1 GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2009-2-25
2 Copyright (C) 1992-2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send GNU C library bug reports via <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
6 using `glibc' in the "product" field.
10 * New Linux interface: accept4
12 * Correct declarations of string function when used in C++ code. This
13 could lead to compile error for invalid C++ code.
15 * XPG7/POSIX 2008 compilation environment.
17 * New POSIX 2008 interface: psiginfo
22 * Unified lookup for getaddrinfo: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are now looked
23 up at the same time. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
25 * TLS descriptors for LD and GD on x86 and x86-64.
26 Implemented by Alexandre Oliva.
28 * getaddrinfo now handles DCCP and UDPlite.
29 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
31 * New fixed-size conversion macros: htobe16, htole16, be16toh, le16toh,
32 htobe32, htole32, be32toh, le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh, le64toh.
33 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
35 * New implementation of memmem, strstr, and strcasestr which is O(n).
36 Implemented by Eric Blake.
38 * New Linux interfaces: inotify_init1, dup3, epoll_create1, pipe2
40 * Implement "e" option for popen to open file descriptor with the
41 close-on-exec flag set. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
43 * Implement "b" mode for fmemopen. In this mode writes writes don't
44 implicitly add a NUL byte and seeks from the end of the buffer really
45 use the buffer end, not the string length as the basis.
46 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
48 * Many functions, exported and internal, now atomically set the close-on-exec
49 flag when run on a sufficiently new kernel. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
51 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Kannada, Gurumukhi, Telugu,
53 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
55 * New locales: sd_IN, sd_IN@devanagari, ks_IN@devanagari, ht_HT, en_AG, nl_AW.
59 * New locales: bo_CN, bo_IN, shs_CA.
61 * New encoding: HP-ROMAN9, HP-GREEK8, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8.
63 * Sorting rules for some Indian languages (Devanagari and Gujarati).
64 Implemented by Pravin Satpute.
66 * IPV6 addresses in /etc/resolv.conf can now have a scope ID
68 * nscd caches now all timeouts for DNS entries
69 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
71 * nscd is more efficient and wakes up less often.
72 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
74 * More checking functions: asprintf, dprintf, obstack_printf, vasprintf,
75 vdprintf, and obstack_vprintf.
76 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
78 * Faster memset for x86-64.
79 Implemented by Harsha Jagasia and H.J. Lu.
81 * Faster memcpy on x86.
82 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
84 * ARG_MAX is not anymore constant on Linux. Use sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX).
85 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
87 * Faster sqrt and sqrtf implemention for some PPC variants.
88 Implemented by Stephen Munroe.
92 * More checking functions: fread, fread_unlocked, open*, mq_open.
93 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
95 * Extend fortification to C++. Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
97 * Implement 'm' modifier for scanf. Add stricter C99/SUS compliance
98 by not recognizing 'a' as a modifier when those specs are requested.
99 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek.
101 * PPC optimizations to math and string functions.
102 Implemented by Steven Munroe.
104 * New interfaces: mkostemp, mkostemp64. Like mkstemp* but allow additional
105 options to be passed. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
107 * More CPU set manipulation functions. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
109 * New Linux interfaces: signalfd, eventfd, eventfd_read, and eventfd_write.
110 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
112 * Handle private futexes in the NPTL implementation.
113 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
115 * Add support for O_CLOEXEC. Implement in Hurd. Use throughout libc.
116 Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
118 * Linux/x86-64 vDSO support. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
120 * SHA-256 and SHA-512 based password encryption.
121 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
123 * New locales: ber_DZ, ber_MA, en_NG, fil_PH, fur_IT, fy_DE, ha_NG, ig_NG,
124 ik_CA, iu_CA, li_BE, li_NL, nds_DE, nds_NL, pap_AN, sc_IT, tk_TM, ug_CN,
127 + New iconv modules: MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, ISO-8859-9E, KOI8-RU.
128 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
132 * New Linux interfaces: epoll_pwait, sched_getcpu.
134 * New generic interfaces: strerror_l.
136 * nscd can now cache the services database. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
141 * For Linux, the sorting of addresses returned by getaddrinfo now also
142 handles rules 3, 4, and 7 from RFC 3484. I.e., all rules are handled.
143 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
145 * Allow system admin to configure getaddrinfo with the /etc/gai.conf file.
146 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
148 * New Linux interfaces: splice, tee, sync_file_range, vmsplice.
150 * New iconv module for MIK. Contributed by Alexander Shopov.
152 * For sites with broken group and/or passwd database, the auto-propagate
153 option of nscd can prevent creating ID lookup entries from the results
154 of a name lookup and vice versa. This usually is no problem but some
155 site might have problems with the default behavior.
156 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
158 * Iterating over entire database in NIS can be slow. With the
159 SETENT_BATCH_READ option in /etc/default/nss a system admin can decide
160 to trade time for memory. The entire database will be read at once.
161 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
163 * The interfaces introduced in RFC 3542 have been implemented by
166 * Support for the new ELF hash table format was added by Ulrich Drepper.
168 * Support for priority inheritance mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek and
171 * Support for priority protected mutexes added by Jakub Jelinek.
