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GNU C Library NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 1997-02-13
Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send GNU C library bug reports using the `glibcbug' script to
<bugs@gnu.ai.mit.edu>. Questions and suggestions should be send to
<bug-glibc@prep.ai.mit.edu>.
Version 2.1
* An additional locale model to support C++ Standard Library locale
model and probably more was implemented by Ulrich Drepper.
* Eric Youngdale and Ulrich Drepper implemented versioning of objects on
symbol level.
* Miles Bader provided the `argp' function family to support hierachical
command line argument parsing, layered on top of getopt.
* strtod accepts new hexadecimal floating-point format from ISO C 9X
* printf has two new specifiers %a and %A to print hexadecimal flaoting-point
numbers
* scanf recognizes the %A format for scanning floating point numbers
Version 2.0.2
* more bug fixes
* add atoll function
* fix complex problems in Berkeley DB code
Version 2.0.1
* fixed lots of header problems (especially Linux/GNU specific)
* dynamic loader preserves all registers
* Roland McGrath provided support for handling of auxiliary objects in
the ELF dynamic loader.
* support for parallel builds is improved
Version 2.0
* GNU extensions are no longer declared by default. To enable them you
must define the macro `_GNU_SOURCE' in your program or compile with
`-D_GNU_SOURCE'.
* The library has changed from using GNU ld symbol aliases to using weak
symbols where available. The ELF object file format supports weak
symbols; GNU ld also supports weak symbols in the a.out format. (There
is also now support for other GNU ld extensions in ELF. Use the
`--with-elf' option to configure to indicate you have ELF, and
`--with-gnu-ld' if using GNU ld.) This change resulted in the deletion
of many files which contained only symbol aliases, reducing the size of
the source and the compiled library; many other files were renamed to
less cryptic names previously occupied by the symbol alias files.
There is a new header file <elf.h> for programs which operate on
files in the ELF format.
* Converted to Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has more options.
Run `configure --help' to see the details.
* The library can now be configured to build profiling, highly-optimized
(but undebuggable), and/or shared libraries (ELF with GNU ld only). The
`--enable-profile', `--enable-omitfp', and `--enable-shared' options to
`configure' enable building these extra libraries. The shared library is
built by default when using both ELF and GNU ld. When shared libraries
are enabled, the new library `-ldl' is available for arbitrary run-time
loading of shared objects; its interface is defined in <dlfcn.h>. The
new header file <link.h> gives access to the internals of the run-time
dynamic linker, `ld.so'. The shell script `ldd' is similar to the
application of same name on other systems and it provides information
about dynamically linked binaries.
* The C library now provides the run-time support code for profiling
executables compiled with `-pg'. Programs can control the profiling code
through the interface in <sys/gmon.h>. The `gmon.out' files written by
the GNU C library can be read only by GNU `gprof' (from GNU binutils);
the support for this file format was contributed by David Mosberger-Tang.
* The math code has been replaced with a math library based on fdlibm from
Sun, and modified by JT Conklin and Ulrich Drepper with i387 support, by
Ian Taylor with `float' functions and by Ulrich Drepper with `long double'
functions. The math functions now reside in a separate library, so
programs using them will need to use `-lm' their linking commands.
* John C. Bowman contributed optimized ix87 assembler inline functions.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed support for an `/etc/nsswitch.conf'
mechanism similar to that found in Solaris 2. This is now used for the
group, passwd, hosts, networks, services, protocols, rpc, ethers,
shadow, netgroup, publickey, and alias databases. The `nsswitch.conf'
file controls what services are used for each individual database. This
works by loading shared libraries with names specified in `nsswitch.conf',
so service modules can be changed or added at any time without even
relinking any program. Currently there are the file, db, and NIS based
NSS services available.
* The new functions `strtoq' and `strtouq' parse integer values from
strings, like `strtol' and `strtoul', but they return `long long int' and
`unsigned long long int' values, respectively (64-bit quantities).
