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1 Installing the GNU C Library
2 ****************************
3
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
7 installation.
8
9 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
10 and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
11 below.
12
13 Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
14 ===========================================
15
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.
22
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
25
26 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
27
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.
31
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)
37 for GNU/Hurd systems.
38
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:
49
50 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure CC="gcc -m32" CFLAGS="-O3"
51
52 The following list describes all of the available options for
53 'configure':
54
55 '--prefix=DIRECTORY'
56 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
57 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
58
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.
63
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.
70
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'.
76
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.
83
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.
92
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
107 metadata only).
108
109 '--with-timeoutfactor=NUM'
110 Specify an integer NUM to scale the timeout of test programs. This
111 factor can be changed at run time using 'TIMEOUTFACTOR' environment
112 variable.
113
114 '--disable-shared'
115 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
116 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
117 (currently) the GNU linker.
118
119 '--disable-default-pie'
120 Don't build glibc programs and the testsuite as position
121 independent executables (PIE). By default, glibc programs and tests
122 are created as position independent executables on targets that
123 support it. If the toolchain and architecture support it, static
124 executables are built as static PIE and the resulting glibc can be
125 used with the GCC option, -static-pie, which is available with GCC
126 8 or above, to create static PIE.
127
128 '--enable-cet'
129 '--enable-cet=permissive'
130 Enable Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) support.
131 When the GNU C Library is built with '--enable-cet' or
132 '--enable-cet=permissive', the resulting library is protected with
133 indirect branch tracking (IBT) and shadow stack (SHSTK). When CET
134 is enabled, the GNU C Library is compatible with all existing
135 executables and shared libraries. This feature is currently
136 supported on i386, x86_64 and x32 with GCC 8 and binutils 2.29 or
137 later. Note that when CET is enabled, the GNU C Library requires
138 CPUs capable of multi-byte NOPs, like x86-64 processors as well as
139 Intel Pentium Pro or newer. With '--enable-cet', it is an error to
140 dlopen a non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
141 With '--enable-cet=permissive', CET is disabled when dlopening a
142 non CET enabled shared library in CET enabled application.
143
144 NOTE: '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686, x86_64 and x32 on
145 non-CET processors. '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686,
146 x86_64 and x32 on CET processors.
147
148 '--enable-memory-tagging'
149 Enable memory tagging support if the architecture supports it.
150 When the GNU C Library is built with this option then the resulting
151 library will be able to control the use of tagged memory when
152 hardware support is present by use of the tunable
153 'glibc.mem.tagging'. This includes the generation of tagged memory
154 when using the 'malloc' APIs.
155
156 At present only AArch64 platforms with MTE provide this
157 functionality, although the library will still operate (without
158 memory tagging) on older versions of the architecture.
159
160 The default is to disable support for memory tagging.
161
162 '--disable-profile'
163 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
164 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
165
166 '--enable-static-nss'
167 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
168 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
169 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
170 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
171
172 '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
173 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
174 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
175 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
176
177 '--disable-timezone-tools'
178 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
179 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
180 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
181 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
182
183 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
184 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
185 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
186 for more details.
187
188 '--enable-stack-protector'
189 '--enable-stack-protector=strong'
190 '--enable-stack-protector=all'
191 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
192 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
193 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
194 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
195 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
196 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
197 protection.
198
199 '--enable-bind-now'
200 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects and programs.
201 This provides additional security hardening because it enables full
202 RELRO and a read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of
203 slightly increased program load times.
204
205 '--enable-pt_chown'
206 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
207 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
208 up pseudo-terminal ownership on GNU/Hurd. It is not required on
209 GNU/Linux, and the GNU C Library will not use the installed
210 'pt_chown' program when configured with '--enable-pt_chown'.
211
212 '--disable-werror'
213 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
214 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
215 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
216 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
217 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
218
219 '--disable-mathvec'
220 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
221 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
222
223 '--enable-tunables'
224 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
225 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
226 option can take the following values:
227
228 'yes'
229 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
230 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
231 'valstring').
232
233 'no'
234 This option disables tunables.
235
236 'valstring'
237 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
238 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
239 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
240 'GLIBC_TUNABLES'.
241
242 '--disable-crypt'
243 Do not install the passphrase-hashing library 'libcrypt' or the
244 header file 'crypt.h'. 'unistd.h' will still declare the function
245 'crypt'. Using this option does not change the set of programs
246 that may need to be linked with '-lcrypt'; it only means that the
247 GNU C Library will not provide that library.
248
249 This option is for hackers and distributions experimenting with
250 independently-maintained implementations of libcrypt. It may
251 become the default in a future release.
