5 This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
7 The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
10 The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
11 This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
12 be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
15 This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
16 I could not figure out how to do it until now.
18 If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
23 This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
24 and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
25 did not seem to take advantage of.
27 Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
31 This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
32 to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
35 ***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
39 This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
40 removes one environment variable.
42 The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
43 executed. I also made the fix more general.
45 The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
46 `--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
47 `stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
48 the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
50 Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
51 since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
53 Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
54 `--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
58 This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
59 the following, it would error:
62 echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
65 Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
70 This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
71 ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
73 For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
78 This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
79 need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
83 This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
84 improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
85 package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
87 The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
88 (and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
89 in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
91 The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
92 `SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
93 clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
95 The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
96 well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
98 The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
99 receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
100 items onto and out of vectors.
102 The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
103 thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
104 `free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
106 The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
109 The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
112 The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
113 generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
114 blank lines where they shouldn't be.
118 This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
120 Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
121 various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
122 relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
123 build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
127 This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
128 unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
131 Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
135 This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
136 upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
137 may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
139 The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
142 The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
147 *Notes for package maintainers:*
149 *First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
150 me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
151 changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
152 on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
153 global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
154 running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
155 updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
156 sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
157 locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
158 `make uninstall` or by running the `locale_uninstall.sh` script.) Once this is
159 done, `bc` should install without problems.*
161 *Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
162 below for the reasons why.*
164 This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
165 three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
166 handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
169 The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
170 was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
171 especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
172 before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
173 the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
174 that existed before a function definition was executed.
176 The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
177 bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
178 output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
180 The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
181 expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
182 accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
184 Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
185 the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
187 First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
188 function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
189 Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
190 old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
192 Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
193 reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
194 `bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
196 Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
197 optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
200 Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
202 Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
203 scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
204 much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
206 There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
208 First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
209 calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
210 `bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
211 size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
214 Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
215 strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
216 constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
217 to grab a constant or a string.
219 Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
220 arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
221 `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
222 to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
223 capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
224 ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
226 In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
227 be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
228 minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
229 bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
230 these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
231 allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
232 of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
234 On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
235 either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
236 should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
237 are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
238 45 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
239 the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
240 diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
242 (For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
243 20 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
244 32-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits in just under a trillion
245 and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
246 years is just under a millimeter.)
248 All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
249 work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
250 nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
253 I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
254 especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
255 buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
256 worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
257 list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
258 that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
259 it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
260 using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
261 had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
262 user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
263 `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
264 will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
266 Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
267 reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
268 from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
270 Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
271 this could be expensive when in tight loops.
273 Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
274 an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
275 `main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
276 safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
277 handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
278 indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
279 status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
281 This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
282 This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
283 the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
284 Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
285 (There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
287 As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
288 because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
289 custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
290 builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
291 have less linking time.
293 This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
294 `stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
296 Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
297 in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
298 addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
299 were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
301 For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
303 As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
304 to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
305 signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
306 unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
308 It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
309 ***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
310 checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
311 The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
312 taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
316 This is a production release with one major bug fix.
318 The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
319 takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
320 reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
321 dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
323 **ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
327 This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
332 This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
337 * Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
338 `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
339 every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
340 does not even use `getopt()`.
341 * Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
342 does the job if there are spaces in file names.
344 The following new languages are supported:
352 All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
355 There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
358 The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
359 `/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
360 it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
361 good seed by default.
363 It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
364 better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
366 In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
367 automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
368 size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
369 this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
371 ***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
372 exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
373 guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
374 to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
376 On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
377 to make using the PRNG easier:
379 * `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
380 * `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
381 * `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
382 `x` with probability `0.5`.
383 * `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
387 This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
389 The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
390 error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
394 This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
395 to upgrade, you don't have to.
397 No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
399 This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
400 which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
401 `^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
403 This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
404 library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
408 This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
409 Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
411 The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
412 files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
413 GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
417 This release is a production release.
419 No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
420 given to `CC`, like this:
423 CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
426 If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
427 is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
428 and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
430 This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
434 This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
435 in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
437 * Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
438 * Minor documentations edits were performed.
439 * An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
440 `getopt_long()` is missing.
444 This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
446 The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
447 Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
451 This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
453 * A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
454 * `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
456 * The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
457 and `m` commands, respectively.
458 * `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
460 The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
461 is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
462 new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
463 as macros are executed in a loop.
465 The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
466 how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
470 This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
471 making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
476 This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
477 return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
478 the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
479 bug, and needs to be fixed.
481 **ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
485 This is a production release with changes to the build system.
489 This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
492 1. The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
493 2. The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
494 calculate `n`th roots.
495 3. The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
496 calculate cube roots.
500 This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
503 1. Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
505 2. A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
510 This release is not a critical release.
512 1. A few codes were added to history.
513 2. Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
514 3. Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
518 This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
519 the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
521 Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
522 do not need to upgrade.