* The new functions `strtof' and `strtold' parse floating-point values from
strings, like `strtod', but they return `float' and `long double' values,
respectively (on some machines `double' and `long double' are the same).
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed new implementations of the floating-point
printing and reading code used in the `printf' family of functions and
`strtod', `strtof', and `strtold'. These new functions are perfectly
accurate, and much faster than the old ones.
* The implementation of the POSIX locale model was completely rewritten by
Ulrich Drepper. This includes the new programs `localedef' and `locale'
to compile the POSIX locale definition.
* The former dummy implementations of the strcoll and strxfrm function are
now replaced by fully functional code contributed by Ulrich Drepper. The
collation information comes from the POSIX locale definitions.
* The new header <langinfo.h> defines an interface for accessing
various locale-dependent data (using the locale chosen with `setlocale').
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new suite of functions for operation on
wide-character and multibyte-character strings, in <wchar.h>;
and classification and case conversion of wide characters, in <wctype.h>.
These new functions are conforming to the ISO C, Amendement 1 specification.
* There is now a second implementation of the standard I/O library available.
It comes from GNU libg++ as was written by Per Bothner, heavily modified
by Hongjiu Lu and made thread safe by Ulrich Drepper.
* You can now use positional parameter specifications in format strings
for the `printf' and `scanf' families of functions. For example,
`printf ("Number %2$d, Mr %1$s\n", "Jones", 6);'' prints
``Number 6, Mr Jones''. This is mainly useful when providing different
format strings for different languages, whose grammars may dictate
different orderings of the values being printed. To support this
feature, the interface for `register_printf_handler' has changed; see
the header file <printf.h> for details.
* The `printf' and `scanf' families of functions now understand a new
formatting flag for numeric conversions: the ' flag (e.g. %'d or %'f) says
to group numbers as indicated by the locale; for `scanf' and friends, this
says to accept as valid only a number with all the proper grouping
separators in the right places. In the default "C" locale, numbers are
not grouped; but locales for specific countries will define the usual
conventions (i.e. separate thousands with `,' in the US locale).
* The pgrp functions have been regularized, slightly incompatibly but much
less confusingly. The core functions are now `getpgid' and `setpgid',
which take arguments for the PID to operate on; the POSIX.1 `getpgrp' (no
argument) and BSD `setpgrp' (identical to `setpgid') functions are
provided for compatibility. There is no longer an incompatible `getpgrp'
with an argument declared under _BSD_SOURCE; no BSD code uses it.
* The new header file <fts.h> and suite of functions simplify programs that
operate on directory trees. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
* The resolver code has been updated from the BIND 4.9.5-P1 release.
Parts of the code were heavily modified by Ulrich Drepper to fit in the
NSS scheme used in glibc.
* The new function `malloc_find_object_address' finds the starting address
of a malloc'd block, given any address within the block;
`malloc_object_allocated_size' returns the size of an allocated block;
and `malloc_walk' lets you walk through all allocated blocks. These can
be useful for debugging; see <malloc.h> for the interfaces.
* There is a new malloc debugging hook `__memalign_hook'.
* There are new typedefs `ushort' for `unsigned short int' and `uint' for
`unsigned int' in <sys/types.h>. These are for compatibility only and
their use is discouraged.
* The `-lmcheck' library to enable standard malloc debugging hooks is now
done differently, so that it works even without GNU ld.
* New function `euidaccess' checks allowed access to a file like `access',
but using the effective IDs instead of the real IDs.
* The time zone data files have been updated for the latest and greatest
local time conventions of the countries of the world.
* The new function `dirfd' extracts the file descriptor used by a DIR stream;
see <dirent.h>.
* The new functions `ecvt', `fcvt', and `gcvt' provide an obsolete interface
for formatting floating-point numbers. They are provided only for
compatibility; new programs should use `sprintf' instead. There are
also equivalent function for the `long double' floating-point type and
all functions also exist in a reentrant form.
