xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision df21a004be237a1dccd03c7b47254625eea62fa9)
1# News
2
3## 7.1.0
4
5This is an ***UNTESTED*** release. If you would like testing, see the
6[maintenance terms][23].
7
8This fixes a few bugs:
9
10* Improper response to double `SIGINT` with editline.
11* Not letting `libedit` handle terminal size changes.
12* A `dc` crash from improperly handling an error.
13* A duplicate check for reference arrays.
14* Build failures with GCC 15.
15
16It also has a performance increase in the `band()` function and others in the
17math library.
18
19## 7.0.3
20
21This is a production release that fixes build warnings on the musl libc.
22
23Other users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
24
25## 7.0.2
26
27This is a production release that fixes `Ctrl+d` on FreeBSD and Linux when using
28`editline`.
29
30This bug was caused by the macOS fix in `7.0.0`. Unfortunately, this means that
31macOS does not respond properly to `Ctrl+d`.
32
33## 7.0.1
34
35This is a production release that fixes a warning using GCC on FreeBSD.
36
37Other users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
38
39## 7.0.0
40
41This is a production release to fix three bugs.
42
43The first bug is that `bc`/`dc` will exit on macOS when the terminal is resized.
44
45The second bug is that an array, which should only be a function parameter, was
46accepted as part of larger expressions.
47
48The third bug is that value stack for `dc` was cleared on any error. However,
49this is not how other `dc` behave. To bring `dc` more in line with other
50implementations, this behavior was changed. This change is why this version is a
51new major version.
52
53## 6.7.6
54
55This is a production release to fix one bug.
56
57The bug was that `bc` attempted to jump out when flushing `stdout` on exit, but
58there is no jump buf at that point.
59
60## 6.7.5
61
62This is a production release to fix one small bug.
63
64The bug is that sometimes numbers are printed to incorrect line lengths. The
65number is always correct; the line is just longer than the limit.
66
67Users who do not care do not need to update.
68
69## 6.7.4
70
71This is a production release to fix problems in the `bc` manual.
72
73Users only need to update if desired.
74
75## 6.7.3
76
77This is a production release to fix the library build on Mac OSX.
78
79Users on other platforms do *not* need to update.
80
81## 6.7.2
82
83This is a production release to remove some debugging code that I accidentally
84committed.
85
86## 6.7.1
87
88This is a production release with a bug fix for `SIGINT` only being handled
89once.
90
91## 6.7.0
92
93This is a production release with three new functions in the [extended math
94library][16]: `min()`, `max()`, and `i2rand()`.
95
96## 6.6.1
97
98This is a production release with an improved `p()` function in the [extended
99math library][16].
100
101Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
102
103## 6.6.0
104
105This is a production release with two bug fixes and one change.
106
107The first bug fix is to fix the build on Mac OSX.
108
109The second bug was to remove printing a leading zero in scientific or
110engineering output modes.
111
112The change was that the implementation of `irand()` was improved to call the
113PRNG less.
114
115## 6.5.0
116
117This is a production release that fixes an infinite loop bug in `root()` and
118`cbrt()`, fixes a bug with `BC_LINE_LENGTH=0`, and adds the `fib()` function to
119the extended math library to calculate Fibonacci numbers.
120
121## 6.4.0
122
123This is a production release that fixes a `read()`/`?` bug and adds features to
124`bcl`.
125
126The bug was that multiple read calls could repeat old data.
127
128The new features in `bcl` are functions to preserve `BclNumber` arguments and
129not free them.
130
131***WARNING for `bcl` Users***: The `bcl_rand_seedWithNum()` function used to not
132consume its arguments. Now it does. This change could have made this version
133`7.0.0`, but I'm 99.9% confident that there are no `bcl` users, or if there are,
134they probably don't use the PRNG. So I took a risk and didn't update the major
135version.
136
137`bcl` now includes more capacity to check for invalid numbers when built to run
138under Valgrind.
139
140## 6.3.1
141
142This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
143environments and Linux from Scratch.
144
145## 6.3.0
146
147This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
148feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
149enabled or not.
150
151Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
152
153## 6.2.6
154
155This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
156installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
157upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
158
159## 6.2.5
160
161This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
162`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
163affected shell and need to run the test suite.
164
165## 6.2.4
166
167This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
168`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
169packagers.
170
171This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
172better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
173zealous with the error checking.
174
175## 6.2.3
176
177This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
178
179That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
180redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
181users.