252
253 '--disable-experimental-malloc'
254 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
255 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
256 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
257 remove it from the build completely.
258
259 '--disable-scv'
260 Disable using 'scv' instruction for syscalls. All syscalls will
261 use 'sc' instead, even if the kernel supports 'scv'. PowerPC only.
262
263 '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
264 '--host=HOST-SYSTEM'
265 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
266 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
267 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
268 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
269 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
270 the compiler and/or binutils.
271
272 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
273 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
274 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
275 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
276 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
277 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
278 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
279 'CC'.
280
281 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
282
283 '--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
284 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
285 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
286 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
287 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
288 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
289
290 '--with-bugurl=URL'
291 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
292 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
293 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
294 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
295
296 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
297 produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
298 but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
299 Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
300
301 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
302 configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
303 take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
304 machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
305
306 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
307 an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
308 'make' version, though.
309
310 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
311 facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
312 not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
313 problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
314 on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
315 being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
316 Library as an unprivileged user.
317
318 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
319 The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
320 system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
321 files must all contain correct and sensible content.
322
323 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
324 problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
325 You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
326 make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
327 failure occurs.
328
329 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
330 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
331 distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
332 files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
333 'make info'.
334
335 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
336 which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
337 file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
338 build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
339 is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
340 makefiles.
341
342 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
343 setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
344 cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
345 important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
346 this: 'configure TARGET CC=TARGET-gcc'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
347 to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
348 library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
349 if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
350 target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
351 may be tested using 'make check
352 test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
353 is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
354 HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
355 binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
356 visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
357 The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script requires 'flock' from 'util-linux' to
358 work when GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING environment variable is set.
359
360 It is also possible to execute tests, which require setting the date
361 on the target machine. Following use cases are supported:
362 * 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' is set in the environment in which
363 eligible tests are executed and have the privilege to run
364 'clock_settime'. In this case, nothing prevents those tests from
365 running in parallel, so the caller shall assure that those tests
366 are serialized or provide a proper wrapper script for them.
367
368 * The 'cross-test-ssh.sh' script is used and one passes the
369 '--allow-time-setting' flag. In this case, both sets
370 'GLIBC_TEST_ALLOW_TIME_SETTING' and serialization of test execution
371 are assured automatically.
372
373 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
374 to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
375 This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
376 working directory and the standard input, output and error file
377 descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
378 environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
379 program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
380 assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
381 before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
382 the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
383 precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
384 program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
385 directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
386 the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
387 semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
388 rather than the ambient set.
389
390 For AArch64 with SVE, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper'
391 may be set to "SRCDIR/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/aarch64/vltest.py
392 VECTOR-LENGTH" to change Vector Length.
393
394 Installing the C Library
395 ========================
396
397 To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
398 manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
399 before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
400 first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
401 library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
402 first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
403 when the library changes out from underneath.
404
405 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
406 installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
407 headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
408 generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
409 do things in the following order.
410
411 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
412 check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
413 install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
414 directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
415 files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
416 library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
417 library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
418 directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
419 headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
420 headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
421 installing the library.
422
423 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
424 configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
425 on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
426 prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
427 setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
428 directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
429 with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
430 not supported.
431
432 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
433 may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
434 dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
435 well.
436
437 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
438 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
439 program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
440 a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
441 using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
442 '/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
443
444 After installation you should configure the timezone and install
445 locales for your system. The time zone configuration ensures that your
446 system time matches the time for your current timezone. The locales
447 ensure that the display of information on your system matches the
448 expectations of your language and geographic region.
449
450 The GNU C Library is able to use two kinds of localization
451 information sources, the first is a locale database named
452 'locale-archive' which is generally installed as
453 '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive'. The locale archive has the benefit of
454 taking up less space and being very fast to load, but only if you plan
455 to install sixty or more locales. If you plan to install one or two
456 locales you can instead install individual locales into their self-named
457 directories e.g. '/usr/lib/locale/en_US.utf8'. For example to install
458 the German locale using the character set for UTF-8 with name 'de_DE'
459 into the locale archive issue the command 'localedef -i de_DE -f UTF-8
460 de_DE', and to install just the one locale issue the command 'localedef
461 --no-archive -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
462 are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
463 directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales' to install all
464 locales into the locale archive or 'make
465 localedata/install-locale-files' to install all locales as files in the
466 default configured locale installation directory (derived from
467 '--prefix' or '--localedir'). To install into an alternative system
468 root use 'DESTDIR' e.g. 'make localedata/install-locale-files
469 DESTDIR=/opt/glibc', but note that this does not change the configured
470 prefix.
