1 Installing the GNU C Library
2 ****************************
4 Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at
5 <https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions
6 and describes problems you may experience with compilation and
9 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
10 and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
13 Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
14 ===========================================
16 The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
17 build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
18 unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
19 directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
20 allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
21 is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
23 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
24 at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type
26 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
28 Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
29 directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
30 directories in the source directory.
32 'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
33 mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
34 the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
35 normal setting to install as the standard system library is
36 '--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
39 It may also be useful to pass 'CC=COMPILER' and 'CFLAGS=FLAGS'
40 arguments to 'configure'. 'CC' selects the C compiler that will be
41 used, and 'CFLAGS' sets optimization options for the compiler. Any
42 compiler options required for all compilations, such as options
43 selecting an ABI or a processor for which to generate code, should be
44 included in 'CC'. Options that may be overridden by the GNU C Library
45 build system for particular files, such as for optimization and
46 debugging, should go in 'CFLAGS'. The default value of 'CFLAGS' is '-g
47 -O2', and the GNU C Library cannot be compiled without optimization, so
48 if 'CFLAGS' is specified it must enable optimization. For example:
50 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure CC="gcc -m32" CFLAGS="-O3"
52 The following list describes all of the available options for
56 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
57 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
59 '--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
60 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
61 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
62 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
64 '--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
65 Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The
66 GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files
67 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
68 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
69 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
71 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
72 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
73 Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use
74 this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer
75 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
77 '--enable-kernel=VERSION'
78 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
79 VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the
80 smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is
81 expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less
82 compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets.
84 '--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
85 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
86 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
87 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
88 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
89 detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the
90 library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for
91 example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils.
93 '--with-nonshared-cflags=CFLAGS'
94 Use additional compiler flags CFLAGS to build the parts of the
95 library which are always statically linked into applications and
96 libraries even with shared linking (that is, the object files
97 contained in 'lib*_nonshared.a' libraries). The build process will
98 automatically use the appropriate flags, but this option can be
99 used to set additional flags required for building applications and
100 libraries, to match local policy. For example, if such a policy
101 requires that all code linked into applications must be built with
102 source fortification,
103 '--with-nonshared-cflags=-Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' will make sure
104 that the objects in 'libc_nonshared.a' are compiled with this flag
105 (although this will not affect the generated code in this
106 particular case and potentially change debugging information and
109 '--with-rtld-early-cflags=CFLAGS'
110 Use additional compiler flags CFLAGS to build the early startup
111 code of the dynamic linker. These flags can be used to enable
112 early dynamic linker diagnostics to run on CPUs which are not
113 compatible with the rest of the GNU C Library, for example, due to
114 compiler flags which target a later instruction set architecture
117 '--with-timeoutfactor=NUM'
118 Specify an integer NUM to scale the timeout of test programs. This
119 factor can be changed at run time using 'TIMEOUTFACTOR' environment
123 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
124 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
125 (currently) the GNU linker.
127 '--disable-default-pie'
128 Don't build glibc programs and the testsuite as position
129 independent executables (PIE). By default, glibc programs and tests
130 are created as position independent executables on targets that
131 support it. If the toolchain and architecture support it, static
132 executables are built as static PIE and the resulting glibc can be
133 used with the GCC option, -static-pie, which is available with GCC
134 8 or above, to create static PIE.
137 '--enable-cet=permissive'
138 Enable Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) support.
139 When the GNU C Library is built with '--enable-cet' or
140 '--enable-cet=permissive', the resulting library is protected with
141 indirect branch tracking (IBT) and shadow stack (SHSTK). When CET
142 is enabled, the GNU C Library is compatible with all existing
143 executables and shared libraries. This feature is currently
144 supported on i386, x86_64 and x32 with GCC 8 and binutils 2.29 or
145 later. Note that when CET is enabled, the GNU C Library requires
146 CPUs capable of multi-byte NOPs, like x86-64 processors as well as
147 Intel Pentium Pro or newer. With '--enable-cet', it is an error to
148 dlopen a non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
149 With '--enable-cet=permissive', CET is disabled when dlopening a
150 non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
152 NOTE: '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686, x86_64 and x32 on
153 non-CET processors. '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686,
154 x86_64 and x32 on CET processors.
156 '--enable-memory-tagging'
157 Enable memory tagging support if the architecture supports it.
158 When the GNU C Library is built with this option then the resulting
159 library will be able to control the use of tagged memory when
160 hardware support is present by use of the tunable
161 'glibc.mem.tagging'. This includes the generation of tagged memory
162 when using the 'malloc' APIs.
164 At present only AArch64 platforms with MTE provide this
165 functionality, although the library will still operate (without
166 memory tagging) on older versions of the architecture.