182
183## 6.2.2
184
185This is a production release that fixes a bug.
186
187The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
188parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
189the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
190function call.
191
192## 6.2.1
193
194This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
195
196## 6.2.0
197
198This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
199
200The bug fixes include:
201
202* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
203  activated.
204* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
205  library.
206* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
207* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
208  characters exist.
209* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
210
211The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
212mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
213
214## 6.1.1
215
216This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
217generated tests.
218
219## 6.1.0
220
221This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
222a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
223
224The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
225`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
226parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
227encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
228point.
229
230This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
231the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
232
233The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
234variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
235non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
236of the function.
237
238The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
239built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
240interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
241arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
242
243The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
244in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
245
246The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
247in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
248
249These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
250that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
251been assignable to variables in `dc`.
252
253The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
254`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
255character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
256just single-character ones will be able to be created.
257
258## 6.0.4
259
260This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
261
262This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
263or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
264
265## 6.0.3
266
267This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
268
269Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
270
271## 6.0.2
272
273This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
274
275* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
276* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
277  given on the command-line.
278
279## 6.0.1
280
281This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
282
283Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
284upgrade.
285
286These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
287Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
288everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
289was safe.
290
291But it was not.
292
293Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
294(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
295to) and memory leaks.
296
297## 6.0.0
298
299This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
300sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
301with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
302
303The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
304manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
305environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
306options.
307
308Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
309
310In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
311the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
312apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
313not play well together.
314
315To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
316to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
317and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
318
319## 5.3.3
320
321This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
322system.
323
324All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
325
326## 5.3.2
327
328This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
329where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
330
331This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
332
333## 5.3.1
334
335This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
336system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
337with either, you do not need to upgrade.
338
339## 5.3.0
340
341This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
342
343First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
344editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
345
346Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
347
348Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
349added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
350
351Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
352
353Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
354manpages.
355
356## 5.2.5
357
358This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
359GNU `bc`.
360
361## 5.2.4
362
363This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
364
365* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
366  line.
367* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
368
369Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
370
371## 5.2.3
372
373This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
374file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
375
376## 5.2.2
377
378This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
379`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
380
381This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
382There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
383
384## 5.2.1
385
386This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
387mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
388was because `bc` was too strict.
389
390## 5.2.0
391
392This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
393out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
394
395The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
396possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
397with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
398
399Bugs fixed include:
400
401* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
402* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
403
404## 5.1.1
405
406This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
407exists in all versions of `bc`.
408
409The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
410correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
411
412## 5.1.0
413
414This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
415
416* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
417  function caused an error.
418* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
419* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
420* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
421  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
422* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
423  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
424  the use of `-z` or not.
425* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
426  and leading zeroes.
427* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
428* Improved builds on Windows.
429
430## 5.0.2
431
432This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
433experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
434
435The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
436allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
437pretend to allocate the memory.
438
439The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
440they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
441
442However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
443granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
444
445This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
446fact, refuse the request.
447
448So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
449code won't really change much.
450
451## 5.0.1
452
453This is a production release with two fixes:
454
455* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
456* Fix for the build on Android.
457
458Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
459
460## 5.0.0
461
462This is a major production release with several changes:
463
464* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
465* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
466  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
467* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
468* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
469* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
470  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
471  out of memory.
472* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
473  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
474* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
475  shift operators.
476* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
477* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
478* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
479* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
480* Removed the no prompt build option.
481* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
482  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
483  mode, and prompt.
484* Added history support to Windows.
485* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
486* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
487* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
488  enough items.
489* Optimized string allocation.
490* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
491* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
492* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
493  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
494* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
495* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
496* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
497  variables.
498* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
499  is `5.0.0`.
500* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
501* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
502  them to functions in `bc`.
503* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
504* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
505* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
506* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
507  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
508* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
509
510## 4.0.2
511
512This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
513
5141.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
515	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
5162.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
517	`SIGTSTP`.
518
519## 4.0.1
520
521This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
522is printed with a print statement.
523
524## 4.0.0
525
526This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
527big surprise:
528
529* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
530  popped.
531* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
532* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
533  by user code without newlines.
534* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
535  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
536* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
537
538The last item is why this is a major version bump.
539
540Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
541and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
542Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
543
544In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
545
546For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
547[build manual][13].
548
549## 3.3.4
550
551This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
552
553The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
554without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
555
556This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
557
558## 3.3.3
559
560This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
561
562The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
563it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
564`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
565significant digits.
