 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
835 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
836 want to put themselves in the background.
838 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
839 run without an operating system.
841 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
842 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
844 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
845 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
847 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
849 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
850 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
853 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
856 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
857 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
861 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
862 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
863 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
865 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
866 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
868 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
869 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
871 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
873 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
875 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
878 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
879 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
880 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
882 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
884 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
885 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
886 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
888 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
889 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
890 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
891 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
892 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
895 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
896 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
897 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
898 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
899 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
902 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
903 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
907 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
908 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
910 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
911 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
912 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
914 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
915 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
916 address of the last character written.
918 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
919 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
921 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
922 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
924 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
925 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
926 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
927 you dereference this pointer.
929 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
930 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
932 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
933 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
934 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
935 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
937 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
938 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
939 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
940 EAGAIN in every system call function.
944 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
945 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
946 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
947 in Emacs or the `info' program.
948 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
950 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
952 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
954 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
955 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
957 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
958 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
960 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
961 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
963 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
964 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
965 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
966 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
967 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
969 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
970 to the error code in `errno'.
972 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
973 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
974 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
977 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
978 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
979 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
981 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
982 uniquely-named temporary file.
986 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
987 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
988 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
990 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
993 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
994 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
996 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1000 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1001 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1002 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1003 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1005 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1006 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1007 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1009 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1010 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1012 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1013 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1014 made itself into a shared library.
1016 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1017 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1019 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1020 with limited length.
1022 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1024 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1026 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1028 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1029 function for traversing a directory tree.
1031 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1032 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1033 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1034 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1036 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1037 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1039 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1041 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1042 things to your strings.
1044 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1046 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1047 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1048 supporting those systems.
1050 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1051 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1052 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1053 configuration files.
1055 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1056 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1058 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1059 bcmp, bzero, and ffs.
1061 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1062 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1063 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1064 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1065 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1066 required storage is not available.
1068 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1069 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1070 Because of the United States export restriction on DES implementations,
1071 we are distributing this code separately from the rest of the C library.
1072 There is an extra distribution tar file just for crypt; it is called
1073 `glibc-VERSION-crypt.tar.Z', e.g. `glibc-1.04-crypt.tar.Z'. You can just
1074 unpack the crypt distribution along with the rest of the C library and
1075 build; you can also build the library without getting crypt. Users
1076 outside the USA can get the crypt distribution via anonymous FTP from
1077 ftp.uni-c.dk [129.142.6.74], or another archive site outside the U.S.
1079 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1080 latest files released from Berkeley.
1082 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1083 Copyright information:
1085 Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1087 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1088 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1089 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1090 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1092 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1093 of this document, or of portions of it,
1094 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1095 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1098 version-control: never
git://sourceware.org / glibc.git / blob