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