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1Installing the GNU C Library
2****************************
41aa20c2 3
6a3951a0 4Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at
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5<http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions and
6describes problems you may experience with compilation and installation.
41aa20c2 7
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8 Features can be added to the GNU C Library via "add-on" bundles.
9These are separate tar files, which you unpack into the top level of the
10source tree. Then you give 'configure' the '--enable-add-ons' option to
11activate them, and they will be compiled into the library.
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12
13 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
fe959e1e 14and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
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15below.
16
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17Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
18===========================================
00c1176b 19
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20The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
21build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
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22unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
23directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
24allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
25is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
00c1176b 26
a8db092e 27 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
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28at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type
29
f1e86fca 30 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
00c1176b 31
3858bf28 32 Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
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33directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
34directories in the source directory.
f05f5ca3 35
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36'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
37mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
38the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
1f77f049 39normal setting to install as the standard system library is
a8db092e 40'--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
1f77f049 41for GNU/Hurd systems.
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42
43 It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the
a8db092e 44environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that
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45will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler.
46
bd952512 47 The following list describes all of the available options for
a8db092e 48'configure':
00c1176b 49
a8db092e 50'--prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 51 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
a8db092e 52 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
00c1176b 53
a8db092e 54'--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 55 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
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56 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
57 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
00c1176b 58
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59'--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
60 Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The
61 GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files
1f77f049 62 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
a8db092e 63 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
1f77f049 64 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
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65
66 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
a8db092e 67 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
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68 Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use
69 this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer
a8db092e 70 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
41aa20c2 71
a8db092e 72'--enable-add-ons[=LIST]'
3858bf28 73 Specify add-on packages to include in the build. If this option is
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74 specified with no list, it enables all the add-on packages it finds
75 in the main source directory; this is the default behavior. You
76 may specify an explicit list of add-ons to use in LIST, separated
77 by spaces or commas (if you use spaces, remember to quote them from
78 the shell). Each add-on in LIST can be an absolute directory name
79 or can be a directory name relative to the main source directory,
80 or relative to the build directory (that is, the current working
81 directory). For example,
82 '--enable-add-ons=nptl,../glibc-libidn-VERSION'.
83
84'--enable-kernel=VERSION'
90d1d40b 85 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
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86 VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the
87 smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is
88 expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less
89 compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets.
90
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91'--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
92 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
6736e93b 93 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
41aa20c2 94 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
a8db092e 95 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
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96 detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the
97 library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for
98 example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils.
41aa20c2 99
a8db092e 100'--without-fp'
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101 Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point
102 support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU.
103
a8db092e 104'--disable-shared'
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105 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
106 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
107 (currently) the GNU linker.
41aa20c2 108
a8db092e 109'--disable-profile'
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110 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
111 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
41aa20c2 112
a8db092e 113'--enable-static-nss'
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114 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
115 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
116 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
117 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
118
a8db092e 119'--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
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120 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
121 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
122 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
123
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124'--disable-timezone-tools'
125 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
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126 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
127 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
128 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
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129
130 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
131 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
132 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
133 for more details.
134
a8db092e 135'--enable-lock-elision=yes'
52dfbe13 136 Enable lock elision for pthread mutexes by default.
1717da59 137
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138'--enable-stack-protector'
139'--enable-stack-protector=strong'
140'--enable-stack-protector=all'
141 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
142 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
143 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
144 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
145 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
146 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
147 protection.
148
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149'--enable-bind-now'
150 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects. This provides
151 additional security hardening because it enables full RELRO and a
152 read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of slightly
153 increased program load times.
154
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155'--enable-pt_chown'
156 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
157 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
158 up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because
159 systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts'
160 filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages
161 pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using
162 '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid
163 and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional
164 security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you
165 understand and accept those risks.
166
167'--disable-werror'
168 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
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169 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
170 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
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171 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
172 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
173
21933112 174'--disable-mathvec'
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175 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
176 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
21933112 177
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178'--enable-tunables'
179 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
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180 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
181 option can take the following values:
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182
183 'yes'
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184 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
185 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
186 'valstring').
