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
110 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
111 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
112 (currently) the GNU linker.
114 '--enable-static-pie'
115 Enable static position independent executable (static PIE) support.
116 Static PIE is similar to static executable, but can be loaded at
117 any address without help from a dynamic linker. All static
118 programs as well as static tests are built as static PIE, except
119 for those marked with no-pie. The resulting glibc can be used with
120 the GCC option, -static-pie, which is available with GCC 8 or
121 above, to create static PIE. This option also implies that glibc
122 programs and tests are created as dynamic position independent
123 executables (PIE) by default.
126 '--enable-cet=permissive'
127 Enable Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) support.
128 When the GNU C Library is built with '--enable-cet' or
129 '--enable-cet=permissive', the resulting library is protected with
130 indirect branch tracking (IBT) and shadow stack (SHSTK). When CET
131 is enabled, the GNU C Library is compatible with all existing
132 executables and shared libraries. This feature is currently
133 supported on i386, x86_64 and x32 with GCC 8 and binutils 2.29 or
134 later. Note that when CET is enabled, the GNU C Library requires
135 CPUs capable of multi-byte NOPs, like x86-64 processors as well as
136 Intel Pentium Pro or newer. With '--enable-cet', it is an error to
137 dlopen a non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
138 With '--enable-cet=permissive', CET is disabled when dlopening a
139 non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
141 NOTE: '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686, x86_64 and x32 on
142 non-CET processors. '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686,
143 x86_64 and x32 on CET processors.
145 '--enable-memory-tagging'
146 Enable memory tagging support if the architecture supports it.
147 When the GNU C Library is built with this option then the resulting
148 library will be able to control the use of tagged memory when
149 hardware support is present by use of the tunable
150 'glibc.mem.tagging'. This includes the generation of tagged memory
151 when using the 'malloc' APIs.
153 At present only AArch64 platforms with MTE provide this
154 functionality, although the library will still operate (without
155 memory tagging) on older versions of the architecture.
157 The default is to disable support for memory tagging.
160 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
161 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
163 '--enable-static-nss'
164 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
165 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
166 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
167 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
169 '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
170 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
171 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
172 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
174 '--disable-timezone-tools'
175 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
176 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
177 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
178 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
180 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
181 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
182 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
185 '--enable-stack-protector'
186 '--enable-stack-protector=strong'
187 '--enable-stack-protector=all'
188 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
189 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
190 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
191 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
192 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
193 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
197 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects and programs.
198 This provides additional security hardening because it enables full
199 RELRO and a read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of
200 slightly increased program load times.
203 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
204 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
205 up pseudo-terminal ownership on GNU/Hurd. It is not required on
206 GNU/Linux, and the GNU C Library will not use the installed
207 'pt_chown' program when configured with '--enable-pt_chown'.
210 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
211 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
212 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
213 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
214 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
217 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
218 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
221 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
222 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
223 option can take the following values:
226 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
227 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
231 This option disables tunables.
234 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
235 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
236 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
240 Do not install the passphrase-hashing library 'libcrypt' or the
241 header file 'crypt.h'. 'unistd.h' will still declare the function
242 'crypt'. Using this option does not change the set of programs
243 that may need to be linked with '-lcrypt'; it only means that the
244 GNU C Library will not provide that library.
246 This option is for hackers and distributions experimenting with
247 independently-maintained implementations of libcrypt. It may
248 become the default in a future release.
250 '--disable-experimental-malloc'
251 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
252 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
253 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
254 remove it from the build completely.
257 Disable using 'scv' instruction for syscalls. All syscalls will
258 use 'sc' instead, even if the kernel supports 'scv'. PowerPC only.
260 '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
262 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
263 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
264 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
265 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
266 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
267 the compiler and/or binutils.
269 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
270 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
271 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
272 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
273 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
274 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
275 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
278 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
280 '--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
281 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
282 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
283 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
284 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
285 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
288 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
289 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
290 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
291 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
293 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
294 produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
295 but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
296 Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
298 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
299 configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
300 take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
301 machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
303 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
304 an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
305 'make' version, though.
307 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
308 facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
309 not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
310 problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
311 on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
312 being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
313 Library as an unprivileged user.
315 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
316 The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
317 system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
318 files must all contain correct and sensible content.
320 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
321 problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
322 You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
323 make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
326 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
327 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
328 distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
329 files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
332 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
333 which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
334 file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
335 build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
336 is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
339 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
340 setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
341 cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
342 important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
343 this: 'configure TARGET CC=TARGET-gcc'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
344 to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
345 library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
346 if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
347 target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
348 may be tested using 'make check
349 test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
350 is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
351 HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
352 binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
353 visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
354 The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script requires 'flock' from 'util-linux' to
355 work when GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING environment variable is set.
357 It is also possible to execute tests, which require setting the date
358 on the target machine. Following use cases are supported:
359 * 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' is set in the environment in which
360 eligible tests are executed and have the privilege to run
361 'clock_settime'. In this case, nothing prevents those tests from
362 running in parallel, so the caller shall assure that those tests
363 are serialized or provide a proper wrapper script for them.
365 * The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script is used and one passes the
366 '--allow-time-setting' flag. In this case, both sets
367 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' and serialization of test execution
368 are assured automatically.
370 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
371 to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
372 This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
373 working directory and the standard input, output and error file
374 descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
375 environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
376 program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
377 assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
378 before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
379 the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
380 precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
381 program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
382 directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
383 the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
384 semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
385 rather than the ambient set.
