xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision 6580f5c38dd5b01aeeaed16b370f1a12423437f0)
1# News
2
3## 6.7.5
4
5This is a production release to fix one small bug.
6
7The bug is that sometimes numbers are printed to incorrect line lengths. The
8number is always correct; the line is just longer than the limit.
9
10Users who do not care do not need to update.
11
12## 6.7.4
13
14This is a production release to fix problems in the `bc` manual.
15
16Users only need to update if desired.
17
18## 6.7.3
19
20This is a production release to fix the library build on Mac OSX.
21
22Users on other platforms do *not* need to update.
23
24## 6.7.2
25
26This is a production release to remove some debugging code that I accidentally
27committed.
28
29## 6.7.1
30
31This is a production release with a bug fix for `SIGINT` only being handled
32once.
33
34## 6.7.0
35
36This is a production release with three new functions in the [extended math
37library][16]: `min()`, `max()`, and `i2rand()`.
38
39## 6.6.1
40
41This is a production release with an improved `p()` function in the [extended
42math library][16].
43
44Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
45
46## 6.6.0
47
48This is a production release with two bug fixes and one change.
49
50The first bug fix is to fix the build on Mac OSX.
51
52The second bug was to remove printing a leading zero in scientific or
53engineering output modes.
54
55The change was that the implementation of `irand()` was improved to call the
56PRNG less.
57
58## 6.5.0
59
60This is a production release that fixes an infinite loop bug in `root()` and
61`cbrt()`, fixes a bug with `BC_LINE_LENGTH=0`, and adds the `fib()` function to
62the extended math library to calculate Fibonacci numbers.
63
64## 6.4.0
65
66This is a production release that fixes a `read()`/`?` bug and adds features to
67`bcl`.
68
69The bug was that multiple read calls could repeat old data.
70
71The new features in `bcl` are functions to preserve `BclNumber` arguments and
72not free them.
73
74***WARNING for `bcl` Users***: The `bcl_rand_seedWithNum()` function used to not
75consume its arguments. Now it does. This change could have made this version
76`7.0.0`, but I'm 99.9% confident that there are no `bcl` users, or if there are,
77they probably don't use the PRNG. So I took a risk and didn't update the major
78version.
79
80`bcl` now includes more capacity to check for invalid numbers when built to run
81under Valgrind.
82
83## 6.3.1
84
85This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
86environments and Linux from Scratch.
87
88## 6.3.0
89
90This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
91feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
92enabled or not.
93
94Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
95
96## 6.2.6
97
98This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
99installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
100upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
101
102## 6.2.5
103
104This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
105`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
106affected shell and need to run the test suite.
107
108## 6.2.4
109
110This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
111`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
112packagers.
113
114This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
115better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
116zealous with the error checking.
117
118## 6.2.3
119
120This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
121
122That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
123redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
124users.
125
126## 6.2.2
127
128This is a production release that fixes a bug.
129
130The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
131parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
132the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
133function call.
134
135## 6.2.1
136
137This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
138
139## 6.2.0
140
141This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
142
143The bug fixes include:
144
145* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
146  activated.
147* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
148  library.
149* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
150* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
151  characters exist.
152* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
153
154The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
155mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
156
157## 6.1.1
158
159This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
160generated tests.
161
162## 6.1.0
163
164This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
165a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
166
167The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
168`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
169parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
170encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
171point.
172
173This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
174the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
175
176The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
177variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
178non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
179of the function.
180
181The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
182built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
183interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
184arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
185
186The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
187in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
188
189The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
190in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
191
192These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
193that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
194been assignable to variables in `dc`.
195
196The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
197`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
198character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
199just single-character ones will be able to be created.
200
201## 6.0.4
202
203This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
204
205This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
206or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
207
208## 6.0.3
209
210This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
211
212Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
213
214## 6.0.2
215
216This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
217
218* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
219* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
220  given on the command-line.
221
222## 6.0.1
223
224This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
225
226Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
227upgrade.
228
229These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
230Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
231everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
232was safe.
233
234But it was not.