187
188 'no'
189 This option disables tunables.
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190
191 'valstring'
192 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
193 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
194 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
195 'GLIBC_TUNABLES'.
67e58f39 196
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197'--enable-obsolete-nsl'
198 By default, libnsl is only built as shared library for backward
199 compatibility and the NSS modules libnss_compat, libnss_nis and
200 libnss_nisplus are not built at all. Use this option to enable
201 libnsl with all depending NSS modules and header files.
202
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203'--disable-experimental-malloc'
204 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
205 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
206 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
207 remove it from the build completely.
208
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209'--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
210'--host=HOST-SYSTEM'
211 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
212 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
213 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
214 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
215 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
216 the compiler and/or binutils.
217
218 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
219 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
220 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
221 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
222 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
223 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
224 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
ad1b5f19 225 CFLAGS.
1792d4db 226
a8db092e 227 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
41aa20c2 228
a8db092e 229'--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
8b748aed 230 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
a8db092e 231 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
8b748aed 232 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
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233 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
234 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
8b748aed 235
a8db092e 236'--with-bugurl=URL'
8b748aed 237 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
a8db092e 238 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
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239 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
240 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
241
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242 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
243produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
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244but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
245Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
41aa20c2 246
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247 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
248configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
249take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
250machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
00c1176b 251
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252 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
253an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
254'make' version, though.
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255
256 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
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257facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
258not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
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259problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
260on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
a8db092e 261being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
1f77f049 262Library as an unprivileged user.
41aa20c2 263
8d4b5a8a 264 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
6736e93b 265The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
a8db092e 266system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
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267files must all contain correct and sensible content.
268
a8db092e 269 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
d6fe5e58 270problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
a8db092e 271You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
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272make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
273failure occurs.
274
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275 The GNU C Library pretty printers come with their own set of scripts
276for testing, which run together with the rest of the testsuite through
277'make check'. These scripts require the following tools to run
278successfully:
279
280 * Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
281
282 Python is required for running the printers' test scripts.
283
284 * PExpect 4.0
285
286 The printer tests drive GDB through test programs and compare its
287 output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture the output of
288 GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version in your
289 system.
290
291 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
292
293 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
294 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
295 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
296 system's Python and GDB's have the same version.
297
298If these tools are absent, the printer tests will report themselves as
299'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that some of the printer tests require the GNU C
300Library to be compiled with debugging symbols.
301
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302 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
303'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
304distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
305files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
306'make info'.
1792d4db 307
c0389ee4 308 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
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309which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
310file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
311build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
312is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
313makefiles.
c0389ee4 314
1f77f049 315 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
a8db092e 316setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
c0389ee4 317cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
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318important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
319this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
6736e93b 320to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
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321library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
322if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
323target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
324may be tested using 'make check
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325test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
326is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
327HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
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328binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
329visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
c0389ee4 330
a8db092e 331 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
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332to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
333This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
8540f6d2 334working directory and the standard input, output and error file
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335descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
336environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
8540f6d2 337program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
a8db092e 338assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
8540f6d2 339before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
a8db092e 340the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
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341precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
342program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
343directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
344the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
345semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
346rather than the ambient set.
0eb69512 347
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348Installing the C Library
349========================
41aa20c2 350
80ed68b7 351To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
a8db092e 352manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
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353before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
354first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
355library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
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356first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
357when the library changes out from underneath.
1792d4db 358
a8db092e 359 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
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360installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
361headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
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362generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
363do things in the following order.
c0389ee4 364
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365 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
366check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
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367install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
368directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
369files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
370library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
a8db092e 371library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
02c4bbad 372directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
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373headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
374headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
1f77f049 375installing the library.
c0389ee4 376
1f77f049 377 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
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378configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
379on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
1f77f049 380prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
a8db092e 381setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
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382directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
383with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
384not supported.
