5 This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
7 1. If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
8 would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
9 2. When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
14 This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
15 is printed with a print statement.
19 This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
22 * A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
24 * Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
25 * A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
26 by user code without newlines.
27 * A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
28 just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
29 * And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
31 The last item is why this is a major version bump.
33 Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
34 and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
35 Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
37 In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
39 For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
44 This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
46 The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
47 without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
49 This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
53 This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
55 The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
56 it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
57 `scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
60 After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
61 compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
64 The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
68 This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
69 [extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
73 This is a production release that fixes a bug.
75 The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
79 This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
82 The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
83 `BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
84 (or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
85 `bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
90 This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
91 in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
94 Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
99 This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
101 There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
102 and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
104 All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
105 my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
106 favor of this version.
110 This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
113 The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
114 out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
115 from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
118 Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
120 Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
121 big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
122 instead of unwinding the stack.
124 Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
125 if `/dev/urandom` fails.
127 Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
128 usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
129 `Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
130 rebuild when not necessary.
134 This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
135 does not have an attribute that is used.
137 Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
141 This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
142 changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
144 Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
148 This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
149 bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
153 This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
154 not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
155 `bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
156 error. Previously, they were not set.
160 This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
162 The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
165 The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
166 This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
167 be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
170 This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
171 I could not figure out how to do it until now.
173 If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
178 This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
179 and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
180 did not seem to take advantage of.
182 Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
186 This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
187 to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
190 ***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
194 This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
195 removes one environment variable.
197 The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
198 executed. I also made the fix more general.
200 The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
201 `--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
202 `stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
203 the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
205 Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
206 since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
208 Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
209 `--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
213 This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
214 the following, it would error:
217 echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
220 Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
225 This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
226 ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
228 For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
233 This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
234 need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
238 This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
239 improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
240 package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
242 The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
243 (and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
244 in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
246 The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
247 `SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
248 clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
250 The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
251 well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
253 The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
254 receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
255 items onto and out of vectors.
257 The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
258 thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
259 `free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
261 The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
264 The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
267 The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
268 generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
269 blank lines where they shouldn't be.
273 This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
275 Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
276 various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
277 relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
278 build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
282 This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
283 unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
286 Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
290 This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
291 upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
292 may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
294 The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
297 The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
302 *Notes for package maintainers:*
304 *First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
305 me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
306 changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
307 on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
308 global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
309 running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
310 updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
311 sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
312 locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
313 `make uninstall` or by running the `locale_uninstall.sh` script.) Once this is
314 done, `bc` should install without problems.*
316 *Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
317 below for the reasons why.*
319 This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
320 three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
321 handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
324 The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
325 was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
326 especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
327 before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
328 the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
329 that existed before a function definition was executed.
331 The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
332 bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
333 output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
335 The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
336 expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
337 accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
339 Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
340 the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
342 First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
343 function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
344 Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
345 old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
347 Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
348 reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
349 `bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
351 Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
352 optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
355 Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
357 Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
358 scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
359 much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
361 There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
363 First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
364 calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
365 `bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
366 size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
369 Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
370 strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
371 constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
372 to grab a constant or a string.
374 Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
375 arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
376 `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
377 to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
378 capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
379 ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
381 In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
382 be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
383 minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
384 bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
385 these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
386 allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
387 of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
389 On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
390 either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
391 should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
392 are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
393 45 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
394 the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
395 diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
397 (For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
398 20 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
399 32-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits in just under a trillion
400 and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
401 years is just under a millimeter.)
403 All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
404 work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
405 nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
408 I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
409 especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
410 buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
411 worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
412 list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
413 that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
414 it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
415 using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
416 had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
417 user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
418 `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
419 will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
421 Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
422 reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
423 from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
425 Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
426 this could be expensive when in tight loops.
428 Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
429 an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
430 `main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
431 safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
432 handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
433 indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
434 status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
436 This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
437 This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
438 the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
439 Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
440 (There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
442 As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
443 because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
444 custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
445 builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
446 have less linking time.
448 This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
449 `stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
451 Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
452 in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
453 addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
454 were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
456 For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
458 As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
459 to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
460 signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
461 unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
463 It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
464 ***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
465 checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
466 The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
467 taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
471 This is a production release with one major bug fix.
473 The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
474 takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
475 reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
476 dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
478 **ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
482 This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
487 This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
492 * Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
493 `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
494 every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
495 does not even use `getopt()`.
496 * Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
497 does the job if there are spaces in file names.
499 The following new languages are supported:
507 All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
510 There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
513 The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
514 `/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
515 it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
516 good seed by default.
518 It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
519 better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
521 In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
522 automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
523 size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
524 this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
526 ***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
527 exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
528 guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
529 to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
531 On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
532 to make using the PRNG easier:
534 * `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
535 * `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
536 * `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
537 `x` with probability `0.5`.
538 * `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
542 This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
544 The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
545 error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
549 This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
550 to upgrade, you don't have to.
552 No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
554 This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
555 which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
556 `^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
558 This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
559 library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
563 This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
564 Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
566 The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
567 files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
568 GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
572 This release is a production release.
574 No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
575 given to `CC`, like this:
578 CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
581 If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
582 is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
583 and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
585 This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
589 This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
590 in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
592 * Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
593 * Minor documentations edits were performed.
594 * An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
595 `getopt_long()` is missing.
599 This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
601 The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
602 Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
606 This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
608 * A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
609 * `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
611 * The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
612 and `m` commands, respectively.