566
567After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
568compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
569make the change.
570
571The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
572
573## 3.3.2
574
575This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
576[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
577
578## 3.3.1
579
580This is a production release that fixes a bug.
581
582The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
583
584## 3.3.0
585
586This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
587bugs.
588
589The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
590`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
591(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
592`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
593command-line.
594
595## 3.2.7
596
597This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
598in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
599Linux.
600
601Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
602need to upgrade.
603
604## 3.2.6
605
606This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
607
608There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
609and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
610
611All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
612my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
613favor of this version.
614
615## 3.2.5
616
617This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
618things.
619
620The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
621out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
622from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
623cases.
624
625Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
626
627Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
628big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
629instead of unwinding the stack.
630
631Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
632if `/dev/urandom` fails.
633
634Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
635usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
636`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
637rebuild when not necessary.
638
639## 3.2.4
640
641This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
642does not have an attribute that is used.
643
644Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
645
646## 3.2.3
647
648This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
649changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
650
651Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
652
653## 3.2.2
654
655This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
656bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
657
658## 3.2.1
659
660This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
661not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
662`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
663error. Previously, they were not set.
664
665## 3.2.0
666
667This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
668
669The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
670math library.
671
672The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
673This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
674be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
675`make install`.
676
677This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
678I could not figure out how to do it until now.
679
680If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
681incremented.
682
683## 3.1.6
684
685This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
686and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
687did not seem to take advantage of.
688
689Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
690
691## 3.1.5
692
693This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
694to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
695able to.
696
697***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
698
699## 3.1.4
700
701This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
702removes one environment variable.
703
704The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
705executed. I also made the fix more general.
706
707The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
708`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
709`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
710the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
711
712Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
713since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
714
715Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
716`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
717
718## 3.1.3
719
720This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
721the following, it would error:
722
723```
724echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
725```
726
727Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
728that they do.
729
730## 3.1.2
731
732This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
733***NOT*** need to upgrade.
734
735For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
736`configure.sh`.
737
738## 3.1.1
739
740This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
741need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
742
743## 3.1.0
744
745This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
746improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
747package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
748
749The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
750(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
751in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
752
753The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
754`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
755clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
756
757The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
758well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
759
760The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
761receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
762items onto and out of vectors.
763
764The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
765thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
766`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
767
768The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
769the resulting code.
770
771The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
772strings.
773
774The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
775generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
776blank lines where they shouldn't be.
777
778## 3.0.3
779
780This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
781
782Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
783various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
784relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
785build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
786
787## 3.0.2
788
789This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
790unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
791library][16].
792
793Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
794
795## 3.0.1
796
797This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
798upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
799may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
800
801The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
802on.
803
804The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
805much more efficient.
806
807## 3.0.0
808
809*Notes for package maintainers:*
810
811*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
812me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
813changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
814on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
815global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
816running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
817updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
818sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
819locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
820`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
821this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
822
823*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
824below for the reasons why.*
825
826This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
827three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
828handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
829as possible.**
830
831The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
832was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
833especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
834before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
835the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
836that existed before a function definition was executed.
837
838The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
839bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
840output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
841
842The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
843expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
844accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
845
846Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
847the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
848
849First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
850function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
851Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
852old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
853
854Second, the `BcVm` global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
855reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
856`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
857
858Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
859optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
860changes.
861
862Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
863
864Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
865scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
866much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
867
868There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
869
870First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
871calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
872`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
873size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
874operations.
875
876Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
877strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
878constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
879to grab a constant or a string.
880
881Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
882arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
883`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
884to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
885capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
886ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
887
888In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
889be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
890minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
891bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
892these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
893allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
894of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
895
896On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
897either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
898should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
899are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
90045 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
901the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
902diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
903
904(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
90520 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
90632-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
907and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
908years is just under a millimeter.)
909
910All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
911work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
912nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
913allocator.
914
915I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
916especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
917buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
918worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
919list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
920that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
921it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
922using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
923had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
924user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
925`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
926will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
927
928Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
929reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
930from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
931
932Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
933this could be expensive when in tight loops.
934
935Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
936an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
937`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
938safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
939handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
940indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
941status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
942
943This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
944This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
945the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
946Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
947(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
948
949As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
950because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
951custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
952builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
953have less linking time.