1792d4db 385
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386 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
387may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
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388dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
389well.
1792d4db 390
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391 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
392'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
393program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
394a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
395using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
396'/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
41aa20c2 397
bd952512 398 After installation you might want to configure the timezone and
1f77f049 399locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
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400locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
401set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command
402'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
403are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
404directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
405
406 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
407variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
408As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
409'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
410are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
411which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
412Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
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413/etc/localtime'.
414
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415Recommended Tools for Compilation
416=================================
41aa20c2 417
80ed68b7 418We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
1f77f049 419build the GNU C Library:
41aa20c2 420
a8db092e 421 * GNU 'make' 3.79 or newer
41aa20c2 422
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423 You need the latest version of GNU 'make'. Modifying the GNU C
424 Library to work with other 'make' programs would be so difficult
425 that we recommend you port GNU 'make' instead. *Really.* We
426 recommend GNU 'make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have
6736e93b 427 severe bugs or lack features.
41aa20c2 428
4add8674 429 * GCC 4.9 or newer
0e7727f7 430
4add8674 431 GCC 4.9 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
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432 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
433 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
15192aaa 434 better code. As of release time, GCC 7.1 is the newest compiler
4863355a 435 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
91ea72b7 436
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437 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), GCC 6.2 or higher
438 is required. This compiler version is the first to provide the
439 features required for building the GNU C Library with support for
440 '_Float128'.
441
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442 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
443 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
444 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
445 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
446 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
447 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
448 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
449 'gcc/config.gcc'.
450
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451 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
452 the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 453
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454 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
455 platforms.
5713a71e 456
073e8fa7 457 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
41aa20c2 458
a8db092e 459 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
7a49a7d5 460 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
15192aaa 461 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.27 is the newest
04cb913d 462 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 463
a8db092e 464 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
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465
466 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
a8db092e 467 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
41aa20c2 468 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
1792d4db 469 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
2c8f75f7 470 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.0 is the newest
04cb913d 471 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 472
a8db092e 473 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
00c1176b 474
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475 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
476 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
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477 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
478 version 4.1.3 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
479 Library.
41aa20c2 480
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481 * Perl 5
482
483 Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
484 installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future.
41aa20c2 485
a8db092e 486 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
c0389ee4 487
a8db092e 488 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
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489 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
490 4.2.2 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
c0389ee4 491
a8db092e 492If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
0cc70fcf 493
a8db092e 494 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
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495
496and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
497
a8db092e 498 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
41aa20c2 499
a8db092e 500If you wish to regenerate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
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501subdirectory you will need
502
a8db092e 503 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
cc8623f1 504
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505You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
506patches, although we try to avoid this.
507
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508Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
509=====================================
80ed68b7 510
a7a93d50 511If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
5b4ecd3f 512to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
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513reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
514because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
515call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
516the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
517direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
518just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
519referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
520unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
521directory, run 'make headers_install
1f77f049 522INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
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523Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
524the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
1f77f049 525cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
a8db092e 526'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
1f77f049 527ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
a8db092e 528'x86' or 'powerpc'.)
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529
530 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
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531directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
532replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
533'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
534'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
535Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
536provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
537by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
538are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
539directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
540not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
541kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
542using '--with-headers'.
1f77f049 543
a7a93d50 544 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
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545components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
546'/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
547Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
548to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
1792d4db 549
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550Reporting Bugs
551==============
41aa20c2 552
1f77f049 553There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
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554errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
555fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
556remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
557
bd952512 558 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
a8db092e 559reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
8b748aed 560a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
a8db092e 561system has a WWW interface at <http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
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562WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
563report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
6736e93b 564
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565 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
566the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
567good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
568some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
569libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
570is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
571Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
572twice.
1792d4db 573
1f77f049 574 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
1792d4db 575not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
c0389ee4 576Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
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577
578 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
579smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
580library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
581call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
582
583 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
a8db092e 584Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
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585
586 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
587doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
588function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
589or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
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590errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
591database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
592include the section names for easier identification.