* The new auxiliary library `-lutil' from 4.4 BSD contains various
functions for maintaining the login-record files (primarily of use to
system programs such as `login'), and convenient functions for
allocating and initializing a pseudo-terminal (pty) device.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed new support for System V style
shared memory and IPC on systems that support it.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed several miscellaneous new functions found
in System V: The `hsearch' family of functions provide an effective
implementation of hash tables; `a64l' and `l64a' provide a very simple
binary to ASCII mapping; `drand48' and friends provide a 48-bit random
number generator.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed new reentrant counterparts for the
`random' and `hsearch' families of functions; `random_r', `hsearch_r', etc.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed new, highly-optimized versions of several
string functions for the i486/Pentium family of processors.
* Ulrich Drepper has updated the Linux-specific code, based largely
on work done in Hongjiu Lu's version of GNU libc for Linux.
The GNU library now supports Linux versions 2.0.10 and later,
using the ELF object file format (i[3456]86-*-linux).
* Andreas Schwab has ported the C library to Linux/m68k (m68k-*-linux).
* David Mosberger-Tang and Richard Henderson have ported the C library
to Linux/Alpha (alpha-*-linux). Richard Henderson contributed the
dynamic linking support for ELF/Alpha.
* Richard Henderson contributed several Alpha optimized assembler function
for arithmetic and string handling.
* Ulrich Drepper has contributed a new set of message catalog functions to
support multiple languages using the <libintl.h> interface, for use with
his new package GNU gettext. Translation volunteers have contributed
catalogs of the library's messages in Spanish, German, and Korean.
* For compatibility with XPG4, Ulrich Drepper has contributed the `gencat'
program and the `catgets' function for reading the catalog files it
creates. (The <libintl.h> interface is preferred; we include the
<nl_types.h> interface using `catgets' only for source compatibility with
programs already written to use it.)
* New header file <values.h> gives SVID-compatible names for <limits.h>
constants.
* Various new macros, declarations, and small header files for compatibility
with 4.4 BSD.
* New function `group_member' is a convenient way to check if a process has
a given effective group ID.
* When using GCC 2.7 and later, the socket functions are now declared in a
special way so that passing an argument of type `struct sockaddr_in *',
`struct sockaddr_ns *', or `struct sockaddr_un *' instead of the generic
`struct sockaddr *' type, does not generate a type-clash warning.
* New function `error' declared in header file <error.h> is a convenient
function for printing error messages and optionally exiting; this is the
canonical function used in GNU programs. The new functions `err', `warn',
and friends in header file <err.h> are the canonical 4.4 BSD interface for
doing the same thing.
* The <glob.h> interface has several new flags from 4.4 BSD that extend the
POSIX.2 `glob' function to do ~ and {...} expansion.
* New function `unsetenv' complements `setenv' for compatibility with 4.4 BSD.
`clearenv' which is used in POSIX.9 is also available.
* New function `getsid' returns session ID number on systems that support it.
* We have incorporated the 4.4 BSD `db' library (version 1.85). New header
files <db.h> and <mpool.h> provide a rich set of functions for several
types of simple databases stored in memory and in files, and <ndbm.h> is
an old `ndbm'-compatible interface using the `db' functions. Link with
`-ldb' to get these functions.
* New macro `strdupa' copies a string like `strdup', but uses local stack
space from `alloca' instead of dynamic heap space from `malloc'.
* New function `strnlen' is like `strlen' but searches only a given maximum
number of characters for the null terminator. `stpncpy', `strndup' and
`strndupa' are similar variants for the `stpcpy', `strdup' and `strdupa'
function.
* New function `statfs' in header <sys/statfs.h>.
* The new <argz.h> and <envz.h> interfaces contributed by Miles Bader
provide convenient functions for operating on blocks of null-terminated
strings.
* A new suite of functions in <utmp.h> handle all the details of reading
and writing the utmp file.
* An implementation of the NIS/YP(tm) based NSS service was contributed by
Thorsten Kukuk.