954
955This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
956`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
957
958Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
959in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
960addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
961were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
962
963For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
964
965As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
966to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
967signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
968unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
969
970It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
971***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
972checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
973The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
974taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
975
976## 2.7.2
977
978This is a production release with one major bug fix.
979
980The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
981takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
982reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
983dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
984
985**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
986
987## 2.7.1
988
989This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
990warnings on FreeBSD.
991
992## 2.7.0
993
994This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
995features.
996
997Bug fixes:
998
999* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
1000  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
1001  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
1002  does not even use `getopt()`.
1003* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
1004  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
1005
1006The following new languages are supported:
1007
1008* Dutch
1009* Polish
1010* Russian
1011* Japanes
1012* Simplified Chinese
1013
1014All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
1015welcome.
1016
1017There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
1018generator** (PRNG).
1019
1020The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
1021`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
1022it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
1023good seed by default.
1024
1025It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
1026better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
1027
1028In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
1029automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
1030size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
1031this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
1032
1033***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
1034exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
1035guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
1036to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
1037
1038On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
1039to make using the PRNG easier:
1040
1041* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
1042* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
1043* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
1044  `x` with probability `0.5`.
1045* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
1046
1047## 2.6.1
1048
1049This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
1050
1051The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
1052error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
1053
1054## 2.6.0
1055
1056This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
1057to upgrade, you don't have to.
1058
1059No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
1060
1061This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
1062which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
1063`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
1064
1065This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
1066library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
1067
1068## 2.5.3
1069
1070This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
1071Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
1072
1073The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
1074files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
1075GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
1076
1077## 2.5.2
1078
1079This release is a production release.
1080
1081No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
1082given to `CC`, like this:
1083
1084```
1085CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
1086```
1087
1088If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
1089is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
1090and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
1091
1092This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
1093
1094## 2.5.1
1095
1096This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
1097in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
1098
1099* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
1100* Minor documentations edits were performed.
1101* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
1102  `getopt_long()` is missing.
1103
1104## 2.5.0
1105
1106This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
1107
1108The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
1109Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
1110
1111## 2.4.0
1112
1113This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
1114
1115* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
1116* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
1117  things.
1118* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
1119  and `m` commands, respectively.
1120* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
1121
1122The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
1123is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
1124new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
1125as macros are executed in a loop.
1126
1127The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
1128how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
1129
1130## 2.3.2
1131
1132This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
1133making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
1134upgrade.
1135
1136## 2.3.1
1137
1138This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1139return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1140the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1141bug, and needs to be fixed.
1142
1143**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1144
1145## 2.3.0
1146
1147This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1148
1149## 2.2.0
1150
1151This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1152improvements.
1153
11541.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
11552.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1156	calculate `n`th roots.
11573.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1158	calculate cube roots.
1159
1160## 2.1.3
1161
1162This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1163non-breaking ways:
1164
11651.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1166	link.
11672.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1168	was fixed.
1169
1170## 2.1.2
1171
1172This release is not a critical release.
1173
11741.	A few codes were added to history.
11752.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
11763.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1177
1178## 2.1.1
1179
1180This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1181the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1182
1183Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1184do not need to upgrade.
1185
1186## 2.1.0
1187
1188This release is a production release.
1189
1190The following bugs were fixed:
1191
11921.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
11932.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
11943.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
11954.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
11965.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
11976.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
11987.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1199	fixed.
1200
1201In addition, the following changes were made:
1202
12031.	Division was slightly optimized.
12042.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
12053.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1206	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
12074.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1208	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1209	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1210	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1211	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1212	needed.
1213
1214On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1215
12161.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
12172.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
12183.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1219	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
12204.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1221
1222Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1223
1224***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1225considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1226added to this `bc`.
1227
1228## 2.0.3
1229
1230This is a production, bug-fix release.
1231
1232Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1233
12341.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
12352.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1236
1237The last bug bears some mentioning.
1238
1239When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1240instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1241`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1242which is an error.
1243
1244I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1245had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1246wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1247double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1248all along.
1249
1250That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1251
1252There are two other things in this release:
1253
12541.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
12552.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1256
1257## 2.0.2
1258
1259This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1260would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1261billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1262
1263## 2.0.1
1264
1265This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1266
12671.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
12682.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
12693.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1270	prompt.
12714.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
12725.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1273
1274## 2.0.0
1275
1276This release is a production release.
1277
1278This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1279out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1280is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1281others manage to find bugs.
