Blame NEWS

Packit 575503
   Copyright (C) 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Packit 575503
   Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Packit 575503
   
Packit 575503
   Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
Packit 575503
   are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
Packit 575503
   notice and this notice are preserved.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.2.0 to 4.2.1
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. Support for OS/2 has been brought up to date.  This support was
Packit 575503
   accidentally omitted from the initial 4.2 release, for which
Packit 575503
   we apologize.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. The manual received a number of updates to make it format better
Packit 575503
   for PDF.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. A new configure option, --enable-versioned-dir, causes the directory
Packit 575503
   holding extensions to include the API version in its name.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. extension/configure.ac has been improved considerably.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. In MPFR mode, When ROUNDMODE changes, string values for numerically
Packit 575503
   type values will be redone.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. The various 'inplace' tests now pass on modern BSD systems.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. A number of bugs, some of them quite significant, have been fixed.
Packit 575503
   See the ChangeLog for details.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.1.4 to 4.2.0
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. If not in POSIX mode, changes to ENVIRON are reflected into
Packit 575503
   gawk's environment, affecting any programs run by system()
Packit 575503
   or for piped redirections. This can also affect built-in routines, such
Packit 575503
   as mktime(), which is typically influenced by the TZ environment variable.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. The series of numbers returned by rand() should now be "more
Packit 575503
   random" than previously.  Gawk's rand() remains repeatable; you will
Packit 575503
   get the same series of numbers each time you call rand() repeatedly,
Packit 575503
   but this will be a different series than previously.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. Multiple changes related to the pretty printer:
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   * The --pretty-print option no longer runs the program too.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   * Pretty printing now preserves comments and places them into the
Packit 575503
     pretty-printed file.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   * Pretty-printing now uses the original text of constant numeric values
Packit 575503
     for pretty-printing and profiling.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   * Pretty-printing now preserves parenthesized expressions as they
Packit 575503
     were in the source file. This solves several niggling corner cases
Packit 575503
     with such things.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. The igawk script and igawk.1 man page are no longer installed by
Packit 575503
   `make install'.  They have been obsolete since gawk 4.0.0.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. Gawk can now be built with CMake.  This is an alternative build
Packit 575503
   system for those who may want it; gawk is not going to switch off
Packit 575503
   use of the autotools anytime soon, if ever.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. Gawk now processes a maximum of two hexadecimal digits in \x
Packit 575503
   escape sequences inside strings.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. Setting PROCINFO["redirection", "NONFATAL"] to true makes I/O
Packit 575503
   errors for "redirection" not fatal, setting ERRNO. Setting
Packit 575503
   PROCINFO["NONFATAL"] makes all I/O nonfatal. See the manual.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. MirBSD is no longer supported.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. `make install' now installs shell startup files
Packit 575503
   $sysconfdir/profile.d/gawk.{csh,sh} containing shell functions to
Packit 575503
   manipulate the AWKPATH and AWKLIBPATH environment variables.  On a Fedora
Packit 575503
   system, these files belong in /etc/profile.d, but the appropriate location
Packit 575503
   may be different on other platforms.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. Gawk now supports retryable I/O via PROCINFO[input-file, "RETRY"]; see
Packit 575503
    the manual.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
11. The C API has undergone changes that break binary compatibility with
Packit 575503
    the previous version. Thus the API version is now at 2.0.  YOU WILL
Packit 575503
    NEED TO RECOMPILE YOUR EXTENSIONS to work with this version of gawk.
Packit 575503
    Source code compatibility remains intact, although you will get
Packit 575503
    compiler warnings if you do not revise your extensions. We strongly
Packit 575503
    recommend that you do so.  Fortunately, the changes are fairly minor
Packit 575503
    and straightforward.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
    See the manual for the new features.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
12. Revisions in the POSIX standard remove the special case for POSIX
Packit 575503
    mode when FS = " " where newline was not a field separator. The code
Packit 575503
    and doc have been updated.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
13. Gawk now supports strongly typed regexp constants. Such constants
Packit 575503
    look like @/.../.  You can assign them to variables, pass them to
Packit 575503
    functions, use them in ~, !~ and the case part of a switch statement.