* Paul Eggert and Ulrich Drepper modified the `strftime' function to be
completely POSIX compliant and also implemented the extended functionality
to handle alternate digit representation and alternate era date formats.
* Ulrich Drepper provided an implementation of the `strptime' function
defined in XPG4.2 which transforms a string into a `struct tm' value.
* Paul Eggert provided the tzselect shell script as part of the timezone
code. The shell script makes it easy to select the correct timezone
specification.
* The implementation of the malloc family of functions is completely replaced
by a new implementation by Doug Lea with many improvements by Wolfram Gloger.
The implementation uses the mmap function (if available) and it is
optimized for the use in multi threaded programs.
* Ulrich Drepper contributed a MD5 "encryption" for the crypt family of
functions. This new functionality is usable by specifying a special
salt string and it is compatible with implementation on *BSD systems.
* Lots of functions from the XPG4.2 standard were added by Ulrich Drepper:
`getsubopt' to handle second level command line options, `bsd_signal'
to access BSD style `signal' functionality, the obsolete `regexp' style
expression matcher.
* the `lchown' function is available on system which support this
functionality.
* The implementation of the shadow password handling function was contributed
by Ulrich Drepper.
* David Mosberger-Tang changed the SunRPC implementation to be 64bit safe.
* POSIX.1g support was added. The <sys/select.h> header is available,
`isfdtype' and `pselect' are implemented. Craig Metz contributed an
implementation of `getaddrinfo'.
Version 1.09
* For cross-compilation you should now set `BUILD_CC' instead of `HOST_CC'.
* New header file <fstab.h> and new functions `getfsspec', `getfsent' and
friends, for parsing /etc/fstab. This code comes from 4.4 BSD.
* The new function `daemon' from 4.4 BSD is useful for server programs that
want to put themselves in the background.
* Joel Sherrill has contributed support for several standalone boards that
run without an operating system.
* `printf', `scanf' and friends now accept a `q' type modifier for long
long int as well as `ll'. Formats using these might be `%qu' or `%lld'.
* All of the code taken from BSD (notably most of the math and networking
routines) has been updated from the BSD 4.4-Lite release.
* The resolver code has been updated from the BIND-4.9.3-BETA9 release.
* The new functions `getdomainname' and `setdomainname' fetch or change the
YP/NIS domain name. These are system calls which exist on systems which
have YP (aka NIS).
* The time zone data files have been updated for the latest international
conventions.
* The SunRPC programs `portmap' and `rpcinfo' are now installed in
$(sbindir) (usually /usr/local/sbin) instead of $(bindir).
Version 1.08
* The C library now includes support for Sun RPC, from Sun's free
RPCSRC-4.0 distribution. The `portmap', `rpcinfo', and `rpcgen' programs
are included. (There is still no support for YP.)
* Tom Quinn has contributed a port of the C library to SGI machines running
Irix 4 (mips-sgi-irix4).
* The new `lockf' function is a simplified interface to the locking
facilities of `fcntl', included for compatibility.
* New time functions `timegm', `timelocal', and `dysize' for compatibility.
* New header file <sys/timeb.h> and new function `ftime' for compatibility.
* New header files <poll.h> and <sys/poll.h> and new function `poll' for
compatibility.
* The error message printed by `assert' for a failed assertion now includes
the name of the program (if using GNU ld) and the name of the calling
function (with versions of GCC that support this).
* The `psignal' function is now declared in <signal.h>, not <stdio.h>.
* The library now includes the <sys/mman.h> header file and memory
management functions `mmap', `munmap', `mprotect', `msync', and
`madvise', on systems that support those facilities.
* The interface for `mcheck' has changed slightly: the function called to
abort the program when an allocation inconsistency is detected now takes
an argument that indicates the type of failure. The new function
`mprobe' lets you request a consistency check for a particular block at
any time (checks are normally done only when you call `free' or `realloc'
on a block).