168 The default is to disable support for memory tagging.
171 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
172 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
174 '--enable-static-nss'
175 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
176 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
177 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
178 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
180 '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
181 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
182 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
183 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
185 '--disable-timezone-tools'
186 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
187 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
188 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
189 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
191 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
192 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
193 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
196 '--enable-stack-protector'
197 '--enable-stack-protector=strong'
198 '--enable-stack-protector=all'
199 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
200 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
201 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
202 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
203 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
204 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
208 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects and programs.
209 This provides additional security hardening because it enables full
210 RELRO and a read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of
211 slightly increased program load times.
214 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
215 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
216 up pseudo-terminal ownership on GNU/Hurd. It is not required on
217 GNU/Linux, and the GNU C Library will not use the installed
218 'pt_chown' program when configured with '--enable-pt_chown'.
221 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
222 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
223 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
224 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
225 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
228 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
229 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
232 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
233 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
234 option can take the following values:
237 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
238 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
242 This option disables tunables.
245 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
246 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
247 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
251 Do not install the passphrase-hashing library 'libcrypt' or the
252 header file 'crypt.h'. 'unistd.h' will still declare the function
253 'crypt'. Using this option does not change the set of programs
254 that may need to be linked with '-lcrypt'; it only means that the
255 GNU C Library will not provide that library.
257 This option is for hackers and distributions experimenting with
258 independently-maintained implementations of libcrypt. It may
259 become the default in a future release.
261 '--disable-experimental-malloc'
262 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
263 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
264 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
265 remove it from the build completely.
268 Disable using 'scv' instruction for syscalls. All syscalls will
269 use 'sc' instead, even if the kernel supports 'scv'. PowerPC only.
271 '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
273 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
274 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
275 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
276 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
277 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
278 the compiler and/or binutils.
280 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
281 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
282 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
283 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
284 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
285 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
286 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
289 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
291 '--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
292 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
293 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
294 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
295 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
296 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
299 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
300 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
301 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
302 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
304 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
305 produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
306 but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
307 Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
309 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
310 configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
311 take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
312 machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
314 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
315 an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
316 'make' version, though.
318 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
319 facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
320 not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
321 problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
322 on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
323 being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
324 Library as an unprivileged user.
326 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
327 The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
328 system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
329 files must all contain correct and sensible content.
331 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
332 problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
333 You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
334 make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
337 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
338 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
339 distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
340 files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
343 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
344 which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
345 file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
346 build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
347 is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
350 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
351 setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
352 cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
353 important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
354 this: 'configure TARGET CC=TARGET-gcc'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
355 to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
356 library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
357 if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
358 target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
359 may be tested using 'make check
360 test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
361 is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
362 HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
363 binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
364 visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
365 The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script requires 'flock' from 'util-linux' to
366 work when GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING environment variable is set.
368 It is also possible to execute tests, which require setting the date
369 on the target machine. Following use cases are supported:
370 * 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' is set in the environment in which
371 eligible tests are executed and have the privilege to run
372 'clock_settime'. In this case, nothing prevents those tests from
373 running in parallel, so the caller shall assure that those tests
374 are serialized or provide a proper wrapper script for them.
376 * The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script is used and one passes the
377 '--allow-time-setting' flag. In this case, both sets
378 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' and serialization of test execution
379 are assured automatically.
381 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
382 to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
383 This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
384 working directory and the standard input, output and error file
385 descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
386 environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
387 program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
388 assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
389 before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
390 the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
391 precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
392 program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
393 directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
394 the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
395 semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
396 rather than the ambient set.
398 For AArch64 with SVE, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper'
399 may be set to "SRCDIR/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/aarch64/vltest.py
400 VECTOR-LENGTH" to change Vector Length.
402 Installing the C Library
403 ========================
405 To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
406 manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
407 before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
408 first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
409 library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
410 first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
411 when the library changes out from underneath.
413 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
414 installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
415 headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
416 generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
417 do things in the following order.
419 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
420 check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
421 install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
422 directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
423 files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
424 library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
425 library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
426 directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
427 headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
428 headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
429 installing the library.
431 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
432 configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
433 on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
434 prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
435 setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
436 directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
437 with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
440 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
441 may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
442 dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
445 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
446 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
447 program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
448 a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
449 using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
450 '/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
452 After installation you should configure the timezone and install
453 locales for your system. The time zone configuration ensures that your
454 system time matches the time for your current timezone. The locales
455 ensure that the display of information on your system matches the
456 expectations of your language and geographic region.
