The GNU C Library (glibc) 2.41 has officially been released as the latest semi-annual update to this essential C standard library for Linux systems and other environments. This new version introduces significant compatibility improvements for C23, CPU optimizations, and enhanced performance across key functions.
Key Highlights of glibc 2.41
Some of the most notable enhancements in this release include:
✅ ISO C23 function support in math.h, including acospi, asinpi, atan2pi, atanpi, cospi, sinpi, and tanpi.
✅ Support for sched_setattr and sched_getattr on Linux, enabling more advanced scheduling policies such as SCHED_DEADLINE.
✅ Improved strnlen() performance on Intel and AMD CPUs, optimizing string manipulation operations.
✅ Enhanced code generation and math function performance on AArch64, leveraging SVE and NEON intrinsics for better efficiency.
✅ New support for the Hygon x86_64 architecture, expanding compatibility with emerging x86 processors.
✅ Introduction of the glibc.rtld.execstack tunable, allowing fine control over whether an executable stack is permitted in the main program.
✅ Updated character encoding tables to Unicode 16.0.
✅ Support for the Restartable Sequences (RSEQ) ABI, improving multi-threaded performance, available since Linux 6.3.
✅ The iconv program now allows in-place file conversions.
✅ The DNS stub resolver now supports the strict-error option, enhancing error handling for DNS queries.
✅ Expanded test suite coverage, adding 800+ new test cases compared to the previous release.
✅ Fixes for multiple bugs, including a potential buffer overflow when printing assertion failure messages.
Optimizations for Intel, AMD, and Arm CPUs
A major focus of glibc 2.41 is performance optimization across Intel, AMD, and Arm architectures, bringing key improvements such as:
✔ Faster strnlen() implementation for x86_64 processors.
✔ Better precision with optimized rounding in mathematical functions.
✔ Accelerated operations on AArch64, leveraging SVE and NEON for computational efficiency.
✔ Support for Guarded Control Stack (GCS) on AArch64, improving security and system stability.
Availability
The glibc 2.41 source code is now available via Git and can be accessed on Sourceware.org. This release is expected to be integrated into major Linux distributions in the coming months, providing better performance, security, and compatibility with modern C standards and architectures.
