GNU C++ Standard Library
Keywords: libstdc++, homepage, home, C++, library, c++, std, g++, ABI, STL

All of these documents (in fact, this entire homepage set) are bundled with the library source, under the `docs` subdirectory, for releases and snapshots. The sole exception is the automatically-generated source documentation, available separately.

## Introduction

This is a short list of text files pertaining to this implementation of ISO 14882. A brief description may follow the name of the file.

- License - GPL v2 license terms
- ABI Policy and Guidelines
- BUGS
- PROBLEMS - target-specific known issues
- README - directory structure
- RELEASE-NOTES - latest version info, recent changes and news
- TODO - tasks yet undone
- FAQ (HTML), FAQ (text)

## Configuring, Building, Testing, Installing

- Configure options
- Getting started: configure, build, install
- Testing details
- Debugging schemes and strategies

## Source-Level Documentation

The library sources have been specially formatted so that with the proper invocation of another tool (Doxygen), a set of HTML pages are generated from the sources files themselves. The resultant documentation is referred to as Source-Level Documentation, and is useful for examining the signatures of public member functions for the library classes, finding out what is in a particular include file, looking at inheritance diagrams, etc.

The source-level documentation for the most recent releases can be viewed online:

- for the 3.4 release
- "the latest collection" (for the main development tree; see the date on the first page)

This generated HTML collection, as above, is also available for download in the libstdc++ snapshots directory at `<URL:ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/libstdc++/doxygen/>`. You will almost certainly need to use one of the mirror sites to download the tarball. After unpacking, simply load libstdc++-html-*/index.html into a browser.

Documentation for older releases is available for download only, not online viewing.

In addition, an initial set of man pages are also available in the same place as the HTML collections. Start with C++Intro(3).

## Chapter-Specific Documentation

Information, extensions, notes and advice on specific implementation capabilites and/or liabilities broken down into chapter names based on the C++ standard.

- Library Introduction (Chapter 17)
  - The Standard C++ header files
  - The Standard C++ library and multithreading
  - `<foo>` vs `<foo.h>`
  - Porting HOWTO
  - Behavior specific to libstdc++-v3
  - Preprocessor macros controlling the library
- Library Support (Chapter 18)
  - Types
  - Implementation properties
  - Start and Termination
  - Verbose `terminate`
  - Dynamic memory management
  - RTTI, the ABI, and demangling
- Diagnostics (Chapter 19)
  - Adding data to exceptions
  - Exception class hierarchy diagram
  - Concept checkers -- new and improved!
- General Utilities (Chapter 20)
  - `auto_ptr` is not omnipotent
  - `auto_ptr` inside container classes
  - Functors
  - Pairs
  - Memory allocators
- Strings (Chapter 21)
  - MFC's CString
  - A case-insensitive string class
  - Breaking a C++ string into tokens
  - Simple transformations
  - Making strings of arbitrary character types
  - Shrink-to-fit strings
- Localization (Chapter 22)
  - class locale
  - class codecvt
  - class ctype
  - class messages
  - Bjarne Stroustrup on Locales
  - Nathan Myers on Locales
  - Correct Transformations
- Containers (Chapter 23)
  - Making code unaware of the container/array difference
  - Variable-sized bitmasks
  - Containers and multithreading
  - "Hinting" during insertion
  - Bitmasks and string arguments
  - `std::list::size()` is O(n)!
  - Space overhead management for vectors
- Iterators (Chapter 24)
  - They ain't pointers!
  - It ends where?
- Algorithms (Chapter 25)
  - Prerequisites
  - Special `swap`s
- Numerics (Chapter 26)
  - Complex Number Processing
  - Array Processing
  - Numerical Functions
  - C99
- Input/Output (Chapter 27)
  - Copying a file
  - The buffering is screwing up my program!
  - Binary I/O
  - What is this <sstream>/stringstreams thing?
  - Deriving a stream buffer
  - More on binary I/O
  - Pathetic performance? Ditch C.
  - Threads and I/O
  - Which header?
  - Using FILE*s and file descriptors with IOStreams
- Extensions to the Standard Library
  - Policy Based Data Structures
  - Ropes and trees and hashes, oh my!
  - Added members and types
  - `__mt_alloc`
  - Compile-time checks
  - LWG Issues
  - Demangling

## Contributor-Specific Information

- Contributor checklist
- Getting CVS write access (look for "Write after approval")
- BADNAMES - names to avoid because of potential collisions
- C++STYLE - coding style by example
- In the libstdc++-v3/docs/doxygen directory, see guide.html, a doxygen markup style guide
- CHECKLIST - a list of required features and their status.
- DESIGN - overview of the implementation plan
- HEADER_POLICY - header naming and sub-include structure

Return to the libstdc++ homepage.

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