471
472 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
473 variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
474 As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
475 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
476 are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
477 which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
478 Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
479 /etc/localtime'.
480
481 Recommended Tools for Compilation
482 =================================
483
484 We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
485 build the GNU C Library:
486
487 * GNU 'make' 4.0 or newer
488
489 As of relase time, GNU 'make' 4.3 is the newest verified to work to
490 build the GNU C Library.
491
492 * GCC 6.2 or newer
493
494 GCC 6.2 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
495 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
496 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
497 better code. As of release time, GCC 11.2 is the newest compiler
498 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
499
500 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), a GCC version with
501 support for '-mno-gnu-attribute', '-mabi=ieeelongdouble', and
502 '-mabi=ibmlondouble' is required. Likewise, the compiler must also
503 support passing '-mlong-double-128' with the preceding options. As
504 of release, this implies GCC 7.4 and newer (excepting GCC 7.5.0,
505 see GCC PR94200). These additional features are required for
506 building the GNU C Library with support for IEEE long double.
507
508 For ARC architecture builds, GCC 8.3 or higher is needed.
509
510 For s390x architecture builds, GCC 7.1 or higher is needed (See gcc
511 Bug 98269).
512
513 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
514 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
515 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
516 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
517 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
518 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
519 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
520 'gcc/config.gcc'.
521
522 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
523 the GNU C Library.
524
525 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
526 platforms.
527
528 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
529
530 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
531 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
532 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.35.1 is the newest
533 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
534
535 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), 'objcopy' is
536 required to support '--update-section'. This option requires
537 binutils 2.26 or newer.
538
539 ARC architecture needs 'binutils' 2.32 or higher for TLS related
540 fixes.
541
542 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
543
544 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
545 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
546 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
547 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
548 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.7 is the newest
549 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
550
551 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
552
553 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
554 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
555 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
556 version 5.1 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
557 Library.
558
559 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
560
561 'bison' is used to generate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
562 subdirectory. As of release time, 'bison' version 3.7.4 is the
563 newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
564
565 * Perl 5
566
567 Perl is not required, but if present it is used in some tests and
568 the 'mtrace' program, to build the GNU C Library manual. As of
569 release time 'perl' version 5.32.1 is the newest verified to work
570 to build the GNU C Library.
571
572 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
573
574 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
575 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
576 4.8 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
577
578 * Python 3.4 or later
579
580 Python is required to build the GNU C Library. As of release time,
581 Python 3.9.6 is the newest verified to work for building and
582 testing the GNU C Library.
583
584 * PExpect 4.0
585
586 The pretty printer tests drive GDB through test programs and
587 compare its output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture
588 the output of GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version
589 in your system. As of release time PExpect 4.8 is the newest
590 verified to work to test the pretty printers.
591
592 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7/3.4 or later
593
594 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
595 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
596 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
597 system's Python and GDB's have the same version. As of release
598 time GNU 'debugger' 10.2 is the newest verified to work to test the
599 pretty printers.
600
601 Unless Python, PExpect and GDB with Python support are present, the
602 printer tests will report themselves as 'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that
603 some of the printer tests require the GNU C Library to be compiled
604 with debugging symbols.
605
606 If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
607
608 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
609
610 and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
611
612 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
613
614 As of release time, GNU 'gettext' version 0.21 is the newest
615 version verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
616
617 You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
618 patches, although we try to avoid this.
619
620 Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
621 =====================================
622
623 If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
624 to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
625 reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
626 because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
627 call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
628 the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
629 direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
630 just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
631 referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
632 unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
633 directory, run 'make headers_install
634 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
635 Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
636 the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
637 cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
638 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
639 ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
640 'x86' or 'powerpc'.)
641
642 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
643 directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
644 replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
645 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
646 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
647 Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
648 provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
649 by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
650 are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
651 directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
652 not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
653 kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
654 using '--with-headers'.
655
656 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
657 components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
658 '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
659 Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
660 to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
661
662 Reporting Bugs
663 ==============
664
665 There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
666 errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
667 fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
668 remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
669
670 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
671 reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
672 a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
673 system has a WWW interface at <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
674 WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
675 report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
676
677 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
678 the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
679 good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
680 some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
681 libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
682 is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
683 Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
684 twice.
685
686 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
687 not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
688 Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
689
690 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
691 smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
692 library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
693 call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
694
695 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
696 Do this at <https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
697
698 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
699 doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
700 function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
701 or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
702 errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
703 database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
704 include the section names for easier identification.