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