173 * New locales: nr_ZA, pa_PK, ca_AD, ca_FR, ca_IT, el_CY, tr_CY, as_IN,
174 or_IN, csb_PL, fy_NL, sr_ME.
178 * More overflow detection functions.
180 * New iconv converters for IBM1025, IBM1122, IBM1137, IBM1153,
181 IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, and IBM1158 contributed by Jiro Sekiba.
183 More converters for IBM803, IBM901, IBM902, IBM921, IBM1008, IBM1097,
184 IBM1112, IBM1123, IBM1130, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144,
185 IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM4517,
186 IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712,
187 IBM16804, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, and IBM1399 contributed
188 by Masahide Washizawa.
190 * It is now possible to install audit libraries for the dynamic linker using
191 LD_AUDIT. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
193 * The LinuxThreads add-on, providing pthreads on Linux 2.4 kernels, is no
194 longer supported. The new NPTL implementation requires Linux 2.6 kernels.
195 For a libc and libpthread that works well on Linux 2.4 kernels, we
196 recommend using the stable 2.3 branch.
198 * The new function open_wmemstream acts like open_memstream,
199 but uses a wchar_t wide character buffer.
201 * The new function ppoll is an improved version of poll, similar to pselect.
203 * New interfaces: fdopendir, openat, fstatat, fchmodat, fchownat,
204 futimesat, faccessat, mkdirat, mkfifoat, mknodat,
205 renameat, unlinkat, linkat, symlinkat, readlinkat.
207 * New Linux kernel system calls: unshare,
208 inotify_init, inotify_add_watch, inotify_rm_watch.
210 * The euidaccess function is now also known by the alias eaccess,
211 for compatibility with some other systems.
213 * Timezone data updated to 2006b version.
217 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
219 38, 253, 549, 622, 653, 721, 758, 851, 877, 915, 934, 955, 961,
220 1016, 1037, 1076, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086,
221 1087, 1088, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098,
222 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109,
223 1110, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1125, 1137, 1138, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1252,
224 1253, 1254, 1350, 1358, 1394, 1438, 1498, 1534
226 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
228 * As of this release, GCC 4 can be used to compile the C Library.
230 * Timezone data updated to 2005m version.
234 * The following bugs are resolved with this release:
236 284, 592, 602, 626, 633, 640, 650, 661, 671, 681, 693, 700, 710, 719,
237 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736,
238 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 765, 767, 768, 769, 776,
239 777, 787, 821, 822, 823, 825
241 Visit <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/> for the details of each bug.
245 * Support for RFC 3678. Real implementations exist only for Linux so far.
246 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
248 * nscd can now cache entries persistently. Expiring entries are reloaded.
249 For speedups the cache can be shared in memory with client processes.
250 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
252 * nscd can now perform SELinux checks.
253 Implemented by Matthew Rickard <mjricka@epoch.ncsc.mil>.
255 * getaddrinfo queries are now cached. Canonical name lookup is performed
257 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
259 * The nothrow function attribute is used when headers are used by gcc when
260 compiling C code. This can avoid significant amounts of exception
263 * The malloc functions perform more error checking and are stricter when
264 it comes to reacting on errors. The default action is to terminate
265 the process after showing an error message. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
267 * Reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses does not use bit string or .ip6.int
268 lookups anymore unless explicitly requested. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
270 * Namespaces in ld.so are implemented. DSOs can be loaded in separate
271 namespaces using the new function dlmopen(). This feature is of course,
272 like most other dynamic loading functionality, not available in statically
273 linked applications. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
275 * Low-overhead boundary checking variants of string and some stdio functions
276 were added. These are to be used in conjunction with a gcc patch by
277 Jakub Jelinek which adds calls to these functions if possible.
278 Implemented by Jakub Jelinek and Ulrich Drepper.
280 * Old code for several operating systems and machine architectures that
281 have not been in working condition in a long time have been removed from
282 the main source tree maintained by the GNU C Library's maintainers.
283 These files are now reside in the separate `ports' source module
284 that is usable as an add-on when building the library.
288 * New functions `dladdr1' and `dlinfo' in <dlfcn.h> provide more ways to
289 interrogate the dynamic linker, compatible with the Solaris interface.
291 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on PowerPC and PowerPC64;
292 implemented by Paul Mackerras, Steven Munroe, and Roland McGrath.
294 * getifaddrs now uses the netlink interface on Linux to get its information.
295 Implemented by Thorsten Kukuk.
297 * getaddrinfo now implements AI_V4MAPPED, AI_ALL, and AI_ADDRCONF.
298 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
300 * support for non-executable stacks on x86 has been added. Changes mostly
303 * regex is now much faster for multibyte locales. Changes by Jakub Jelinek
306 * getaddrinfo now performs destination address selection according to
311 * Thread-safe interfaces for many functions that access locale data
312 were added in version 2.3, but these features were omitted from NEWS.
313 Many functions have variants with an `_l' suffix that take a `locale_t'
314 object as a parameter rather than consulting the current locale.
315 The new functions `newlocale', `duplocale', and `freelocale' in <locale.h>
316 create and maintain `locale_t' objects. Additionally, the new function
317 `uselocale' sets "the current locale" (as used by functions not so
318 parameterized) set for an individual thread. These features were added
319 in version 2.3, implemented by Ulrich Drepper and Roland McGrath.
