Including the Multiple-Precision Floating-Point Rounding [ MPFR ] Library
with Solaris

Stefan Teleman <Stefan.Teleman@Sun.COM>
October 21, 2008

1.	Summary and motivation

	The GNU MPFR Library [0] is described as "[...] a C library for
	multiple-precision floating-point computations with correct
	rounding. [...] MPFR is based on the GNU MP [1] multiple-precision
	library."

	There are several key differences between MPFR and GNU MP [ MPF ]
	[2]:

	- The precision of a MPFR variable is the exact number of bits
	used for its mantissa, whereas in MPF, the precision requested
	by the user is a minimum value (MPF generally uses a higher
	precision). With the additional difference below, this implies
	that the MPFR results do not depend on the number of bits
	(16, 32, 64 or more) of the underlying architecture.

	- As a consequence, MPFR uses a base-2 exponent, whereas in MPF,
	this is a base-232 or base-264 exponent, depending on the limb size.
	For this reason (and other internal ones), the maximum exponent
	range in MPFR is different (and smaller, if the exponent is
	represented by the same type as in MPF).

	- MPFR provides an additional rounding mode argument to its
	functions; furthermore, it is guaranteed that the result of any
	operation is the nearest possible floating-point value from the
	exact result (considering the input variables as exact values),
	taking into account the precision of the destination variable and
	the rounding mode. MPFR also says whether the rounded result is
	above or below the exact result.

	- MPFR supports much more functions (in particular transcendental
	functions such as exponentials, logarithms, trigonometric functions
	and so on) and special values: signed zeros, infinities,
	not-a-number (NaN).

	A detailed paper describing the facilities provided by MPFR is
	available online at: http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00070266. [3]

	MPFR is a required dependency for GCC [ The GNU Compiler Collection ]
	versions 4.3.0 and above. [4]

	This Case seeks Micro/Patch Release Binding.

2.	Technical issues

	2.1.	Key objects

	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so.1.1.1
	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so.1 -> libmpfr.so.1.1.1
	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so -> libmpfr.so.1.1.1

	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so.1.1.1
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so.1 -> libmpfr.so.1.1.1
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so -> libmpfr.so.1.1.1

	/usr/lib/pkgconfig/mpfr.pc
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/pkgconfig/mpfr.pc

	/usr/include/mpfr/mpfr.h
	/usr/include/mpfr/mpf2mpfr.h

	/usr/share/info/mpfr/mpfr.info
	/usr/share/man/man3/mpfr.3

	This case proposes the integration of MPFR Version 2.3.1.

	2.2.	Language Bindings

	The MPFR Library is written in ANSI C. 

	2.3.	Documentation

	MPFR provides documentation in GNU texinfo format. UNIX man pages
	are not provided by default. For the purpose of this Integration,
	a generic man page will be provided, in Section 3 of the manual
	[ mpfr.3 ]. This man page will only include pointers to the
	installed documentation.

3.	Interfaces

	3.1.	Interface Stability

	The development and release schedules of MPFR are controlled by
	a group of researchers and developers external to SMI. Although
	MPFR attempts to maintain API and ABI compatibility between
	releases, incompatible breakage between releases may occur.

	3.2.	Imported Interfaces

	MPFR imports interfaces from the Standard C Library, the Standard
	Math Library, and the GNU MP [ Bignum ] Library.

	3.3.	Exported Interfaces

	NAME				STABILITY	NOTES

	SUNWgnu-mpfr			Uncommitted	Package Name

	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so.1.1.1	Uncommitted	Shared Library
	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so.1		Uncommitted	Symbolic Link
	/usr/lib/libmpfr.so		Uncommitted	Symbolic Link

	/usr/include/mpfr/mpfr.h	Uncommitted	Header file
	/usr/include/mpfr/mpf2mpfr.h	Uncommitted	Header file

	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so.1.1.1	Uncommitted	Shared Library
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so.1		Uncommitted	Symbolic Link
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/libmpfr.so		Uncommitted	Symbolic Link

	/usr/lib/pkgconfig/mpfr.pc	Uncommitted	Pkg-config file
	/usr/lib/${MACH64}/pkgconfig/mpfr.pc	Uncommitted	Pkg-config file

	/usr/share/info/mpfr/mpfr.info	Uncommitted	Texinfo Page

	/usr/share/man/man3/mpfr.3	Uncommitted	Manual Page

4.	References

	[0]	http://www.mpfr.org/
	[1]	http://gmplib.org/
	[2]	http://www.mpfr.org/faq.html
	[3]	http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00070266
	[4]	http://gcc.gnu.org/