1 Installing the GNU C Library
2 ****************************
4 Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at
5 <http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions and
6 describes problems you may experience with compilation and installation.
8 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
9 and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
12 Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
13 ===========================================
15 The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
16 build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
17 unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
18 directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
19 allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
20 is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
22 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
23 at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type
25 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
27 Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
28 directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
29 directories in the source directory.
31 'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
32 mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
33 the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
34 normal setting to install as the standard system library is
35 '--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
38 It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the
39 environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that
40 will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler.
42 The following list describes all of the available options for
46 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
47 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
49 '--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
50 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
51 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
52 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
54 '--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
55 Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The
56 GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files
57 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
58 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
59 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
61 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
62 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
63 Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use
64 this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer
65 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
67 '--enable-kernel=VERSION'
68 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
69 VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the
70 smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is
71 expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less
72 compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets.
74 '--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
75 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
76 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
77 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
78 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
79 detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the
80 library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for
81 example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils.
84 Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point
85 support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU.
88 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
89 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
90 (currently) the GNU linker.
93 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
94 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
97 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
98 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
99 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
100 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
102 '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
103 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
104 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
105 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
107 '--disable-timezone-tools'
108 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
109 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
110 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
111 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
113 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
114 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
115 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
118 '--enable-lock-elision=yes'
119 Enable lock elision for pthread mutexes by default.
121 '--enable-stack-protector'
122 '--enable-stack-protector=strong'
123 '--enable-stack-protector=all'
124 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
125 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
126 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
127 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
128 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
129 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
133 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects. This provides
134 additional security hardening because it enables full RELRO and a
135 read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of slightly
136 increased program load times.
139 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
140 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
141 up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because
142 systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts'
143 filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages
144 pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using
145 '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid
146 and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional
147 security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you
148 understand and accept those risks.
151 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
152 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
153 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
154 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
155 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
158 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
159 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
162 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
163 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
164 option can take the following values:
167 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
168 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
172 This option disables tunables.
175 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
176 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
177 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
180 '--enable-obsolete-nsl'
181 By default, libnsl is only built as shared library for backward
182 compatibility and the NSS modules libnss_compat, libnss_nis and
183 libnss_nisplus are not built at all. Use this option to enable
184 libnsl with all depending NSS modules and header files.
186 '--disable-experimental-malloc'
187 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
188 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
189 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
190 remove it from the build completely.
192 '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
194 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
195 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
196 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
197 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
198 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
199 the compiler and/or binutils.
201 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
202 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
203 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
204 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
205 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
206 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
207 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
210 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
212 '--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
213 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
214 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
215 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
216 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
217 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
220 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
221 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
222 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
223 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
225 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
226 produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
227 but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
228 Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
230 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
231 configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
232 take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
233 machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
235 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
236 an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
237 'make' version, though.
239 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
240 facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
241 not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
242 problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
243 on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
244 being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
245 Library as an unprivileged user.
247 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
248 The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
249 system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
250 files must all contain correct and sensible content.
252 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
253 problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
254 You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
255 make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
258 The GNU C Library pretty printers come with their own set of scripts
259 for testing, which run together with the rest of the testsuite through
260 'make check'. These scripts require the following tools to run
263 * Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
265 Python is required for running the printers' test scripts.
269 The printer tests drive GDB through test programs and compare its
270 output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture the output of
271 GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version in your
274 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
276 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
277 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
278 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
279 system's Python and GDB's have the same version.
281 If these tools are absent, the printer tests will report themselves as
282 'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that some of the printer tests require the GNU C
283 Library to be compiled with debugging symbols.
285 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
286 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
287 distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
288 files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
291 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
292 which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
293 file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
294 build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
295 is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
298 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
299 setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
300 cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
301 important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
302 this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
303 to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
304 library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
305 if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
306 target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
307 may be tested using 'make check
308 test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
309 is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
310 HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
311 binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
312 visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
314 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
315 to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
316 This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
317 working directory and the standard input, output and error file
318 descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
319 environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
320 program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
321 assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
322 before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
323 the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
324 precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
325 program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
326 directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
327 the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
328 semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
329 rather than the ambient set.
331 Installing the C Library
332 ========================
334 To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
335 manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
336 before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
337 first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
338 library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
339 first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
340 when the library changes out from underneath.
342 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
343 installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
344 headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
345 generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
346 do things in the following order.
348 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
349 check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
350 install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
351 directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
352 files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
353 library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
354 library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
355 directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
356 headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
357 headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
358 installing the library.
360 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
361 configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
362 on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
363 prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
364 setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
365 directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
366 with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
369 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
370 may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
371 dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
374 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
375 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
376 program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
377 a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
378 using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
379 '/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
381 After installation you might want to configure the timezone and
382 locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
383 locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
384 set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command
385 'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
386 are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
387 directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
389 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
390 variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
391 As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
392 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
393 are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
394 which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
395 Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
398 Recommended Tools for Compilation
399 =================================
401 We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
402 build the GNU C Library:
404 * GNU 'make' 3.79 or newer
406 You need the latest version of GNU 'make'. Modifying the GNU C
407 Library to work with other 'make' programs would be so difficult
408 that we recommend you port GNU 'make' instead. *Really.* We
409 recommend GNU 'make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have
410 severe bugs or lack features.
414 GCC 4.9 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
415 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
416 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
417 better code. As of release time, GCC 7.1 is the newest compiler
418 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
420 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), GCC 6.2 or higher
421 is required. This compiler version is the first to provide the
422 features required for building the GNU C Library with support for
425 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
426 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
427 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
428 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
429 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
430 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
431 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
434 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
437 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
440 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
442 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
443 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
444 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.27 is the newest
445 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
447 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
449 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
450 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
451 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
452 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
453 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.0 is the newest
454 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
456 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
458 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
459 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
460 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
461 version 4.1.3 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
466 Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
467 installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future.
469 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
471 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
472 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
473 4.2.2 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
475 If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
477 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
479 and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
481 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
483 If you wish to regenerate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
484 subdirectory you will need
486 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
488 You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
489 patches, although we try to avoid this.
491 Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
492 =====================================
494 If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
495 to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
496 reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
497 because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
498 call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
499 the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
500 direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
501 just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
502 referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
503 unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
504 directory, run 'make headers_install
505 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
506 Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
507 the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
508 cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
509 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
510 ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
513 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
514 directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
515 replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
516 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
517 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
518 Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
519 provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
520 by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
521 are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
522 directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
523 not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
524 kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
525 using '--with-headers'.
527 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
528 components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
529 '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
530 Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
531 to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
536 There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
537 errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
538 fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
539 remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
541 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
542 reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
543 a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
544 system has a WWW interface at <http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
545 WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
546 report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
548 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
549 the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
550 good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
551 some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
552 libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
553 is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
554 Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
557 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
558 not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
559 Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
561 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
562 smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
563 library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
564 call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
566 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
567 Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
569 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
570 doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
571 function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
572 or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
573 errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
574 database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
575 include the section names for easier identification.