* It is now possible to easily cross-compile the C library, building on one
system a library to run on another machine and/or operating system. All
you need to do is set the variable `HOST_CC' in `configparms' to the
native compiler for programs to run on the machine you are building on (a
few generator programs are used on Unix systems); set `CC' to the
cross-compiler.
* The new function `fexecve' (only implemented on the GNU system) executes
a program file given a file descriptor already open on the file.
Version 1.07
* Brendan Kehoe has contributed most of a port to the DEC Alpha
running OSF/1 (alpha-dec-osf1). He says it is 75% complete.
* You can set the variable `libprefix' in `configparms' to specify a prefix
to be prepended to installed library files; this makes it easy to install
the GNU C library to be linked as `-lgnuc' or whatever.
* The new `stpncpy' is a cross between `stpcpy' and `strncpy': It
copies a limited number of characters from a string, and returns the
address of the last character written.
* You no longer need to check for whether the installed `stddef.h' is
compatible with the GNU C library. configure now checks for you.
* You can now define a per-stream `fileno' function to convert the
stream's cookie into an integral file descriptor.
* ``malloc (0)'' no longer returns a null pointer. Instead, it
allocates zero bytes of storage, and returns a unique pointer which
you can pass to `realloc' or `free'. The behavior is undefined if
you dereference this pointer.
* The C library now runs on Sony NEWS m68k machines running either
NewsOS 3 or NewsOS 4.
* The new `syscall' function is a system-dependent primitive function
for invoking system calls. It has the canonical behavior on Unix
systems, including unreliable return values for some calls (such as
`pipe', `fork' and `getppid').
* The error code `EWOULDBLOCK' is now obsolete; it is always defined
to `EAGAIN', which is the preferred name. On systems whose kernels
use two distinct codes, the C library now translates EWOULDBLOCK to
EAGAIN in every system call function.
Version 1.06
* The GNU C Library Reference Manual is now distributed with the library.
`make dvi' will produce a DVI file of the printed manual.
`make info' will produce Info files that you can read on line using C-h i
in Emacs or the `info' program.
Please send comments on the manual to bug-glibc-manual@prep.ai.mit.edu.
* The library now supports SVR4 on i386s (i386-unknown-sysv4).
* Brendan Kehoe has contributed a port to Sun SPARCs running Solaris 2.
* Jason Merrill has contributed a port to the Sequent Symmetry running
Dynix version 3 (i386-sequent-dynix).
* The library has been ported to i386s running SCO 3.2.4 (also known as SCO
ODT 2.0; i386-unknown-sco3.2.4) or SCO 3.2 (i386-unknown-sco3.2).
* New function `memory_warnings' lets you arrange to get warnings when
malloc is running out of memory to allocate, like Emacs gives you.
* The C library now contains the relocating allocator used in Emacs 19 for
its editing buffers. This allocator (ralloc) minimizes allocation
overhead and fragmentation by moving allocated regions around whenever it
needs to. You always refer to a ralloc'd region with a "handle" (a
pointer to a pointer--an object of type `void **').
* There is a new `printf' format: `%m' gives you the string corresponding
to the error code in `errno'.
* In `scanf' formats, you can now use `%as' or `%a[' to do the normal `%s'
or `%[' conversion, but instead of filling in a fixed-sized buffer you
pass, the `a' modifier says to fill in a `char **' you pass with a
malloc'd string.
* The `fnmatch' function supports the new flag bits `FNM_LEADING_DIR' and
`FNM_CASEFOLD'. `FNM_LEADING_DIR' lets a pattern like `foo*' match a
name like `foo/bar'. `FNM_CASEFOLD' says to ignore case in matching.
* `mkstemp' is a traditional Unix function to atomically create and open a
uniquely-named temporary file.
Version 1.05
* The standard location for the file that says what the local timezone is
has changed again. It is now `/usr/local/etc/localtime' (or more
precisely, `${prefix}/etc/localtime') rather than `/etc/localtime'.