321 * The functions getresuid, getresgid, setresuid, and setresgid, which
322 have long been available on Linux, are now declared in <unistd.h>
323 and are now also available on the Hurd.
325 * ELF thread-local storage support (TLS) now works on x86-64.
327 * The new dynamic string token $LIB is expanded in shared library names.
328 This normally expands to lib, but on some 64-bit platforms to lib64 instead.
330 * Aldy Hernandez contributed complete software floating point support for
331 PowerPC machines with no FPU.
333 * fexecve is implemented on Linux.
335 * The `btowc' function should work at least twice as fast due to
336 specialized callbacks in the iconv modules. Implemented by Bruno Haible.
338 * With approriate thread add-ons cancelable functions are now implemented
339 in libc.so as well. No need to call the function in libpthread. This
340 change allowed to finally disable the incorrect and expensive handling
341 of weak definition in ld.so.
343 * Yet more PLT entries in libc.so have been removed. We finally arrived
344 at the bare minimum. Startup times improved appropriately.
346 * Support for the new Linux/x86 system call interface was added. The
347 AT_SYSINFO auxiliary vector entry is recognized and handled.
351 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1163 and IBM1164
354 * iconv (the program and the interface) now accepts empty names (excluding
355 options like //TRANSLIT) to mean "use charset of current locale".
357 * localedef can now transliterate characters in strings which are not in
358 the provided charmap. The information from the input locale is used.
360 * Prelinking support was added for ELF targets. This requires additional
361 tools and recent versions of the GNU binutils. Contributed by Jakub Jelinek.
363 * Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation by eliminating
364 copying and buffer underflows. To use add 'm' to the mode string of
365 the fopen/fdopen/freopen call. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
367 * The malloc functions were completely rewritten by Wolfram Gloger based
368 on Doug Lea's malloc-2.7.0.c.
370 * Isamu Hasegawa contributed a completely new and POSIX-conformant
371 implementation of regex.
373 * Bruno Haible upgraded the iconv and locale implementation to support
376 * Contents of the LC_* and LANG environment variables in the CEN style are
377 not recognized anymore. It never was used. Change by Ulrich Drepper.
379 * The runtime (ld.so, libc, libpthread for Linux) now can handle the ELF
380 thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms.
381 Changes by Ulrich Drepper. SH support by Kaz Kojima.
383 * Bruno Haible contributed iconv converters for ISO-2022-JP-3, SHIFT JIS-X0213,
384 EUC-JISX0213, and TSCII.
386 * New header <ifaddrs.h> with functions `getifaddrs' and `freeifaddrs':
387 BSD-compatible interface for getting all network interface addresses.
388 Implementation for IPv4 by Roland McGrath.
390 * Loading of locale data is faster due to the introduction of a locale
391 archive. Implemented by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
393 * Startup times are significantly reduced by not using exported functions
394 inside the library itself. Changes by Jakub Jelinek, Roland McGrath,
397 * Steven Munroe contributed a port to PowerPC64/Linux.
401 * The Hurd now uses the GNU libio implementation of stdio rather than the
402 old GNU stdio implementation, and uses a new ABI (libc.so.0.3).
404 * The Hurd on x86 now has the `ioperm' function and <sys/io.h> header file
405 with the same behavior as the Linux system call of the same name.
409 * Stephen Moshier implemented log2, log10, powl and cbrtl for the
410 128-bit long double format.
412 * Masahide Washizawa contributed iconv modules for IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
413 IBM1161, and IBM1162 charsets.
415 * Andreas Jaeger contributed a port to x86-64/Linux.
417 * Peter Bruin contributed a port to PowerPC/Hurd.
419 * libc functions using I/O streams now can handle wide-oriented streams
422 * optimizations in the dynamic linker. Binaries created by recent binutils
423 versions start up quicker due to reduced time spent on relocations.
425 * Support for use of gcc3 added by Jakub Jelinek and HJ Lu.
429 * Stephen Moshier implemented cosh, expm1, log1p, acos, sinh, tanh,
430 asinh, atanh, j0 for the 128-bit long double format.
432 * Bruno Haible updated all the code handling Unicode in some form to
435 * Speed of regex for single-byte locales is back to previous levels.
436 Patch by Isamu Hasegawa.
438 * Alpha, SPARC, and IA-64 now also using floating stacks.
440 * Startup time of internationalized applications greatly improved through
441 iconv cache. Use iconvconfig to generate the cache file.
442 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
444 * The IA-64 specific part of ld.so was rewritten to eliminate some pretty
445 severe performance problems. Patch by David Mosberger.
447 * The Hurd port got a lot more functionality like AIO, various stdio
448 extensions, etc. Mainly done by Roland McGrath.
450 * mtrace can now lookup symbols in shared libraries.
454 * Intel's IA-64 math library is largely integrated. It provides fast and
455 accurate implementatations for most basic and standard math functions
456 in float, double, and long double format.
458 * Stephen Moshier implemented j0, j1, jn, y0, y1, yn, lgamma, erf, erfc,
459 and asin for the 96-bit long double format and asin, log, tan for the
460 128-bit long double format.
