Next: Long Double Functions, Previous: Complex, Up: Top

## 3 Reentrancy Properties of `libm`

When a libm function detects an exceptional case, `errno` may be set, the `matherr` function may be called, and a error message may be written to the standard error stream. This behavior may not be reentrant.

With reentrant C libraries like the Red Hat newlib C library, `errno` is a macro which expands to the per-thread error value. This makes it thread safe.

When the user provides his own `matherr` function it must be reentrant for the math library as a whole to be reentrant.

In normal debugged programs, there are usually no math subroutine errors—and therefore no assignments to `errno` and no `matherr` calls; in that situation, the math functions behave reentrantly.