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index 4c8bc924ce..cc20102fda 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -68,6 +68,23 @@ Deprecated and removed features, and other changes affecting compatibility:
used by the Linux kernel. This affects the size and layout of those
structures.
+* An archaic GNU extension to scanf, under which '%as', '%aS', and '%a[...]'
+ meant to scan a string and allocate space for it with malloc, is now
+ restricted to programs compiled in C89 or C++98 mode with _GNU_SOURCE
+ defined. This extension conflicts with C99's use of '%a' to scan a
+ hexadecimal floating-point number, which is now available to programs
+ compiled as C99 or C++11 or higher, regardless of _GNU_SOURCE.
+
+ POSIX.1-2008 includes the feature of allocating a buffer for string input
+ with malloc, using the modifier letter 'm' instead. Programs using
+ '%as', '%aS', or '%a[...]' with the old GNU meaning should change to
+ '%ms', '%mS', or '%m[...]' respectively. Programs that wish to use the
+ C99 '%a' no longer need to avoid _GNU_SOURCE.
+
+ GCC's -Wformat warnings can detect most uses of this extension, as long
+ as all functions that call vscanf, vfscanf, or vsscanf are annotated with
+ __attribute__ ((format (scanf, ...))).
+
Changes to build and runtime requirements:
* Python 3.4 or later is required to build the GNU C Library.