462 * The beginning of a last-bit accurate math library by IBM Haifa were added.
463 The basic double functions exist today. Contributed by Abraham Ziv
464 <ziv@il.ibm.com>, Moshe Olshansky <olshansk@il.ibm.com>, Ealan Henis
465 <ealan@il.ibm.com>, and Anna Reitman <reitman@il.ibm.com>.
467 * An asynchronous name lookup library was added. The interface is designed
468 after POSIX AIO. The proposal was circulated beforehand to get comments.
469 No negative ones came in. Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
471 * Port to S390/64bit contributed by Martin Schwidefsky
472 <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>.
474 * David Mosberger <davidm@hpl.hp.com> implemented the setcontext family
475 of functions for Linux/IA-64.
477 * The RPC code is now thread safe. Threads can now use the same service
478 of different services at the same time. Patch by Eric Norum
479 <eric.norum@usask.ca> with some help by Ulrich Drepper.
481 * Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> implemented the setcontext
482 family of functions for Linux/S390.
484 * Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> implemented the setcontext family
485 of functions for Linux/x86.
487 * Port to Linux/CRIS contributed by Axis Communications.
491 * Lots of headers were cleaned up. Using the tool in the conform/ subdir
492 we can now check for namespace violations and missing declarations. The
493 result is that almost all headers are now Unix-compliant (as defined in
494 the upcoming XPG6). The negative side is that some programs might need
495 corrections, too, if they depend on the incorrect form of the headers in
496 previous versions which defined too many symbols and included too many
499 * regex now handles multibyte character sets correctly.
500 Contributed by Isamu Hasegawa <isamu@yamato.ibm.com>.
502 * iconv (the program) does now conform to the upcoming XPG6 and handles
503 charmaps. Instead of the charset names the path of charmaps can be
504 provided and the conversion happens based on this data.
505 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
507 * The locale program now provides detailed information about the installed
512 only lists the names of the supported locales
516 provides details such as country, language, and codeset name.
517 Contributed by Ulrich Drepper.
521 * The gencat program now parses the input file according to the charset
522 selected by the LC_CTYPE category. This is important for stateful
523 character sets. To make generating catalogs easier there is a way
524 to overwrite the charset selected by the locale: before the first
525 message or $ quote line the catalog can contain a line like
529 to select the charset (ISO-8859-2 in this case).
531 Implemented by Shinya Hanataka and Ulrich Drepper.
533 * New codeset conversion modules: IBM-922 (Estonia PC codeset),
534 IBM-1124 (Ukraine PC codeset), IBM-1129 (Vietnamese PC codeset).
535 Contributed by Masahide Washizawa <washi@jp.ibm.com>.
537 * Optimized string functions for Alpha ev6 and ev67 by Richard Henderson
538 <rth@redhat.com> and Rick Gorton <rick.gorton@alpha-processor.com>.
540 * The LANGUAGE environment variable is now ignored unless the locale is
541 changed from the default "C" locale.
543 * The usual bug fixes.
547 * Greg McGary added runtime support for bounds checking using gcc's
548 new -fbounded-pointers option. ix86 target is complete. PowerPC
551 * Thorsten Kukuk added secure mode support to nscd.
553 * The Berkeley db libraries have been removed.
555 Related, the nss_db module is now in a separate package since it
556 obviously requires a database library being available.
558 * Wide character I/O streams implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
560 * Functions from the extended socket API added by Ulrich Drepper.
562 * Functions feenableexcept and fedisableexcept to control the
563 behaviour of individual exceptions have been added by Andreas Jaeger.
565 * ldconfig program added by Andreas Jaeger and Jakub Jelinek.
567 * The resolver code has been updated from bind 8.2.3-T5B which supports
568 threads. The integration was done by Andreas Jaeger, Adam D. Bradley,
571 This change could in some situations effect backward compatibility. Since
572 now `_res' is a thread-local instead of a global variable, modifying it
573 in one thread does not have any effect in other threads.
575 The resolver library was also extended to allow IPv6 as the transport
576 protocol for the requests. This work was done by Stig Venaas.
578 * Compatibility code for K&R C compilers has been removed from the
579 header files. A ISO C compiler is needed to use the library
580 (conforming to either C89 or C99 standard).
582 * Complete rewrite of the localedef program to support multibyte character
583 sets. Implement handling of ISO 14651 and ISO 14652. Rewrite strcoll,
584 strxfrm, wcscoll, and wcsxfrm functions. Make isw*() functions work.
585 Implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
587 Bruno Haible significantly improved the generation and use of the data
588 structures for the wide character tables.
590 * Plural handling in gettext implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
592 * The utmp daemon has been removed.
594 * The port to MIPS-Linux has been finished by Andreas Jaeger.
596 * A port to Hitachi SH3 and SH4 has been contributed by Kazumoto Kojima
599 * POSIX clocks and timers implemented by Kaz Kylheku and Ulrich Drepper.
601 * POSIX barriers implemented by Kaz Kylheku.
603 * POSIX spawn function family implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
605 * POSIX spinlocks are now available.
607 * Timed wait functions for mutex, rwlock, and semaphores are implemented.
609 * the configure option --enable-kernel=X.Y.Z allows to strip out
610 compatibility for kernel versions before X.Y.Z. This is currently only
611 implemented for Linux.