526 This release is a production release.
528 The following bugs were fixed:
530 1. A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
531 2. A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
532 3. Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
533 4. The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
534 5. A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
535 6. A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
536 7. A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
539 In addition, the following changes were made:
541 1. Division was slightly optimized.
542 2. An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
543 3. The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
544 errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
545 4. A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
546 (mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
547 `void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
548 affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
549 even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
552 On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
554 1. The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
555 2. Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
556 3. Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
557 loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
558 4. Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
560 Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
562 ***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
563 considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
568 This is a production, bug-fix release.
570 Two bugs were fixed in this release:
572 1. A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
573 2. A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
575 The last bug bears some mentioning.
577 When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
578 instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
579 `0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
582 I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
583 had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
584 wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
585 double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
588 That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
590 There are two other things in this release:
592 1. Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
593 2. Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
597 This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
598 would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
599 billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
603 This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
605 1. A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
606 2. A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
607 3. **The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
609 4. A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
610 5. `dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
614 This release is a production release.
616 This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
617 out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
618 is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
619 others manage to find bugs.
621 This release has only a few new features:
623 1. `atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
625 2. Locales were fixed.
626 3. A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
627 `gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
628 between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
629 the [build manual][13].
630 4. Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
631 than straight brute force.
632 5. The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
633 6. `dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
635 7. `dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
637 8. Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
638 9. Signal handling was fixed.
639 10. **Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
640 11. The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
641 commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
642 query for the max allowable values of those globals.
643 12. Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
645 In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
646 numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
647 larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
648 delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
651 This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
655 This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
656 works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
660 This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
664 This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
665 shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
666 long time ago but was missed.
670 This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
674 This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
678 This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
679 only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
680 Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
684 This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
688 This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
692 This is a production release.
694 There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
696 1. The build system had some changes.
697 2. Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
698 3. **The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
699 with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
701 4. Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
702 5. The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
703 6. The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
704 degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
705 allow using degrees with the standard library.
706 7. Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
707 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
708 8. Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
709 notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
710 9. Some inefficiencies were removed.
711 10. Some bugs were fixed.
712 11. Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
713 12. Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
717 This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
722 This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
723 `dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
727 This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
731 This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
734 The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
738 This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
740 1. **The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
741 shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
742 make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
743 the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
744 2. Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
745 clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
746 3. **Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
747 4. Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
748 5. `BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
749 procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
750 6. Addition got a speed improvement.
751 7. Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
753 8. A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
754 `#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
756 9. Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
757 10. **History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
758 [UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
759 `bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
760 11. Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
761 shrinking the size of the executable.
762 12. The math library was shrunk.
763 13. Error handling and reporting was improved.
764 14. Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
766 15. **`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
767 16. Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
768 17. Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
769 18. Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
771 19. Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
772 executable end up bigger.
773 20. **GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
774 21. Allocations were reduced.
775 22. **New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
776 `<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
777 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
778 23. **An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
779 makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
780 [`bc` manual][3] for more details.
781 24. Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
782 25. **Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
783 26. A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
784 27. Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
785 28. `dc` was given an explicit negation command.
786 29. `dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
788 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
790 This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
791 release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
792 been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
794 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
796 This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
797 release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
798 been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
800 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
802 This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
803 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
804 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
806 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
808 This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
809 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
810 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
812 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
814 This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
815 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
816 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
818 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
820 This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
821 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
822 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
824 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
826 This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
827 specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
828 thoroughly as it should for release.
830 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
832 This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
833 thoroughly as it should for release.
837 This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
839 As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
841 1. `dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
842 for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
843 never will, so it is complete.
844 2. `bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
845 (for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
846 3. A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
847 see inputs and outputs.
848 4. Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
849 conditions (as much as possible).
850 5. MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
851 [xstatic][2] for binaries).
852 6. Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
854 7. Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
855 8. Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
856 multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
857 9. Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
858 redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
859 10. To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
860 `BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
861 optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
862 and then configured through `make`.
863 11. The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
864 `bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
865 12. All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
866 allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
867 cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
868 possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
869 13. Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
870 14. Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
871 that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
872 15. An extension to get the length of an array was added.
873 16. The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
874 17. Data input was hardened.
875 18. `bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
876 `POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
877 19. Error handling was improved.
878 20. `bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
880 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
882 This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
885 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
887 This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
890 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
892 This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
895 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
897 This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
900 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
902 This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
905 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
907 This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
910 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
912 This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
917 This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
918 tested as thoroughly as necessary.
922 This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
926 This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
927 not thoroughly tested.
929 [1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
930 [2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
931 [3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
935 [7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
936 [8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
937 [9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
938 [10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
939 [11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
940 [12]: ./locale_install.sh
941 [13]: ./manuals/build.md
942 [14]: https://github.com/stesser
943 [15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
944 [16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
945 [17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
946 [18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
947 [19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
948 [20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
949 [21]: https://pandoc.org/