Packit 575503
    More details are provided in the manual.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
14. The new typeof() function can be used to indicate if a variable or
Packit 575503
    array element is an array, regexp, string or number.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
15. As promised when 4.1 was released, the old extension mechanism,
Packit 575503
    using the `extension' function, is now gone.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
16. Support for GNU/Linux on Alpha systems has been removed.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
17. Optimizations are now enabled by default. Use the new -s/--no-optimize
Packit 575503
    option(s) to disable them.  Pretty-printing and profiling automatically
Packit 575503
    disable optimizations so that the output program is the same as the
Packit 575503
    original input program.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
18. Gawk now uses fwrite_unlocked if it's available. This yields a 7% - 18%
Packit 575503
    improvement in raw output speed (gawk '{ print }' on a large file).
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
19. Passing negative operands to any of the bitwise functions now
Packit 575503
    produces a fatal error.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
20. Programs that toggle IGNORECASE a lot should now be noticeably faster.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
21. The mktime function now accepts an optional second argument. If this
Packit 575503
    argument is present and is non-zero or non-null, the time will be converted
Packit 575503
    from UTC instead of from the local timezone.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
22. The FIELDWIDTHS parsing syntax has been enhanced to allow specifying
Packit 575503
    how many characters to skip before a field starts. It also allows
Packit 575503
    specifying '*' as the last character to mean "the rest of the record".
Packit 575503
    Field splitting with FIELDWIDTHS now sets NF correctly.  The documentation
Packit 575503
    for FIELDWIDTHS in the manual has been considerably reorganized and
Packit 575503
    improved as well.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
23. The PROCINFO["argv"] array records all of gawk's command line arguments
Packit 575503
    as gawk received them (the values of the C level argv array).
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
24. The DJGPP port has been revived and now has an official maintainer.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
25. The manual has been translated into Italian!  The translation is
Packit 575503
    included in the distribution.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.1.3 to 4.1.4
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. Updated to GNU autoconf 2.69, automake 1.15, gettext 0.19.7,
Packit 575503
   texinfo 6.1, texinfo.tex 2016-02-05.07, libtool 2.4.6.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. z/OS support updated.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. At the beginning of each statement, the debugger now checks and
Packit 575503
   reports watchpoints that have fired before checking for breakpoints.
Packit 575503
   This gives more natural behavior to the user.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. The "exit" command has been added to the debugger as an alias
Packit 575503
   for "quit".
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. AIX 7.1 should pass the test suite now.  Similar for Minix.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. VMS support has been updated.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. The profiler / pretty-printer now chains else-if statements instead
Packit 575503
   of causing cascading elses.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. The return value of system() has been enhanced to convey more information.
Packit 575503
   See the doc.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. Attempting to write to the "to" end of a two-way pipe that has been
Packit 575503
   closed is now a fatal error. Similarly, so is reading from the "from"
Packit 575503
   end that has been closed.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. MinGW support has been updated.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
11. The -d option now allows -d- to print to standard output.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
12. Error messages for --help and in other instances should now get
Packit 575503
    translated correctly.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
13. A new environment variable GAWK_LOCALE_DIR may be set to locate the .mo
Packit 575503
    file for gawk itself.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
14. The DJGPP port is now officially deprecated.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
15. A number of bugs have been fixed. See the ChangeLog.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.1.2 to 4.1.3
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. Regexp parsing with extra brackets should now be working again. There
Packit 575503
   are several new tests to keep this stuff on track.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. Updated to latest config.guess and config.sub.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. A (small) number of bugs have been fixed. See the ChangeLog.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.1.1 to 4.1.2
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. The manual has been considerably improved.
Packit 575503
	- Thoroughly reviewed and updated.
Packit 575503
	- Out-of-date examples replaced.
Packit 575503
	- Chapter 15 on MPFR reworked.
Packit 575503
	- Summary sections added to all chapters.
Packit 575503
	- Exercises added in several chapters.
Packit 575503
	- Heavily proof-read and copyedited.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. The debugger's "restart" command now works again.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. Redirected getline is now allowed inside BEGINFILE/ENDFILE.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. A number of bugs have been fixed in the MPFR code.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. Indirect function calls now work for both built-in and extension functions.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. Built-in functions are now included in FUNCTAB.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. POSIX and historical practice require the exclusive use of the English
Packit 575503
   alphabet in identifiers.  In non-English locales, it was accidentally
Packit 575503
   possible to use "letters" beside those of the English alphabet.  This
Packit 575503
   has been fixed. (isalpha and isalnum are NOT our friends.)
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   If you feel that you must have this misfeature, use `configure --help'
Packit 575503
   to see what option to use when configuring gawk to reenable it.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. The "where" command has been added to the debugger as an alias
Packit 575503
   for "backtrace". This will make life easier for long-time GDB users.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. Gawk no longer explicitly checks the current directory after doing
Packit 575503
   a path search of AWKPATH.  The default value continues to have "." at
Packit 575503
   the front, so most people should not be affected.  If you have your own
Packit 575503
   AWKPATH setting, be sure to put "." in it somewhere. The documentation
Packit 575503
   has been updated and clarified.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. Infrastructure upgrades: Automake 1.15, Gettext 0.19.4, Libtool 2.4.6,
Packit 575503
    Bison 3.0.4.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
11. If a user-defined function has a parameter with the same name as another
Packit 575503
    user-defined function, it is no longer possible to call the second
Packit 575503
    function from inside the first.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
12. POSIX requires that the names of function parameters not be the
Packit 575503
    same as any of the special built-in variables and also not conflict
Packit 575503
    with the names of any functions. Gawk has checked for the former
Packit 575503
    since 3.1.7. With --posix, it now also checks for the latter.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
13. The test suite should check for necessary locales and skip the tests
Packit 575503
    where it matters if support isn't what it should be.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
14. Gawk now expects to be compiled on a system with multibyte character
Packit 575503
    support.  Systems without such support, at least at the C language
Packit 575503
    level, are so obsolete as to not be worth supporting anymore.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
15. A number of bugs have been fixed. See the ChangeLog.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.1.0 to 4.1.1
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. The "stat" extension now includes a "devbsize" element which indicates
Packit 575503
   the units for the "nblocks" element.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. The extension facility now works on MinGW. Many of the extensions can be
Packit 575503
   built and used directly.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. A number of bugs in the pretty-printing / profiling code have been fixed.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. Sockets and two-way pipes now work under MinGW.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. The debugger now lists source code correctly under Cygwin.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. Configuration and building with the Mac OS X libreadline should work now.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. The -O option now works again.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. The --include option, documented since 4.0, now actually works.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. Infrastructure updated to automake 1.13.4, bison 3.0.2, and
Packit 575503
   libtool 2.4.2.418.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. The configure script now accepts a --disable-extensions option,
Packit 575503
    which disables checking for and building the extensions.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
11. The VMS port has been considerably improved. In particular config.h
Packit 575503
    is now generated by a DCL script. Also, the extension facility works
Packit 575503
    and several of the extensions can be built and used. Currently, the
Packit 575503
    extension facility only works on Alpha and Itanium.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
12. The API now provides functions pointers for malloc(), calloc(),
Packit 575503
    realloc() and free(), to insure that the same memory allocation
Packit 575503
    functions are always used. This bumps the minor version by one.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
13. The printf quote flag now works correctly in locales with a different
Packit 575503
    decimal point character but without a thousands separator character.
Packit 575503
    If the thousands separator is a string, it will be correctly added
Packit 575503
    to decimal numbers.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
14. The readfile extension now has an input parser that will read whole
Packit 575503
    files as a single record.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
15. A number of bugs have been fixed. See the ChangeLog.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.0.2 to 4.1.0
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. The three executables gawk, pgawk, and dgawk, have been merged into
Packit 575503
   one, named just gawk.  As a result:
Packit 575503
   	* The -R option is gone
Packit 575503
	* Use -D to run the debugger. An optional file argument is a
Packit 575503
	  list of commands to run first.
Packit 575503
	* Use -o to do pretty-printing only.
Packit 575503
	* Use -p to do profiling.
Packit 575503
   This considerably reduces gawk's "footprint" and eases the documentation
Packit 575503
   burden as well.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. Gawk now supports high precision arithmetic with MPFR.  The default is
Packit 575503
   still double precision, but setting PREC changes things, or using
Packit 575503
   the -M / --bignum options.  This support is not compiled in if the MPFR
Packit 575503
   library is not available.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. The new -i option (from xgawk) is used for loading awk library files.
Packit 575503
   This differs from -f in that the first non-option argument is treated
Packit 575503
   as a script.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. The new -l option (from xgawk) is used for loading dynamic extensions.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. The dynamic extension interface has been completely redone!  There is
Packit 575503
   now a defined API for C extensions to use.  A C extension acts like
Packit 575503
   a function written in awk, except that it cannot do everything that awk
Packit 575503
   code can. However, this allows interfacing to any facility that is
Packit 575503
   available from C.  This is a major development, see the doc, which has
Packit 575503
   a nice shiny new chapter describing everything.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   This support is not compiled in if dynamic loading of shared libraries
Packit 575503
   is not supported.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
   The old extension mechanism is still supported for compatiblity, but
Packit 575503
   it will most definitely be removed at the next major release.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. The "inplace" extension, built using the new facility, can be used to
Packit 575503
   simulate the GNU "sed -i" feature.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. The and(), or() and xor() functions now take any number of arguments,
Packit 575503
   with a minimum of two.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. New arrays: SYMTAB, FUNCTAB, and PROCINFO["identifiers"]. SYMTAB allows
Packit 575503
   indirect access to any defined variable or array; it is possible to
Packit 575503
   "walk" the symbol table, if that should be necessary.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. Support for building gawk with a cross compiler has been improved.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. Infrastructure upgrades: bison 2.7.1, gettext 0.18.2.1, automake 1.13.1,
Packit 575503
    libtool 2.4.2 for the extensions.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. Infrastructure upgrades: Autoconf 2.69, Automake 1.12.6, bison 2.7.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. `fflush()', `nextfile', and `delete array' are all now part of POSIX.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. fflush() behavior changed to match BWK awk and for POSIX - now both
Packit 575503
   fflush() and fflush("") flush all open output redirections.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. Various minor bug fixes and documentation updates.
Packit 575503
 
Packit 575503
Changes from 4.0.0 to 4.0.1
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. The default handling of backslash in sub() and gsub() has been reverted to
Packit 575503
   the behavior of 3.1. It was silly to think I could break compatibility that
Packit 575503
   way, even for standards compliance.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. Completed the implementation of Rational Range Interpretation.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. Failure to get the group set is no longer a fatal error.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. Lots of minor bugs fixed and portability clean-ups along the way. See
Packit 575503
   the ChangeLog for details.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
Changes from 3.1.8 to 4.0.0
Packit 575503
---------------------------
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
1. The special files /dev/pid, /dev/ppid, /dev/pgrpid and /dev/user are
Packit 575503
   now completely gone. Use PROCINFO instead.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
2. The POSIX 2008 behavior for `sub' and `gsub' are now the default.
Packit 575503
   THIS CHANGES BEHAVIOR!!!!
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
3. The \s and \S escape sequences are now recognized in regular expressions.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
4. The split() function accepts an optional fourth argument which is an array
Packit 575503
   to hold the values of the separators.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
5. The new -b / --characters-as-bytes option means "hands off my data"; gawk
Packit 575503
   won't try to treat input as a multibyte string.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
6. There is a new --sandbox option; see the doc.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
7. Indirect function calls are now available.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
8. Interval expressions are now part of default regular expressions for
Packit 575503
   GNU Awk syntax.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
9. --gen-po is now correctly named --gen-pot.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
10. switch / case is now enabled by default. There's no longer a need
Packit 575503
    for a configure-time option.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
11. Gawk now supports BEGINFILE and ENDFILE. See the doc for details.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
12. Directories named on the command line now produce a warning, not
Packit 575503
    a fatal error, unless --posix or --traditional.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
13. The new FPAT variable allows you to specify a regexp that matches
Packit 575503
    the fields, instead of matching the field separator. The new patsplit()
Packit 575503
    function gives the same capability for splitting.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
14. All long options now have short options, for use in `#!' scripts.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
15. Support for IPv6 is added via the /inet6/... special file. /inet4/...
Packit 575503
    forces IPv4 and /inet chooses the system default (probably IPv4).
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
16. Added a warning for /[:space:]/ that should be /[[:space:]]/.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
17. Merged with John Haque's byte code internals. Adds dgawk debugger and
Packit 575503
    possibly improved performance.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
18. `break' and `continue' are no longer valid outside a loop, even with
Packit 575503
    --traditional.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
19. POSIX character classes work with --traditional (BWK awk supports them).
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
20. Nuked redundant --compat, --copyleft, and --usage long options.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
21. Arrays of arrays added. See the doc.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
22. Per the GNU Coding Standards, dynamic extensions must now define
Packit 575503
    a global symbol indicating that they are GPL-compatible. See
Packit 575503
    the documentation and example extensions.
Packit 575503
    THIS CHANGES BEHAVIOR!!!!
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
23. In POSIX mode, string comparisons use strcoll/wcscoll.
Packit 575503
    THIS CHANGES BEHAVIOR!!!!
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
24. The option for raw sockets was removed, since it was never implemented.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
25. Gawk now treats ranges of the form [d-h] as if they were in the C
Packit 575503
    locale, no matter what kind of regexp is being used, and even if
Packit 575503
    --posix.  The latest POSIX standard allows this, and the documentation
Packit 575503
    has been updated.  Maybe this will stop all the questions about
Packit 575503
    [a-z] matching uppercase letters.
Packit 575503
    THIS CHANGES BEHAVIOR!!!!
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
26. PROCINFO["strftime"] now holds the default format for strftime().
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
27. Updated to latest infrastructure: Autoconf 2.68, Automake 1.11.1,
Packit 575503
    Gettext 0.18.1, Bison 2.5.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
28. Many code cleanups. Removed code for many old, unsupported systems:
Packit 575503
	- Atari
Packit 575503
	- Amiga
Packit 575503
	- BeOS
Packit 575503
	- Cray
Packit 575503
	- MIPS RiscOS
Packit 575503
	- MS-DOS with Microsoft Compiler
Packit 575503
	- MS-Windows with Microsoft Compiler
Packit 575503
	- NeXT
Packit 575503
	- SunOS 3.x, Sun 386 (Road Runner)
Packit 575503
	- Tandem (non-POSIX)
Packit 575503
	- Prestandard VAX C compiler for VAX/VMS
Packit 575503
	- Probably others that I've forgotten
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
29. If PROCINFO["sorted_in"] exists, for(iggy in foo) loops sort the
Packit 575503
    indices before looping over them.  The value of this element
Packit 575503
    provides control over how the indices are sorted before the loop
Packit 575503
    traversal starts. See the manual.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
30. A new isarray() function exists to distinguish if an item is an array
Packit 575503
    or not, to make it possible to traverse multidimensional arrays.
Packit 575503
Packit 575503
31. asort() and asorti() take a third argument specifying how to sort.
Packit 575503
    See the doc.