613 * the sockaddr_in6 structure changed. The IPv6 working group added a new
614 field sin6_scope_id. This means that all programs using IPv6 should be
615 recompiled. Don't expect binary compatibility with previous glibc
618 * various conversion modules for IBM character sets contributed by
621 * IA-64 port by Jes Sorensen and HJ Lu.
623 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
624 Compiling the GNU C Library for Linux/ia64
625 ******************************************
627 Please refer to the file INSTALL in the same directory as you found
628 this file for general information about configuring and compiling
631 For general inquiries about glibc under Linux/ia64 please use the
632 following mailing list linux-ia64@linuxia64.org or one of the relevant
635 Recommended Tools for Compilation
636 =================================
638 In order for glibc-2.2 to build correctly on the ia64 you need at
639 least the following versions of the GNU tools (the :
641 * The Cygnus toolchain snapshot for the ia64 as of August 4
642 including the provided set of patches. It is however recommend
643 you use the October 24 toolchain snapshot or a more recent version.
645 OR alternatively you can try the following (the Cygnus toolchain is
646 the recommended solution):
648 * GCC and binutils, GAS and GNU LD out of CVS from
649 sources.redhat.com as of August 28, 2000 or later. The CVS tree
650 may require special patches to work properly on the ia64.
652 Configuring and compiling GNU Libc for Linux/ia64
653 =================================================
655 The library requires Linux kernel version 2.4.0-test4-000728 or
656 later to funtion properly. Besides that it support for debug libraries
657 is currently untested. Hence the following options
658 are required for configuring the library:
660 --disable-debug --enable-kernel=2.4.0
662 It is also important that you make sure the library picks up the
663 appropriate kernel header files, if you do not have recent enough
664 kernel headers in /usr/src/linux/include, you should use the
665 --with-headers=<path> option to specify the location.
667 As an example I personally use the following options to configure
672 --enable-kernel=2.4.0
676 --with-headers=/home/jes/linux/include
681 Jes Sorensen <jes@linuxcare.com>,
683 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
697 * New ISO C 9x function _Exit, imaxabs, and imaxdiv are added.
699 * New xdr functions are added; some rpc functions are now 64bit clean.
701 * Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks (especially in NIS+ code).
703 * Fixed known incompatibilities with glibc 2.0.
705 * New functions lock64, strchrnul, rawmemchr, getutmp and getutmpx.
707 * Optimized a number of functions (especially the ELF dynamic loader).
709 * Update timezone data files.
711 * lots of charmaps corrections
713 * some new locale definitions and charmaps
718 * Richard Henderson corrected size of struct timeval on Linux/Alpha to
719 conform to POSIX member type requirements. Symbol versions have been
720 adjusted as needed within the library, and for direct use by applications,
721 but there is potential for problems if third-party libraries use
722 struct timeval as part of their interface. This does not present
723 a problem for X and other "essential" system libraries.
725 * An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
726 model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
728 * Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
731 * Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
732 command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
734 * strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X.
736 * printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
739 * scanf recognizes the %a and %A format for scanning floating point numbers.
741 * the new headers <stdint.h> and <inttypes.h> from ISO C 9X provides
742 information and interfaces for the available integer types.
744 * about 130 new math functions were added to implement the ISO C9x math
747 * the new header <complex.h> contains definitions of the complex math
748 functions from ISO C 9X.
750 * the new header <tgmath.h> defines generic macros to use complex or
751 real valued functions.
753 * Thorsten Kukuk provided an implementation for NIS+, securelevel 0, 1 and 2.
755 * Andreas Jaeger provided a test suite for the math library.
757 * Mark Kettenis implemented the utmpx interface and an utmp daemon.
759 * Ulrich Drepper added character set conversion functions (iconv).
761 * Optimized string functions have been added.
763 * The localedata addon is now part of glibc.
765 * An implementation of profiling shared libraries was added by Ulrich Drepper.
767 * Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation for a caching
768 daemon for NSS (nscd).
770 Missing a better place here are some numbers on improvements. Under
771 Linux 2.1.125 un-tar-ing the kernel sources takes
775 using local files 12.19s 6.88s 22.91s
777 using NIS 13.92s 8.91s 26.34s
779 using NIS & nscd 10.37s 7.34s 25.30s
781 using NIS+ 27.57s 30.37s 640.46s
783 using NIS+ & nscd 10.25s 7.83s 26.51s
785 using NIS & old nscd [1] 13.83s 8.32s 29.60s
787 Keep in mind that non-namelookup related operations dominate above times.
788 It was just a common complain that using NIS+ unpacking the kernel is
791 [1] The old nscd implementation is not available anymore since it was
792 distributed with glibc up to version 2.0.98 and thus is now replaced.
794 * Tim Waugh provided an implementation of the POSIX.2 wordexp function family.
796 * Mark Kettenis provided a Hesiod NSS module.
798 * The ELF dynamic loader knows how to process dynamic string tokens ($ORIGIN
799 and $PLATFORM) in RPATHs and similar strings (Ulrich Drepper).
801 * rcmd can now handle netgroups (Dick Streefland).