458 The GNU C Library is able to use two kinds of localization
459 information sources, the first is a locale database named
460 'locale-archive' which is generally installed as
461 '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive'. The locale archive has the benefit of
462 taking up less space and being very fast to load, but only if you plan
463 to install sixty or more locales. If you plan to install one or two
464 locales you can instead install individual locales into their self-named
465 directories e.g. '/usr/lib/locale/en_US.utf8'. For example to install
466 the German locale using the character set for UTF-8 with name 'de_DE'
467 into the locale archive issue the command 'localedef -i de_DE -f UTF-8
468 de_DE', and to install just the one locale issue the command 'localedef
469 --no-archive -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
470 are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
471 directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales' to install all
472 locales into the locale archive or 'make
473 localedata/install-locale-files' to install all locales as files in the
474 default configured locale installation directory (derived from
475 '--prefix' or '--localedir'). To install into an alternative system
476 root use 'DESTDIR' e.g. 'make localedata/install-locale-files
477 DESTDIR=/opt/glibc', but note that this does not change the configured
480 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
481 variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
482 As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
483 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
484 are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
485 which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
486 Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
489 Recommended Tools for Compilation
490 =================================
492 We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
493 build the GNU C Library:
495 * GNU 'make' 4.0 or newer
497 As of relase time, GNU 'make' 4.3 is the newest verified to work to
498 build the GNU C Library.
502 GCC 6.2 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
503 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
504 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
505 better code. As of release time, GCC 12.0 is the newest compiler
506 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
508 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), a GCC version with
509 support for '-mno-gnu-attribute', '-mabi=ieeelongdouble', and
510 '-mabi=ibmlondouble' is required. Likewise, the compiler must also
511 support passing '-mlong-double-128' with the preceding options. As
512 of release, this implies GCC 7.4 and newer (excepting GCC 7.5.0,
513 see GCC PR94200). These additional features are required for
514 building the GNU C Library with support for IEEE long double.
516 For ARC architecture builds, GCC 8.3 or higher is needed.
518 For s390x architecture builds, GCC 7.1 or higher is needed (See gcc
521 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
522 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
523 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
524 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
525 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
526 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
527 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
530 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
533 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
536 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
538 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
539 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
540 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.37 is the newest
541 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
543 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), 'objcopy' is
544 required to support '--update-section'. This option requires
545 binutils 2.26 or newer.
547 ARC architecture needs 'binutils' 2.32 or higher for TLS related
550 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
552 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
553 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
554 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
555 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
556 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.8 is the newest
557 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
559 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
561 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
562 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
563 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
564 version 5.1.1 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
567 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
569 'bison' is used to generate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
570 subdirectory. As of release time, 'bison' version 3.8.2 is the
571 newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
575 Perl is not required, but if present it is used in some tests and
576 the 'mtrace' program, to build the GNU C Library manual. As of
577 release time 'perl' version 5.34.0 is the newest verified to work
578 to build the GNU C Library.
580 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
582 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
583 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
584 4.8 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
586 * Python 3.4 or later
588 Python is required to build the GNU C Library. As of release time,
589 Python 3.10.2 is the newest verified to work for building and
590 testing the GNU C Library.
594 The pretty printer tests drive GDB through test programs and
595 compare its output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture
596 the output of GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version
597 in your system. As of release time PExpect 4.8.0 is the newest
598 verified to work to test the pretty printers.
600 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7/3.4 or later
602 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
603 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
604 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
605 system's Python and GDB's have the same version. As of release
606 time GNU 'debugger' 11.1 is the newest verified to work to test the
609 Unless Python, PExpect and GDB with Python support are present, the
610 printer tests will report themselves as 'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that
611 some of the printer tests require the GNU C Library to be compiled
612 with debugging symbols.
614 If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
616 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
618 and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
620 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
622 As of release time, GNU 'gettext' version 0.21 is the newest
623 version verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
625 You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
626 patches, although we try to avoid this.
628 Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
629 =====================================
631 If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
632 to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
633 reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
634 because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
635 call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
636 the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
637 direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
638 just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
639 referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
640 unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
641 directory, run 'make headers_install
642 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
643 Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
644 the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
645 cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
646 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
647 ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
650 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
651 directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
652 replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
653 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
654 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
655 Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
656 provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
657 by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
658 are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
659 directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
660 not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
661 kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
662 using '--with-headers'.
664 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
665 components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
666 '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
667 Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
668 to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
670 As of release time, Linux version 5.16 is the newest version verified
671 to work to build the GNU C Library.
676 There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
677 errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
678 fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
679 remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
681 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
682 reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
683 a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
684 system has a WWW interface at <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
685 WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
686 report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
688 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
689 the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
690 good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
691 some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
692 libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
693 is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
694 Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
697 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
698 not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
699 Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
701 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
702 smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
703 library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
704 call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
706 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
707 Do this at <https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
709 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
710 doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
711 function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
712 or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
713 errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
714 database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
715 include the section names for easier identification.