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 Features can be added to the GNU C Library via "add-on" bundles.
9 These are separate tar files, which you unpack into the top level of the
10 source tree. Then you give 'configure' the '--enable-add-ons' option to
11 activate them, and they will be compiled into the library.
13 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
14 and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
17 Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
18 ===========================================
20 The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
21 build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
22 unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
23 directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
24 allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
25 is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
27 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
28 at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type
30 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
32 Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
33 directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
34 directories in the source directory.
36 'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
37 mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
38 the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
39 normal setting to install as the standard system library is
40 '--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
43 It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the
44 environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that
45 will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler.
47 The following list describes all of the available options for
51 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
52 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
54 '--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
55 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
56 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
57 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
59 '--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
60 Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The
61 GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files
62 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
63 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
64 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
66 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
67 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
68 Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use
69 this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer
70 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
72 '--enable-add-ons[=LIST]'
73 Specify add-on packages to include in the build. If this option is
74 specified with no list, it enables all the add-on packages it finds
75 in the main source directory; this is the default behavior. You
76 may specify an explicit list of add-ons to use in LIST, separated
77 by spaces or commas (if you use spaces, remember to quote them from
78 the shell). Each add-on in LIST can be an absolute directory name
79 or can be a directory name relative to the main source directory,
80 or relative to the build directory (that is, the current working
81 directory). For example,
82 '--enable-add-ons=nptl,../glibc-libidn-VERSION'.
84 '--enable-kernel=VERSION'
85 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
86 VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the
87 smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is
88 expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less
89 compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets.
91 '--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
92 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
93 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
94 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
95 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
96 detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the
97 library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for
98 example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils.
101 Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point
102 support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU.
105 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
106 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
107 (currently) the GNU linker.
110 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
111 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
113 '--enable-static-nss'
114 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
115 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
116 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
117 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
120 By default the C library is built with support for thread-local
121 storage if the used tools support it. By using '--without-tls'
122 this can be prevented though there generally is no reason since it
123 creates compatibility problems.
125 '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
126 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
127 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
128 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
130 '--disable-timezone-tools'
131 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
132 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
133 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
134 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
136 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
137 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
138 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
141 '--enable-lock-elision=yes'
142 Enable lock elision for pthread mutexes by default.
145 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
146 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
147 up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because
148 systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts'
149 filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages
150 pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using
151 '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid
152 and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional
153 security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you
154 understand and accept those risks.
157 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
158 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
159 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
160 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
161 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
164 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with vector math
165 library. Use this option to disable vector math library.
167 '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
169 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
170 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
171 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
172 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
173 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
174 the compiler and/or binutils.
176 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
177 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
178 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
179 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
180 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
181 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
182 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
185 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
187 '--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
188 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
189 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
190 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
191 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
192 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
195 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
196 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
197 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
198 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
200 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
201 produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
202 but isn't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'. Those
203 indicate that something is seriously wrong.
205 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
206 configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
207 take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
208 machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
210 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
211 an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
212 'make' version, though.
214 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
215 facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
216 not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
217 problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
218 on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
219 being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
220 Library as an unprivileged user.
222 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
223 The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
224 system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
225 files must all contain correct and sensible content.
227 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
228 problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
229 You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
230 make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
233 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
234 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
235 distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
236 files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
239 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
240 which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
241 file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
242 build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
243 is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
246 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
247 setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
248 cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
249 important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
250 this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
251 to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
252 library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
253 if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
254 target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
255 may be tested using 'make check
256 test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
257 is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
258 HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
259 binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
260 visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
262 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
263 to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
264 This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
265 working directory and the standard input, output and error file
266 descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
267 environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
268 program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
269 assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
270 before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
271 the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
272 precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
273 program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
274 directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
275 the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
276 semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
277 rather than the ambient set.
279 Installing the C Library
280 ========================
282 To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
283 manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
284 before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
285 first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
286 library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
287 first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
288 when the library changes out from underneath.
290 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
291 installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
292 headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
293 generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
294 do things in the following order.
296 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
297 check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
298 install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
299 directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
300 files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
301 library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
302 library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
303 directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
304 headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
305 headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
306 installing the library.
308 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
309 configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
310 on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
311 prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
312 setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
313 directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
314 with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
317 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
318 may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
319 dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
322 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
323 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
324 program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
325 a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
326 using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
327 '/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
329 After installation you might want to configure the timezone and
330 locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
331 locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
332 set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command
333 'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
334 are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
335 directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
337 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
338 variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
339 As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
340 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
341 are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
342 which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
343 Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
346 Recommended Tools for Compilation
347 =================================
349 We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
350 build the GNU C Library:
352 * GNU 'make' 3.79 or newer
354 You need the latest version of GNU 'make'. Modifying the GNU C
355 Library to work with other 'make' programs would be so difficult
356 that we recommend you port GNU 'make' instead. *Really.* We
357 recommend GNU 'make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have
358 severe bugs or lack features.
362 GCC 4.7 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
363 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
364 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
365 better code. As of release time, GCC 4.9.2 is the newest compiler
366 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
368 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
371 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
374 * GNU 'binutils' 2.22 or later
376 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
377 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
378 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.25 is the newest
379 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
381 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
383 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
384 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
385 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
386 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
387 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 5.2 is the newest
388 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
390 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
392 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
393 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
394 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'.
398 Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
399 installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future.
401 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
403 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
404 work with any version of 'sed'. The known exception is the script
405 'po2test.sed' in the 'intl' subdirectory which is used to generate
406 'msgs.h' for the test suite. This script works correctly only with
407 GNU 'sed' 3.02. If you like to run the test suite, you should
408 definitely upgrade 'sed'.
410 If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
412 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
414 and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
416 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
418 If you wish to regenerate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
419 subdirectory you will need
421 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
423 You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
424 patches, although we try to avoid this.
426 Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
427 =====================================
429 If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
430 to have the header files from a 2.6.32 or newer kernel around for
431 reference. These headers must be installed using 'make
432 headers_install'; the headers present in the kernel source directory are
433 not suitable for direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to
434 use that kernel, just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library
435 can access them, referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way
436 to do this is to unpack it in a directory such as
437 '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that directory, run 'make headers_install
438 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
439 Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
440 the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
441 cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
442 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
443 ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
446 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
447 directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
448 replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
449 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
450 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
451 Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
452 provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
453 by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
454 are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
455 directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
456 not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
457 kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
458 using '--with-headers'.
460 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
461 components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
462 '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
463 Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
464 to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
469 There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
470 errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
471 fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
472 remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
474 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
475 reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
476 a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
477 system has a WWW interface at <http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
478 WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
479 report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
481 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
482 the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
483 good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
484 some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
485 libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
486 is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
487 Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
490 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
491 not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
492 Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
494 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
495 smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
496 library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
497 call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
499 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
500 Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
502 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
503 doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
504 function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
505 or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
506 errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
507 database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
508 include the section names for easier identification.