803 * A port to the ARM was contributed by Phil Blundell, Pat Beirne and Scott
806 * Support for the IPv6 protocol has been added to the socket API, as per the
807 latest draft standards.
809 * Support for Linux 2.2 has been added.
811 * Interface changes relative to the latest 2.0.x release:
812 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
813 addseverity NEW: Unix98
815 argp_err_exit_status NEW: argp, GNU ext
816 argp_error NEW: argp, GNU ext
817 argp_failure NEW: argp, GNU ext
818 argp_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
819 argp_parse NEW: argp, GNU ext
820 argp_program_bug_address NEW: argp, GNU ext
821 argp_program_version NEW: argp, GNU ext
822 argp_program_version_hook NEW: argp, GNU ext
823 argp_state_help NEW: argp, GNU ext
824 argp_usage NEW: argp, GNU ext
825 authdes_create NEW: Secure RPC
826 authdes_getucred NEW: Secure RPC
827 authdes_pk_create NEW: Secure RPC
828 backtrace NEW: GNU ext.
829 backtrace_symbols NEW: GNU ext.
830 backtrace_symbols_fd NEW: GNU ext.
834 cacoshf NEW: ISO C 9x
835 cacoshl NEW: ISO C 9x
845 casinhf NEW: ISO C 9x
846 casinhl NEW: ISO C 9x
851 catanhf NEW: ISO C 9x
852 catanhl NEW: ISO C 9x
854 cbc_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
867 clearerr_locked REMOVED
868 clntunix_create NEW: sunrpc ext
871 clog10f NEW: ISO C 9x
872 clog10l NEW: ISO C 9x
903 des_setparity NEW: Secure RPC
904 ecb_crypt NEW: Secure RPC
905 endutxent NEW: Unix98
917 feclearexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
918 fegetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
919 fegetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
920 fegetround NEW: ISO C 9x
921 feholdexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
923 feraiseexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
924 ferror_locked REMOVED
925 fesetenv NEW: ISO C 9x
926 fesetexceptflag NEW: ISO C 9x
927 fesetround NEW: ISO C 9x
928 fetestexcept NEW: ISO C 9x
929 feupdateenv NEW: ISO C 9x
930 fflush_locked REMOVED
934 fgets_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
935 fileno_locked REMOVED
948 fputs_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
949 fread_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
960 fwrite_unlocked NEW: GNU ext.
961 gai_strerror NEW: IPv6
965 getchar_locked REMOVED
967 getdate_err NEW: Unix98
968 getdate_r NEW: GNU ext.
970 getnameinfo NEW: IPv6
971 getnetname NEW: Secure RPC
973 getpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
975 getutxent NEW: Unix98
977 getutxline NEW: Unix98
979 globfree64 NEW: GNU ext.
980 gnu_get_libc_release NEW: GNU ext.
981 gnu_get_libc_version NEW: GNU ext.
982 grantpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
983 host2netname NEW: Secure RPC
985 iconv_close NEW: iconv
986 iconv_open NEW: iconv
987 if_freenameindex NEW: IPv6
988 if_indextoname NEW: IPv6
989 if_nameindex NEW: IPv6
990 if_nametoindex NEW: IPv6
991 in6addr_any NEW: IPv6
992 in6addr_loopback NEW: IPv6
993 inet6_isipv4mapped NEW: IPv6
994 isastream NEW: STREAMS
995 iswblank NEW: GNU ext.
996 key_decryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
997 key_decryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
998 key_encryptsession NEW: Secure RPC
999 key_encryptsession_pk NEW: Secure RPC
1000 key_gendes NEW: Secure RPC
1001 key_get_conv NEW: Secure RPC
1002 key_secretkey_is_set NEW: Secure RPC
1003 key_setnet NEW: Secure RPC
1004 key_setsecret NEW: Secure RPC
1005 llrint NEW: ISO C 9x
1006 llrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1007 llrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1008 llround NEW: ISO C 9x
1009 llroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1010 llroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1015 lrintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1016 lrintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1017 lround NEW: ISO C 9x
1018 lroundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1019 lroundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1021 makecontext NEW: Unix98
1022 mempcpy NEW: GNU ext.
1025 modify_ldt NEW: kernel
1029 nearbyint NEW: ISO C 9x
1030 nearbyintf NEW: ISO C 9x
1031 nearbyintl NEW: ISO C 9x
1032 netname2host NEW: Secure RPC
1033 netname2user NEW: Secure RPC
1034 nexttoward NEW: ISO C 9x
1035 nexttowardf NEW: ISO C 9x
1036 nexttowardl NEW: ISO C 9x
1040 passwd2des NEW: Secure RPC
1042 pow10f NEW: GNU ext.
1043 pow10l NEW: GNU ext.
1046 printf_size NEW: GNU ext.
1047 printf_size_info NEW: GNU ext.
1048 profil_counter REMOVED
1049 pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np REPLACED
1050 pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np REPLACED
1051 ptsname NEW: Unix98 PTY
1052 ptsname_r NEW: Unix98 PTY
1054 putchar_locked REMOVED
1055 putgrent NEW: GNU ext.