613 * `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
615 The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
616 is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
617 new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
618 as macros are executed in a loop.
620 The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
621 how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
625 This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
626 making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
631 This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
632 return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
633 the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
634 bug, and needs to be fixed.
636 **ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
640 This is a production release with changes to the build system.
644 This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
647 1. The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
648 2. The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
649 calculate `n`th roots.
650 3. The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
651 calculate cube roots.
655 This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
658 1. Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
660 2. A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
665 This release is not a critical release.
667 1. A few codes were added to history.
668 2. Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
669 3. Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
673 This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
674 the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
676 Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
677 do not need to upgrade.
681 This release is a production release.
683 The following bugs were fixed:
685 1. A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
686 2. A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
687 3. Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
688 4. The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
689 5. A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
690 6. A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
691 7. A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
694 In addition, the following changes were made:
696 1. Division was slightly optimized.
697 2. An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
698 3. The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
699 errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
700 4. A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
701 (mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
702 `void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
703 affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
704 even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
707 On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
709 1. The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
710 2. Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
711 3. Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
712 loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
713 4. Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
715 Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
717 ***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
718 considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
723 This is a production, bug-fix release.
725 Two bugs were fixed in this release:
727 1. A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
728 2. A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
730 The last bug bears some mentioning.
732 When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
733 instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
734 `0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
737 I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
738 had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
739 wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
740 double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
743 That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
745 There are two other things in this release:
747 1. Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
748 2. Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
752 This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
753 would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
754 billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
758 This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
760 1. A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
761 2. A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
762 3. **The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
764 4. A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
765 5. `dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
769 This release is a production release.
771 This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
772 out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
773 is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
774 others manage to find bugs.
776 This release has only a few new features:
778 1. `atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
780 2. Locales were fixed.
781 3. A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
782 `gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
783 between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
784 the [build manual][13].
785 4. Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
786 than straight brute force.
787 5. The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
788 6. `dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
790 7. `dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
792 8. Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
793 9. Signal handling was fixed.
794 10. **Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
795 11. The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
796 commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
797 query for the max allowable values of those globals.
798 12. Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
800 In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
801 numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
802 larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
803 delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
806 This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
810 This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
811 works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
815 This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
819 This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
820 shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
821 long time ago but was missed.
825 This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
829 This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
833 This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
834 only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
835 Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
839 This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
843 This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
847 This is a production release.
849 There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
851 1. The build system had some changes.
852 2. Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
853 3. **The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
854 with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
856 4. Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
857 5. The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
858 6. The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
859 degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
860 allow using degrees with the standard library.
861 7. Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
862 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
863 8. Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
864 notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
865 9. Some inefficiencies were removed.
866 10. Some bugs were fixed.
867 11. Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
868 12. Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
872 This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
877 This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
878 `dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
882 This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
886 This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
889 The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
893 This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
895 1. **The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
896 shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
897 make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
898 the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
899 2. Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
900 clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
901 3. **Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
902 4. Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
903 5. `BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
904 procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
905 6. Addition got a speed improvement.
906 7. Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
908 8. A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
909 `#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
911 9. Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
912 10. **History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
913 [UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
914 `bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
915 11. Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
916 shrinking the size of the executable.
917 12. The math library was shrunk.
918 13. Error handling and reporting was improved.
919 14. Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
921 15. **`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
922 16. Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
923 17. Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
924 18. Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
926 19. Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
927 executable end up bigger.
928 20. **GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
929 21. Allocations were reduced.
930 22. **New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
931 `<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
932 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
933 23. **An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
934 makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
935 [`bc` manual][3] for more details.
936 24. Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
937 25. **Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
938 26. A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
939 27. Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
940 28. `dc` was given an explicit negation command.
941 29. `dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
943 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
945 This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
946 release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
947 been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
949 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
951 This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
952 release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
953 been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
955 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
957 This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
958 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
959 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
961 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
963 This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
964 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
965 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
967 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
969 This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
970 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
971 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
973 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
975 This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
976 release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
977 code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
979 ## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
981 This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
982 specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
983 thoroughly as it should for release.
985 ## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
987 This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
988 thoroughly as it should for release.
992 This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
994 As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
996 1. `dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
997 for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
998 never will, so it is complete.
999 2. `bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1000 (for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
1001 3. A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1002 see inputs and outputs.
1003 4. Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1004 conditions (as much as possible).
1005 5. MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1006 [xstatic][2] for binaries).
1007 6. Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1009 7. Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
1010 8. Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1011 multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
1012 9. Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1013 redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
1014 10. To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1015 `BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1016 optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1017 and then configured through `make`.
1018 11. The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1019 `bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
1020 12. All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1021 allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1022 cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1023 possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
1024 13. Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
1025 14. Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1026 that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
1027 15. An extension to get the length of an array was added.
1028 16. The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
1029 17. Data input was hardened.
1030 18. `bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1031 `POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
1032 19. Error handling was improved.
1033 20. `bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1035 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1037 This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1038 Release Candidate 6.
1040 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1042 This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1045 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1047 This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1050 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1052 This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1055 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1057 This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1060 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1062 This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1065 ## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1067 This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1072 This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1073 tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1077 This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1081 This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1082 not thoroughly tested.
1084 [1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1085 [2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1086 [3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1090 [7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1091 [8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1092 [9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1093 [10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1094 [11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1095 [12]: ./locale_install.sh
1096 [13]: ./manuals/build.md
1097 [14]: https://github.com/stesser
1098 [15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1099 [16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1100 [17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1101 [18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1102 [19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1103 [20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1104 [21]: https://pandoc.org/