gamma(3) — Linux manual page

GAMMA(3)                Linux Programmer's Manual               GAMMA(3)

NAME         top

       gamma, gammaf, gammal - (logarithm of the) gamma function

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <math.h>

       double gamma(double x);
       float gammaf(float x);
       long double gammal(long double x);

       Link with -lm.

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
   feature_test_macros(7)):

       gamma():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE
               || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
               || /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE ||
           _SVID_SOURCE
       gammaf(), gammal():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600 || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _ISOC99_SOURCE)
               || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
               || /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE ||
           _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       These functions are deprecated: instead, use either the tgamma(3)
       or the lgamma(3) functions, as appropriate.

       For the definition of the Gamma function, see tgamma(3).

   *BSD version
       The libm in 4.4BSD and some versions of FreeBSD had a gamma()
       function that computes the Gamma function, as one would expect.

   glibc version
       Glibc has a gamma() function that is equivalent to lgamma(3) and
       computes the natural logarithm of the Gamma function.

RETURN VALUE         top

       See lgamma(3).

ERRORS         top

       See lgamma(3).

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).

       ┌────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬────────────────────────┐
       │Interface                   │ Attribute     │ Value                  │
       ├────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │gamma(), gammaf(), gammal() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:signgam │
       └────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴────────────────────────┘

CONFORMING TO         top

       Because of historical variations in behavior across systems, this
       function is not specified in any recent standard.  It was
       documented in SVID 2.

NOTES         top

   History
       4.2BSD had a gamma() that computed ln(|Gamma(|x|)|), leaving the
       sign of Gamma(|x|) in the external integer signgam.  In 4.3BSD
       the name was changed to lgamma(3), and the man page promises

           "At some time in the future the name gamma will be
           rehabilitated and used for the Gamma function"

       This did indeed happen in 4.4BSD, where gamma() computes the
       Gamma function (with no effect on signgam).  However, this came
       too late, and we now have tgamma(3), the "true gamma" function.

SEE ALSO         top

       lgamma(3), signgam(3), tgamma(3)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project.
       A description of the project, information about reporting bugs,
       and the latest version of this page, can be found at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                            2017-09-15                       GAMMA(3)

Pages that refer to this page: tgamma(3)

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