1057 putpmsg NEW: STREAMS
1058 pututxline NEW: Unix98
1062 readdir64_r NEW: LFS
1063 remquo NEW: ISO C 9x
1064 remquof NEW: ISO C 9x
1065 remquol NEW: ISO C 9x
1067 roundf NEW: ISO C 9x
1068 roundl NEW: ISO C 9x
1070 scalbln NEW: ISO C 9x
1071 scalblnf NEW: ISO C 9x
1072 scalblnl NEW: ISO C 9x
1074 sendfile NEW: kernel
1075 setcontext NEW: Unix98
1076 setrlimit64 NEW: LFS
1077 setutxent NEW: Unix98
1079 sigignore NEW: Unix98
1080 sigqueue NEW: POSIX.1b
1081 sigrelse NEW: Unix98
1082 sigset NEW: POSIX.1b
1083 sigtimedwait NEW: POSIX.1b
1084 sigwaitinfo NEW: POSIX.1b
1085 sincos NEW: GNU ext.
1086 sincosf NEW: GNU ext.
1087 sincosl NEW: GNU ext.
1091 strcasestr NEW: GNU ext.
1092 strtoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1093 strtoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1094 strverscmp NEW: GNU ext.
1095 svcauthdes_stats NEW: Secure RPC
1096 svcunix_create NEW: sunrpc etx
1097 svcunixfd_create NEW: sunrpc ext
1098 swapcontext NEW: Unix98
1099 tcgetsid NEW: Unix98 PTY
1100 tdestroy NEW: GNU ext.
1101 tgamma NEW: ISO C 9x
1102 tgammaf NEW: ISO C 9x
1103 tgammal NEW: ISO C 9x
1107 truncf NEW: ISO C 9x
1108 truncl NEW: ISO C 9x
1110 unlockpt NEW: Unix98 PTY
1111 updwtmpx NEW: Unix98
1112 user2netname NEW: Secure RPC
1113 utmpxname NEW: Unix98
1114 versionsort NEW: GNU ext.
1115 versionsort64 NEW: GNU ext.
1117 wcscasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1118 wcsncasecmp NEW: GNU ext.
1119 wcsnlen NEW: GNU ext.
1120 wcstoimax NEW: ISO C 9x
1121 wcstoll NEW: ISO C 9x
1122 wcstoull NEW: ISO C 9x
1123 wcstoumax NEW: ISO C 9x
1125 wordexp NEW: POSIX.2
1126 wordfree NEW: POSIX.2
1127 write_profiling REMOVED
1128 xdecrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1129 xdr_authdes_cred NEW: Secure RPC
1130 xdr_authdes_verf NEW: Secure RPC
1131 xdr_cryptkeyarg NEW: Secure RPC
1132 xdr_cryptkeyarg2 NEW: Secure RPC
1133 xdr_cryptkeyres NEW: Secure RPC
1134 xdr_getcredres NEW: Secure RPC
1135 xdr_key_netstarg NEW: Secure RPC
1136 xdr_key_netstres NEW: Secure RPC
1137 xdr_keybuf NEW: Secure RPC
1138 xdr_keystatus NEW: Secure RPC
1139 xdr_netnamestr NEW: Secure RPC
1140 xdr_sizeof NEW: Secure RPC
1141 xdr_unixcred NEW: sunrpc ext
1142 xencrypt NEW: Secure RPC
1143 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1154 * inet_ntoa is thread-safe
1156 * updwtmp is moved from libutil to libc
1158 * rewrite of cbrt function
1160 * update of timezone data
1174 * add atoll function
1176 * fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
1178 * fix math functions
1182 * fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
1184 * dynamic loader preserves all registers
1186 * Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
1187 the ELF dynamic loader.
1189 * support for parallel builds is improved
1193 * GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
1194 must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
1197 * The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
1198 symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
1199 symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
1200 is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
1201 `--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
1202 `--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
1203 of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
1204 the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
1205 less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
1206 There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
1207 files in the ELF format.
1209 * Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
1210 Run `configure --help' to see the details.
1212 * The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
1213 (but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
1214 `--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
1215 `configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
1216 built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
1217 are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
1218 loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
1219 new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
1220 dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
1221 application of same name on other systems and it provides information
1222 about dynamically linked binaries.
1224 * The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
1225 executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
1226 through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
1227 the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
1228 the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
1230 * The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
1231 Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
1232 Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
1233 functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
1234 programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
1236 * John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
1238 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
1239 mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
1240 group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
1241 shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
1242 file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
1243 works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
1244 so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
1245 relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
1246 NSS services available.
1248 * The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
1249 strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
1250 `unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
1252 * The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
1253 strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
1254 respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
1256 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
1257 printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
1258 `strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
1259 accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
1261 * The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
1262 Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
1263 to compile the POSIX locale definition.
1265 * The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
1266 now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
1267 collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
1269 * The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
1270 various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
1272 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
1273 wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
1274 and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
1275 These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
1277 * There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
1278 It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
1279 by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
1281 * You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
1282 for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
1283 `printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
1284 ``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
1285 format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
1286 different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
1287 feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
1288 the header file <printf.h> for details.