387 For AArch64 with SVE, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper'
388 may be set to "SRCDIR/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/aarch64/vltest.py
389 VECTOR-LENGTH" to change Vector Length.
391 Installing the C Library
392 ========================
394 To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
395 manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
396 before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
397 first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
398 library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
399 first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
400 when the library changes out from underneath.
402 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
403 installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
404 headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
405 generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
406 do things in the following order.
408 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
409 check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
410 install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
411 directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
412 files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
413 library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
414 library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
415 directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
416 headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
417 headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
418 installing the library.
420 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
421 configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
422 on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
423 prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
424 setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
425 directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
426 with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
429 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
430 may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
431 dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
434 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
435 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
436 program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
437 a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
438 using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
439 '/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
441 After installation you should configure the timezone and install
442 locales for your system. The time zone configuration ensures that your
443 system time matches the time for your current timezone. The locales
444 ensure that the display of information on your system matches the
445 expectations of your language and geographic region.
447 The GNU C Library is able to use two kinds of localization
448 information sources, the first is a locale database named
449 'locale-archive' which is generally installed as
450 '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive'. The locale archive has the benefit of
451 taking up less space and being very fast to load, but only if you plan
452 to install sixty or more locales. If you plan to install one or two
453 locales you can instead install individual locales into their self-named
454 directories e.g. '/usr/lib/locale/en_US.utf8'. For example to install
455 the German locale using the character set for UTF-8 with name 'de_DE'
456 into the locale archive issue the command 'localedef -i de_DE -f UTF-8
457 de_DE', and to install just the one locale issue the command 'localedef
458 --no-archive -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
459 are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
460 directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales' to install all
461 locales into the locale archive or 'make
462 localedata/install-locale-files' to install all locales as files in the
463 default configured locale installation directory (derived from
464 '--prefix' or '--localedir'). To install into an alternative system
465 root use 'DESTDIR' e.g. 'make localedata/install-locale-files
466 DESTDIR=/opt/glibc', but note that this does not change the configured
469 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
470 variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
471 As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
472 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
473 are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
474 which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
475 Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
478 Recommended Tools for Compilation
479 =================================
481 We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
482 build the GNU C Library:
484 * GNU 'make' 4.0 or newer
486 As of relase time, GNU 'make' 4.3 is the newest verified to work to
487 build the GNU C Library.
491 GCC 6.2 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
492 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
493 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
494 better code. As of release time, GCC 11.2 is the newest compiler
495 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
497 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), a GCC version with
498 support for '-mno-gnu-attribute', '-mabi=ieeelongdouble', and
499 '-mabi=ibmlondouble' is required. Likewise, the compiler must also
500 support passing '-mlong-double-128' with the preceding options. As
501 of release, this implies GCC 7.4 and newer (excepting GCC 7.5.0,
502 see GCC PR94200). These additional features are required for
503 building the GNU C Library with support for IEEE long double.
505 For ARC architecture builds, GCC 8.3 or higher is needed.
507 For s390x architecture builds, GCC 7.1 or higher is needed (See gcc
510 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
511 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
512 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
513 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
514 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
515 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
516 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
519 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
522 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
525 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
527 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
528 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
529 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.35.1 is the newest
530 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
532 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), 'objcopy' is
533 required to support '--update-section'. This option requires
534 binutils 2.26 or newer.
536 ARC architecture needs 'binutils' 2.32 or higher for TLS related
539 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
541 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
542 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
543 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
544 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
545 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.7 is the newest
546 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
548 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
550 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
551 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
552 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
553 version 5.1 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
556 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
558 'bison' is used to generate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
559 subdirectory. As of release time, 'bison' version 3.7.4 is the
560 newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
564 Perl is not required, but if present it is used in some tests and
565 the 'mtrace' program, to build the GNU C Library manual. As of
566 release time 'perl' version 5.32.1 is the newest verified to work
567 to build the GNU C Library.
569 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
571 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
572 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
573 4.8 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
575 * Python 3.4 or later
577 Python is required to build the GNU C Library. As of release time,
578 Python 3.9.6 is the newest verified to work for building and
579 testing the GNU C Library.
583 The pretty printer tests drive GDB through test programs and
584 compare its output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture
585 the output of GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version
586 in your system. As of release time PExpect 4.8 is the newest
587 verified to work to test the pretty printers.
589 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7/3.4 or later
591 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
592 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
593 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
594 system's Python and GDB's have the same version. As of release
595 time GNU 'debugger' 10.2 is the newest verified to work to test the
598 Unless Python, PExpect and GDB with Python support are present, the
599 printer tests will report themselves as 'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that
600 some of the printer tests require the GNU C Library to be compiled
601 with debugging symbols.
603 If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
605 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
607 and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
609 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
611 As of release time, GNU 'gettext' version 0.21 is the newest
612 version verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
614 You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
615 patches, although we try to avoid this.
617 Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
618 =====================================
620 If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
621 to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
622 reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
623 because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
624 call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
625 the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
626 direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
627 just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
628 referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
629 unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
630 directory, run 'make headers_install
631 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
632 Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
633 the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
634 cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
635 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
636 ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
639 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
640 directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
641 replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
642 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
643 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
644 Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
645 provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
646 by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
647 are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
648 directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
649 not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
650 kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
651 using '--with-headers'.
653 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
654 components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
655 '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
656 Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
657 to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
662 There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
663 errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
664 fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
665 remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
667 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
668 reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
669 a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
670 system has a WWW interface at <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
671 WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
672 report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
674 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
675 the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
676 good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
677 some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
678 libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
679 is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
680 Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
683 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
684 not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
685 Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
687 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
688 smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
689 library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
690 call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
692 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
693 Do this at <https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
695 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
696 doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
697 function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
698 or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
699 errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
700 database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
701 include the section names for easier identification.