1282
1283This release has only a few new features:
1284
12851.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1286	`atan2(y, x)`.
12872.	Locales were fixed.
12883.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1289	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1290	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1291	the [build manual][13].
12924.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1293	than straight brute force.
12945.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
12956.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1296	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
12977.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1298	options.
12998.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
13009.	Signal handling was fixed.
130110.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
130211.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1303	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1304	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
130512.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1306
1307In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1308numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1309larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1310delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1311division, and power.
1312
1313This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1314
1315## 1.2.8
1316
1317This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1318works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1319
1320## 1.2.7
1321
1322This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1323
1324## 1.2.6
1325
1326This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1327shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1328long time ago but was missed.
1329
1330## 1.2.5
1331
1332This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1333
1334## 1.2.4
1335
1336This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1337
1338## 1.2.3
1339
1340This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1341only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1342Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1343
1344## 1.2.2
1345
1346This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1347
1348## 1.2.1
1349
1350This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1351
1352## 1.2.0
1353
1354This is a production release.
1355
1356There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1357
13581.	The build system had some changes.
13592.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
13603.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1361	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1362	details.)
13634.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
13645.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
13656.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1366	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1367	allow using degrees with the standard library.
13687.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1369	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
13708.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1371	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
13729.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
137310.	Some bugs were fixed.
137411.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
137512.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1376
1377## 1.1.4
1378
1379This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1380versions of `glibc`.
1381
1382## 1.1.3
1383
1384This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1385`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1386
1387## 1.1.2
1388
1389This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1390
1391## 1.1.1
1392
1393This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1394same.
1395
1396The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1397
1398## 1.1.0
1399
1400This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1401
14021.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1403	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1404	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1405	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
14062.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1407	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
14083.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
14094.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
14105.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1411	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
14126.	Addition got a speed improvement.
14137.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1414	procedure.
14158.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1416	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1417	returned `true`.
14189.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
141910.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1420	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1421	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
142211.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1423	shrinking the size of the executable.
142412.	The math library was shrunk.
142513.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
142614.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1427	operation.
142815.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
142916.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
143017.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
143118.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1432	`make install`.
143319.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1434	executable end up bigger.
143520.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
143621.	Allocations were reduced.
143722.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1438	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1439	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
144023.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1441	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1442	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
144324.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
144425.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
144526.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
144627.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
144728.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
144829.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1449
1450## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1451
1452This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1453release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1454been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1455
1456## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1457
1458This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1459release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1460been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1461
1462## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1463
1464This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1465release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1466code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1467
1468## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1469
1470This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1471release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1472code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1473
1474## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1475
1476This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1477release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1478code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1479
1480## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1481
1482This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1483release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1484code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1485
1486## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1487
1488This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1489specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1490thoroughly as it should for release.
1491
1492## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1493
1494This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1495thoroughly as it should for release.
1496
1497## 1.0
1498
1499This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1500
1501As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1502
15031.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1504	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1505	never will, so it is complete.
15062.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1507	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
15083.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1509	see inputs and outputs.
15104.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1511	conditions (as much as possible).
15125.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1513	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
15146.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1515	can tell).
15167.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
15178.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1518	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
15199.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1520	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
152110.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1522	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1523	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1524	and then configured through `make`.
152511.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1526	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
152712.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1528	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1529	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1530	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
153113.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
153214.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1533	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
153415.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
153516.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
153617.	Data input was hardened.
153718.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1538	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
153919.	Error handling was improved.
154020.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1541
1542## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1543
1544This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1545Release Candidate 6.
1546
1547## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1548
1549This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1550Candidate 5.
1551
1552## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1553
1554This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1555Candidate 4.
1556
1557## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1558
1559This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1560Candidate 3.
1561
1562## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1563
1564This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1565Candidate 2.
1566
1567## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1568
1569This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1570Candidate 1.
1571
1572## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1573
1574This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1575is not tested.
1576
1577## 0.5
1578
1579This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1580tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1581
1582## 0.4.1
1583
1584This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1585
1586## 0.4
1587
1588This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1589not thoroughly tested.
1590
1591[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1592[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1593[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1594[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1595[5]: ./README.md
1596[6]: ./configure.sh
1597[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1598[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1599[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1600[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1601[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1602[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1603[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1604[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1605[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1606[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1607[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1608[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1609[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1610[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1611[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1612[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1613[23]: ./MAINTENANCE-TERMS.md
1614