1290 * The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
1291 formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
1292 to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
1293 says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
1294 separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
1295 not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
1296 conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
1298 * The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
1299 less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
1300 which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
1301 argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
1302 provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
1303 with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
1305 * The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
1306 operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1308 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
1309 Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
1310 NSS scheme used in glibc.
1312 * There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
1314 * There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
1315 `unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
1316 their use is discouraged.
1318 * The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
1319 done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
1321 * New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
1322 but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
1324 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
1325 local time conventions of the countries of the world.
1327 * The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
1330 * The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
1331 for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
1332 compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
1333 also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
1334 all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
1336 * The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
1337 functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
1338 system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
1339 allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
1341 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
1342 shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
1344 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
1345 in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
1346 implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
1347 binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
1350 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
1351 `random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
1353 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
1354 string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
1356 * Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
1357 on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
1358 The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
1359 using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
1361 * Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
1363 * David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
1364 to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
1365 dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
1367 * Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
1368 for arithmetic and string handling.
1370 * Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
1371 support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
1372 his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
1373 catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
1375 * For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
1376 program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
1377 creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
1378 <nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
1379 programs already written to use it.)
1381 * New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
1384 * Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
1387 * New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
1388 a given effective group ID.
1390 * When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
1391 special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
1392 `struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
1393 `struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
1395 * New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
1396 function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
1397 canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
1398 and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
1399 doing the same thing.
1401 * The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
1402 POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
1404 * New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
1405 `clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
1407 * New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
1409 * We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
1410 files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
1411 types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
1412 an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
1413 `-ldb' to get these functions.
1415 * New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
1416 space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
1418 * New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
1419 number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
1420 `strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
1423 * New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
1425 * The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
1426 provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
1429 * A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
1430 and writing the utmp file.
1432 * An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
1435 * Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
1436 completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
1437 to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
1439 * Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
1440 defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
1442 * Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
1443 code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
1446 * The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
1447 by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
1448 The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
1449 optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
1451 * Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
1452 functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
1453 salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
1455 * Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
1456 `getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
1457 to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
1460 * the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
1463 * The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
1466 * David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
1468 * POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
1469 `isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
1470 implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
1474 * For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
1476 * New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
1477 friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
1479 * The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
1480 want to put themselves in the background.
1482 * Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
1483 run without an operating system.
1485 * `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
1486 long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
1488 * All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
1489 routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
1491 * The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
1493 * The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
1494 YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
1497 * The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
1500 * The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
1501 $(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
1505 * The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
1506 RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
1507 are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
1509 * Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
1510 Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
1512 * The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
1513 facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
1515 * New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
1517 * New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
1519 * New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
1522 * The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
1523 the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
1524 function (with versions of GCC that support this).
1526 * The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
1528 * The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
1529 management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
1530 `madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
1532 * The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
1533 abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
1534 an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
1535 `mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
1536 any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
1539 * It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
1540 system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
1541 you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
1542 native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
1543 few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
1546 * The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
1547 a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
1551 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
1552 running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
1554 * You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
1555 to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
1556 the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
1558 * The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
1559 copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
1560 address of the last character written.
1562 * You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
1563 compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
1565 * You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
1566 stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
1568 * ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
1569 allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
1570 you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
1571 you dereference this pointer.
1573 * The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
1574 NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
1576 * The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
1577 for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
1578 systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
1579 `pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
1581 * The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
1582 to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
1583 use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
1584 EAGAIN in every system call function.
1588 * The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
1589 `make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
1590 `make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
1591 in Emacs or the `info' program.
1592 Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org.
1594 * The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
1596 * Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
1598 * Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
1599 Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
1601 * The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
1602 ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
1604 * New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
1605 malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
1607 * The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
1608 its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
1609 overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
1610 needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
1611 pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
1613 * There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
1614 to the error code in `errno'.
1616 * In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
1617 or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
1618 pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
1621 * The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
1622 `FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
1623 name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
1625 * `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
1626 uniquely-named temporary file.
1630 * The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
1631 has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
1632 precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
1634 * The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
1637 * `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
1638 These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
1640 * New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
1644 * The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
1645 script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
1646 packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
1647 The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
1649 * The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
1650 traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
1651 it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
1653 * Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
1654 MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
1656 * The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
1657 Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
1658 made itself into a shared library.
1660 * Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
1661 (such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
1663 * New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
1664 with limited length.
1666 * New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
1668 * New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
1670 * New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
1672 * Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
1673 function for traversing a directory tree.
1675 * The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
1676 The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
1677 writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
1678 formatted output directly to an obstack.
1680 * Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
1681 cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
1683 * `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
1685 * The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
1686 things to your strings.
1688 * There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
1690 * Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
1691 These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
1692 supporting those systems.
1694 * `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
1695 the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
1696 This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
1697 configuration files.
1699 * The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
1700 compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
1702 * The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
1703 bcmp, bzero, and ffs. (Update: nowadays these functions are declared
1706 * Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
1707 function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
1708 significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
1709 now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
1710 of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
1711 required storage is not available.
1713 * The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
1714 provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
1716 * The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
1717 latest files released from Berkeley.
1719 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1720 Copyright information:
1722 Copyright (C) 1992-1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006
1723 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1725 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1726 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1727 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
1728 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1730 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1731 of this document, or of portions of it,
1732 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1733 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
1736 version-control: never