235
236Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
237(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
238to) and memory leaks.
239
240## 6.0.0
241
242This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
243sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
244with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
245
246The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
247manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
248environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
249options.
250
251Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
252
253In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
254the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
255apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
256not play well together.
257
258To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
259to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
260and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
261
262## 5.3.3
263
264This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
265system.
266
267All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
268
269## 5.3.2
270
271This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
272where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
273
274This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
275
276## 5.3.1
277
278This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
279system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
280with either, you do not need to upgrade.
281
282## 5.3.0
283
284This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
285
286First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
287editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
288
289Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
290
291Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
292added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
293
294Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
295
296Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
297manpages.
298
299## 5.2.5
300
301This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
302GNU `bc`.
303
304## 5.2.4
305
306This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
307
308* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
309  line.
310* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
311
312Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
313
314## 5.2.3
315
316This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
317file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
318
319## 5.2.2
320
321This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
322`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
323
324This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
325There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
326
327## 5.2.1
328
329This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
330mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
331was because `bc` was too strict.
332
333## 5.2.0
334
335This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
336out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
337
338The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
339possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
340with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
341
342Bugs fixed include:
343
344* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
345* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
346
347## 5.1.1
348
349This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
350exists in all versions of `bc`.
351
352The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
353correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
354
355## 5.1.0
356
357This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
358
359* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
360  function caused an error.
361* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
362* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
363* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
364  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
365* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
366  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
367  the use of `-z` or not.
368* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
369  and leading zeroes.
370* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
371* Improved builds on Windows.
372
373## 5.0.2
374
375This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
376experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
377
378The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
379allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
380pretend to allocate the memory.
381
382The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
383they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
384
385However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
386granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
387
388This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
389fact, refuse the request.
390
391So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
392code won't really change much.
393
394## 5.0.1
395
396This is a production release with two fixes:
397
398* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
399* Fix for the build on Android.
400
401Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
402
403## 5.0.0
404
405This is a major production release with several changes:
406
407* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
408* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
409  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
410* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
411* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
412* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
413  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
414  out of memory.
415* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
416  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
417* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
418  shift operators.
419* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
420* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
421* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
422* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
423* Removed the no prompt build option.
424* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
425  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
426  mode, and prompt.
427* Added history support to Windows.
428* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
429* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
430* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
431  enough items.
432* Optimized string allocation.
433* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
434* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
435* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
436  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
437* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
438* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
439* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
440  variables.
441* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
442  is `5.0.0`.
443* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
444* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
445  them to functions in `bc`.
446* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
447* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
448* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
449* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
450  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
451* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
452
453## 4.0.2
454
455This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
456
4571.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
458	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
4592.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
460	`SIGTSTP`.
461
462## 4.0.1
463
464This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
465is printed with a print statement.
466
467## 4.0.0
468
469This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
470big surprise:
471
472* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
473  popped.
474* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
475* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
476  by user code without newlines.
477* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
478  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
479* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
480
481The last item is why this is a major version bump.
482
483Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
484and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
485Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
486
487In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
488
489For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
490[build manual][13].
491
492## 3.3.4
493
494This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
495
496The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
497without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
498
499This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
500
501## 3.3.3
502
503This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
504
505The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
506it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
507`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
508significant digits.
509
510After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
511compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
512make the change.
513
514The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
515
516## 3.3.2
517
518This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
519[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
520
521## 3.3.1
522
523This is a production release that fixes a bug.
524
525The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
526
527## 3.3.0
528
529This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
530bugs.
531
532The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
533`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
534(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
535`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
536command-line.
537
538## 3.2.7
539
540This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
541in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
542Linux.
543
544Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
545need to upgrade.
546
547## 3.2.6
548
549This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
550
551There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
552and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
553
554All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
555my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
556favor of this version.
557
558## 3.2.5
559
560This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
561things.
562
563The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
564out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
565from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
566cases.
567
568Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
569
570Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
571big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
572instead of unwinding the stack.
573
574Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
575if `/dev/urandom` fails.
576
577Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
578usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
579`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
580rebuild when not necessary.