* The distribution no longer contains any files with names longer than 14
characters.
* `struct ttyent' has two new flag bits: TTY_TRUSTED and TTY_CONSOLE.
These are set by the new `trusted' and `console' keywords in `/etc/ttys'.
* New functions `ttyslot' and `syslog' from 4.4 BSD.
Version 1.04
* The configuration process has changed quite a bit. The `configure'
script is now used just like the configuration scripts for other GNU
packages. The `sysdeps' directory hierarchy is much rearranged.
The file `INSTALL' explains the new scheme in detail.
* The header files no longer need to be processed into ANSI C and
traditional C versions. There is just one set of files to install, and
it will work with ANSI or old C compilers (including `gcc -traditional').
* Brendan Kehoe and Ian Lance Taylor have ported the library to the
MIPS DECStation running Ultrix 4.
* The Sun 4 startup code (crt0) can now properly load SunOS 4 shared libraries.
Tom Quinn contributed the initial code. The GNU C library can NOT yet be
made itself into a shared library.
* Yet further improved support for the i386, running 4.3 BSD-like systems
(such as Mach 3 with the Unix single-server), or System V.
* New function `strncasecmp' to do case-insensitive string comparison
with limited length.
* New function `strsep' is a reentrant alternative to `strtok'.
* New functions `scandir' and `alphasort' for searching directories.
* New function `setenv' is a better interface to `putenv'.
* Ian Lance Taylor has contributed an implementation of the SVID `ftw'
function for traversing a directory tree.
* The GNU obstack package is now also part of the C library.
The new function `open_obstack_stream' creates a stdio stream that
writes onto an obstack; `obstack_printf' and `obstack_vprintf' do
formatted output directly to an obstack.
* Miscellaneous new functions: reboot, nice, sigaltstack (4.4 BSD only),
cfmakeraw, getusershell, getpass, swab, getttyent, seteuid, setegid.
* `FNM_FILE_NAME' is another name for `FNM_PATHNAME', used with `fnmatch'.
* The new functions `strfry' and `memfrob' do mysterious and wonderful
things to your strings.
* There are some new test programs: test-fseek, testmb, and testrand.
* Some work has been done to begin porting the library to 4.4 BSD and Linux.
These ports are not finished, but are a good starting place for really
supporting those systems.
* `/etc/localtime' is now the standard location for the file that says what
the local timezone is, rather than `/usr/local/lib/zoneinfo/localtime'.
This follows the general principle that `/etc' is the place for all local
configuration files.
* The C library header files now use `extern "C"' when used by the C++
compiler, so the C library should now work with C++ code.
* The header file <bstring.h> is gone. <string.h> now declares bcopy,
bcmp, bzero, and ffs.
* Mike Haertel (of GNU e?grep and malloc fame) has written a new sorting
function which uses the `merge sort' algorithm, and is said to be
significantly faster than the old GNU `qsort' function. Merge sort is
now the standard `qsort' function. The new algorithm can require a lot
of temporary storage; so, the old sorting function is called when the
required storage is not available.
* The C library now includes Michael Glad's Ultra Fast Crypt, which
provides the Unix `crypt' function, plus some other entry points.
Because of the United States export restriction on DES implementations,
we are distributing this code separately from the rest of the C library.
There is an extra distribution tar file just for crypt; it is called
`glibc-VERSION-crypt.tar.Z', e.g. `glibc-1.04-crypt.tar.Z'. You can just
unpack the crypt distribution along with the rest of the C library and
build; you can also build the library without getting crypt. Users
outside the USA can get the crypt distribution via anonymous FTP from
ftp.uni-c.dk [129.142.6.74], or another archive site outside the U.S.
* The code and header files taken from 4.4 BSD have been updated with the
latest files released from Berkeley.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright information:
Copyright (C) 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
of this document, or of portions of it,
under the above conditions, provided also that they
carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
Local variables:
version-control: never
end: