xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/regex/WHATSNEW (revision 6931099e77be327d725250be10c7fc8b6f5316bd)
1New in alpha3.2:  Assorted bits of cleanup and portability improvement
2(the development base is now a BSDI system using GCC instead of an ancient
3Sun system, and the newer compiler exposed some glitches).  Fix for a
4serious bug that affected REs using many [] (including REG_ICASE REs
5because of the way they are implemented), *sometimes*, depending on
6memory-allocation patterns.  The header-file prototypes no longer name
7the parameters, avoiding possible name conflicts.  The possibility that
8some clot has defined CHAR_MIN as (say) `-128' instead of `(-128)' is
9now handled gracefully.  "uchar" is no longer used as an internal type
10name (too many people have the same idea).  Still the same old lousy
11performance, alas.
12
13New in alpha3.1:  Basically nothing, this release is just a bookkeeping
14convenience.  Stay tuned.
15
16New in alpha3.0:  Performance is no better, alas, but some fixes have been
17made and some functionality has been added.  (This is basically the "get
18it out the door in time for 4.4" release.)  One bug fix:  regfree() didn't
19free the main internal structure (how embarrassing).  It is now possible
20to put NULs in either the RE or the target string, using (resp.) a new
21REG_PEND flag and the old REG_STARTEND flag.  The REG_NOSPEC flag to
22regcomp() makes all characters ordinary, so you can match a literal
23string easily (this will become more useful when performance improves!).
24There are now primitives to match beginnings and ends of words, although
25the syntax is disgusting and so is the implementation.  The REG_ATOI
26debugging interface has changed a bit.  And there has been considerable
27internal cleanup of various kinds.
28
29New in alpha2.3:  Split change list out of README, and moved flags notes
30into Makefile.  Macro-ized the name of regex(7) in regex(3), since it has
31to change for 4.4BSD.  Cleanup work in engine.c, and some new regression
32tests to catch tricky cases thereof.
33
34New in alpha2.2:  Out-of-date manpages updated.  Regerror() acquires two
35small extensions -- REG_ITOA and REG_ATOI -- which avoid debugging kludges
36in my own test program and might be useful to others for similar purposes.
37The regression test will now compile (and run) without REDEBUG.  The
38BRE \$ bug is fixed.  Most uses of "uchar" are gone; it's all chars now.
39Char/uchar parameters are now written int/unsigned, to avoid possible
40portability problems with unpromoted parameters.  Some unsigned casts have
41been introduced to minimize portability problems with shifting into sign
42bits.
43
44New in alpha2.1:  Lots of little stuff, cleanup and fixes.  The one big
45thing is that regex.h is now generated, using mkh, rather than being
46supplied in the distribution; due to circularities in dependencies,
47you have to build regex.h explicitly by "make h".  The two known bugs
48have been fixed (and the regression test now checks for them), as has a
49problem with assertions not being suppressed in the absence of REDEBUG.
50No performance work yet.
51
52New in alpha2:  Backslash-anything is an ordinary character, not an
53error (except, of course, for the handful of backslashed metacharacters
54in BREs), which should reduce script breakage.  The regression test
55checks *where* null strings are supposed to match, and has generally
56been tightened up somewhat.  Small bug fixes in parameter passing (not
57harmful, but technically errors) and some other areas.  Debugging
58invoked by defining REDEBUG rather than not defining NDEBUG.
59
60New in alpha+3:  full prototyping for internal routines, using a little
61helper program, mkh, which extracts prototypes given in stylized comments.
62More minor cleanup.  Buglet fix:  it's CHAR_BIT, not CHAR_BITS.  Simple
63pre-screening of input when a literal string is known to be part of the
64RE; this does wonders for performance.
65
66New in alpha+2:  minor bits of cleanup.  Notably, the number "32" for the
67word width isn't hardwired into regexec.c any more, the public header
68file prototypes the functions if __STDC__ is defined, and some small typos
69in the manpages have been fixed.
70
71New in alpha+1:  improvements to the manual pages, and an important
72extension, the REG_STARTEND option to regexec().
73