581
582## 3.2.4
583
584This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
585does not have an attribute that is used.
586
587Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
588
589## 3.2.3
590
591This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
592changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
593
594Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
595
596## 3.2.2
597
598This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
599bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
600
601## 3.2.1
602
603This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
604not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
605`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
606error. Previously, they were not set.
607
608## 3.2.0
609
610This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
611
612The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
613math library.
614
615The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
616This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
617be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
618`make install`.
619
620This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
621I could not figure out how to do it until now.
622
623If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
624incremented.
625
626## 3.1.6
627
628This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
629and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
630did not seem to take advantage of.
631
632Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
633
634## 3.1.5
635
636This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
637to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
638able to.
639
640***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
641
642## 3.1.4
643
644This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
645removes one environment variable.
646
647The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
648executed. I also made the fix more general.
649
650The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
651`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
652`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
653the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
654
655Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
656since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
657
658Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
659`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
660
661## 3.1.3
662
663This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
664the following, it would error:
665
666```
667echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
668```
669
670Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
671that they do.
672
673## 3.1.2
674
675This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
676***NOT*** need to upgrade.
677
678For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
679`configure.sh`.
680
681## 3.1.1
682
683This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
684need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
685
686## 3.1.0
687
688This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
689improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
690package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
691
692The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
693(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
694in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
695
696The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
697`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
698clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
699
700The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
701well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
702
703The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
704receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
705items onto and out of vectors.
706
707The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
708thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
709`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
710
711The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
712the resulting code.
713
714The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
715strings.
716
717The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
718generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
719blank lines where they shouldn't be.
720
721## 3.0.3
722
723This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
724
725Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
726various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
727relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
728build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
729
730## 3.0.2
731
732This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
733unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
734library][16].
735
736Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
737
738## 3.0.1
739
740This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
741upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
742may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
743
744The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
745on.
746
747The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
748much more efficient.
749
750## 3.0.0
751
752*Notes for package maintainers:*
753
754*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
755me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
756changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
757on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
758global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
759running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
760updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
761sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
762locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
763`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
764this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
765
766*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
767below for the reasons why.*
768
769This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
770three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
771handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
772as possible.**
773
774The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
775was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
776especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
777before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
778the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
779that existed before a function definition was executed.
780
781The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
782bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
783output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
784
785The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
786expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
787accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
788
789Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
790the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
791
792First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
793function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
794Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
795old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
796
797Second, the `BcVm` global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
798reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
799`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
800
801Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
802optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
803changes.
804
805Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
806
807Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
808scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
809much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
810
811There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
812
813First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
814calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
815`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
816size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
817operations.
818
819Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
820strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
821constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
822to grab a constant or a string.
823
824Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
825arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
826`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
827to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
828capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
829ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
830
831In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
832be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
833minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
834bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
835these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
836allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
837of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
838
839On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
840either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
841should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
842are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
84345 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
844the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
845diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
846
847(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
84820 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
84932-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
850and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
851years is just under a millimeter.)
852
853All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
854work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
855nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
856allocator.
857
858I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
859especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
860buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
861worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
862list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
863that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
864it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
865using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
866had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
867user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
868`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
869will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
870
871Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
872reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
873from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
874
875Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
876this could be expensive when in tight loops.
877
878Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
879an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
880`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
881safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
882handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
883indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
884status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
885
886This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
887This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
888the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
889Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
890(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
891
892As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
893because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
894custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
895builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
896have less linking time.
897
898This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
899`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
900
901Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
902in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
903addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
904were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
905
906For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
907
908As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
909to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
910signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
911unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
912
913It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
914***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
915checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
916The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
917taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
918
919## 2.7.2
920
921This is a production release with one major bug fix.
922
923The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
924takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
925reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
926dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
927
928**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
929
930## 2.7.1
931
932This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
933warnings on FreeBSD.
934
935## 2.7.0
936
937This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
938features.
939
940Bug fixes:
941
942* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
943  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
944  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
945  does not even use `getopt()`.
946* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
947  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
948
949The following new languages are supported:
950
951* Dutch
952* Polish
953* Russian
954* Japanes
955* Simplified Chinese
956
957All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
958welcome.
959
960There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
961generator** (PRNG).
962
963The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
964`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
965it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
966good seed by default.
967
968It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
969better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
970
971In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
972automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
973size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
974this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
975
976***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
977exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
978guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
979to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
980
981On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
982to make using the PRNG easier:
983
984* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
985* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
986* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
987  `x` with probability `0.5`.
988* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
989
990## 2.6.1
991
992This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
993
994The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
995error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
996
997## 2.6.0
998
999This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
1000to upgrade, you don't have to.
1001
1002No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
1003
1004This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
1005which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
1006`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
1007
1008This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
1009library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
1010
1011## 2.5.3
1012
1013This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
1014Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
1015
1016The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
1017files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
1018GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
1019
1020## 2.5.2
1021
1022This release is a production release.
1023
1024No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
1025given to `CC`, like this:
1026
1027```
1028CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
1029```
1030
1031If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
1032is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
1033and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
1034
1035This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
1036
1037## 2.5.1
1038
1039This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
1040in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
1041
1042* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
1043* Minor documentations edits were performed.
1044* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
1045  `getopt_long()` is missing.
1046
1047## 2.5.0
1048
1049This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
1050
1051The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
1052Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
1053
1054## 2.4.0
1055
1056This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
1057
1058* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
1059* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
1060  things.
1061* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
1062  and `m` commands, respectively.
1063* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
1064
1065The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
1066is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
1067new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
1068as macros are executed in a loop.
1069
1070The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
1071how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
1072
1073## 2.3.2
1074
1075This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
1076making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
1077upgrade.
1078
1079## 2.3.1
1080
1081This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1082return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1083the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1084bug, and needs to be fixed.
1085
1086**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1087
1088## 2.3.0
1089
1090This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1091
1092## 2.2.0
1093
1094This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1095improvements.
1096
10971.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
10982.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1099	calculate `n`th roots.
11003.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1101	calculate cube roots.
1102
1103## 2.1.3
1104
1105This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1106non-breaking ways:
1107
11081.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1109	link.
11102.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1111	was fixed.
1112
1113## 2.1.2
1114
1115This release is not a critical release.
1116
11171.	A few codes were added to history.
11182.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
11193.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1120
1121## 2.1.1
1122
1123This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1124the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1125
1126Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1127do not need to upgrade.
1128
1129## 2.1.0
1130
1131This release is a production release.
1132
1133The following bugs were fixed:
1134
11351.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
11362.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
11373.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
11384.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
11395.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
11406.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
11417.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1142	fixed.
1143
1144In addition, the following changes were made:
1145
11461.	Division was slightly optimized.
11472.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
11483.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1149	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
11504.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1151	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1152	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1153	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1154	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1155	needed.
1156
1157On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1158
11591.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
11602.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
11613.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1162	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
11634.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1164
1165Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1166
1167***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1168considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1169added to this `bc`.
1170
1171## 2.0.3
1172
1173This is a production, bug-fix release.
1174
1175Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1176
11771.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
11782.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1179
1180The last bug bears some mentioning.
1181
1182When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1183instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1184`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1185which is an error.
1186
1187I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1188had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1189wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1190double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1191all along.
1192
1193That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1194
1195There are two other things in this release:
1196
11971.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
11982.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1199
1200## 2.0.2
1201
1202This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1203would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1204billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1205
1206## 2.0.1
1207
1208This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1209
12101.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
12112.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
12123.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1213	prompt.
12144.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
12155.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1216
1217## 2.0.0
1218
1219This release is a production release.
1220
1221This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1222out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1223is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1224others manage to find bugs.
1225
1226This release has only a few new features:
1227
12281.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1229	`atan2(y, x)`.
12302.	Locales were fixed.
12313.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1232	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1233	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1234	the [build manual][13].
12354.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1236	than straight brute force.
12375.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
12386.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1239	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
12407.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1241	options.
12428.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
12439.	Signal handling was fixed.
124410.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
124511.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1246	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1247	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
124812.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1249
1250In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1251numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1252larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1253delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1254division, and power.
1255
1256This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1257
1258## 1.2.8
1259
1260This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1261works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1262
1263## 1.2.7
1264
1265This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1266
1267## 1.2.6
1268
1269This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1270shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1271long time ago but was missed.
1272
1273## 1.2.5
1274
1275This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1276
1277## 1.2.4
1278
1279This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1280
1281## 1.2.3
1282
1283This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1284only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1285Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1286
1287## 1.2.2
1288
1289This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1290
1291## 1.2.1
1292
1293This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1294
1295## 1.2.0
1296
1297This is a production release.
1298
1299There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1300
13011.	The build system had some changes.
13022.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
13033.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1304	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1305	details.)
13064.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
13075.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
13086.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1309	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1310	allow using degrees with the standard library.
13117.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1312	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
13138.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1314	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
13159.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
131610.	Some bugs were fixed.
131711.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
131812.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1319
1320## 1.1.4
1321
1322This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1323versions of `glibc`.
1324
1325## 1.1.3
1326
1327This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1328`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1329
1330## 1.1.2
1331
1332This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1333
1334## 1.1.1
1335
1336This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1337same.
1338
1339The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1340
1341## 1.1.0
1342
1343This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1344
13451.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1346	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1347	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1348	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
13492.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1350	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
13513.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
13524.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
13535.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1354	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
13556.	Addition got a speed improvement.
13567.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1357	procedure.
13588.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1359	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1360	returned `true`.
13619.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
136210.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1363	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1364	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
136511.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1366	shrinking the size of the executable.
136712.	The math library was shrunk.
136813.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
136914.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1370	operation.
137115.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
137216.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
137317.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
137418.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1375	`make install`.
137619.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1377	executable end up bigger.
137820.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
137921.	Allocations were reduced.
138022.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1381	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1382	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
138323.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1384	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1385	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
138624.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
138725.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
138826.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
138927.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
139028.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
139129.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1392
1393## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1394
1395This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1396release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1397been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1398
1399## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1400
1401This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1402release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1403been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1404
1405## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1406
1407This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1408release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1409code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1410
1411## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1412
1413This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1414release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1415code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1416
1417## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1418
1419This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1420release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1421code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1422
1423## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1424
1425This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1426release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1427code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1428
1429## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1430
1431This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1432specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1433thoroughly as it should for release.
1434
1435## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1436
1437This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1438thoroughly as it should for release.
1439
1440## 1.0
1441
1442This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1443
1444As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1445
14461.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1447	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1448	never will, so it is complete.
14492.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1450	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
14513.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1452	see inputs and outputs.
14534.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1454	conditions (as much as possible).
14555.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1456	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
14576.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1458	can tell).
14597.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
14608.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1461	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
14629.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1463	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
146410.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1465	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1466	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1467	and then configured through `make`.
146811.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1469	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
147012.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1471	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1472	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1473	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
147413.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
147514.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1476	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
147715.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
147816.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
147917.	Data input was hardened.
148018.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1481	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
148219.	Error handling was improved.
148320.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1484
1485## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1486
1487This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1488Release Candidate 6.
1489
1490## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1491
1492This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1493Candidate 5.
1494
1495## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1496
1497This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1498Candidate 4.
1499
1500## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1501
1502This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1503Candidate 3.
1504
1505## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1506
1507This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1508Candidate 2.
1509
1510## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1511
1512This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1513Candidate 1.
1514
1515## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1516
1517This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1518is not tested.
1519
1520## 0.5
1521
1522This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1523tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1524
1525## 0.4.1
1526
1527This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1528
1529## 0.4
1530
1531This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1532not thoroughly tested.
1533
1534[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1535[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1536[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1537[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1538[5]: ./README.md
1539[6]: ./configure.sh
1540[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1541[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1542[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1543[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1544[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1545[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1546[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1547[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1548[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1549[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1550[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1551[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1552[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1553[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1554[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1555[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1556