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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<https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions
6and describes problems you may experience with compilation and
7installation.
41aa20c2 8
00c1176b 9 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
fe959e1e 10and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
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11below.
12
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13Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
14===========================================
00c1176b 15
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16The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
17build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
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18unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
19directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
20allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
21is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
00c1176b 22
a8db092e 23 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
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24at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type
25
f1e86fca 26 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS...
00c1176b 27
3858bf28 28 Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
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29directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
30directories in the source directory.
f05f5ca3 31
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32'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
33mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
34the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
1f77f049 35normal setting to install as the standard system library is
a8db092e 36'--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
1f77f049 37for GNU/Hurd systems.
00c1176b 38
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39 It may also be useful to pass 'CC=COMPILER' and 'CFLAGS=FLAGS'
40arguments to 'configure'. 'CC' selects the C compiler that will be
41used, and 'CFLAGS' sets optimization options for the compiler. Any
42compiler options required for all compilations, such as options
43selecting an ABI or a processor for which to generate code, should be
44included in 'CC'. Options that may be overridden by the GNU C Library
45build system for particular files, such as for optimization and
46debugging, should go in 'CFLAGS'. The default value of 'CFLAGS' is '-g
47-O2', and the GNU C Library cannot be compiled without optimization, so
48if 'CFLAGS' is specified it must enable optimization. For example:
49
50 $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure CC="gcc -m32" CFLAGS="-O3"
00c1176b 51
bd952512 52 The following list describes all of the available options for
a8db092e 53'configure':
00c1176b 54
a8db092e 55'--prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 56 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
a8db092e 57 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
00c1176b 58
a8db092e 59'--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 60 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
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61 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
62 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
00c1176b 63
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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
1f77f049 67 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
a8db092e 68 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
1f77f049 69 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
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70
71 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
a8db092e 72 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
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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
a8db092e 75 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
41aa20c2 76
a8db092e 77'--enable-kernel=VERSION'
90d1d40b 78 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
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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
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84'--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
85 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
6736e93b 86 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
41aa20c2 87 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
a8db092e 88 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
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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.
41aa20c2 92
a8db092e 93'--disable-shared'
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94 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
95 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
96 (currently) the GNU linker.
41aa20c2 97
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98'--enable-static-pie'
99 Enable static position independent executable (static PIE) support.
100 Static PIE is similar to static executable, but can be loaded at
101 any address without help from a dynamic linker. All static
102 programs as well as static tests are built as static PIE, except
103 for those marked with no-pie. The resulting glibc can be used with
104 the GCC option, -static-pie, which is available with GCC 8 or
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105 above, to create static PIE. This option also implies that glibc
106 programs and tests are created as dynamic position independent
107 executables (PIE) by default.
9d7a3741 108
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109'--enable-cet'
110 Enable Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) support.
111 When the GNU C Library is built with '--enable-cet', the resulting
112 library is protected with indirect branch tracking (IBT) and shadow
113 stack (SHSTK). When CET is enabled, the GNU C Library is
114 compatible with all existing executables and shared libraries.
115 This feature is currently supported on i386, x86_64 and x32 with
116 GCC 8 and binutils 2.29 or later. Note that when CET is enabled,
117 the GNU C Library requires CPUs capable of multi-byte NOPs, like
118 x86-64 processors as well as Intel Pentium Pro or newer.
119
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120 NOTE: '--enable-cet' has been tested for i686, x86_64 and x32 on
121 non-CET processors. '--enable-cet' has been tested for x86_64 and
122 x32 on CET SDVs, but Intel CET support hasn't been validated for
123 i686.
124
a8db092e 125'--disable-profile'
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126 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
127 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
41aa20c2 128
a8db092e 129'--enable-static-nss'
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130 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
131 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
132 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
133 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
134
a8db092e 135'--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
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136 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
137 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
138 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
139
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140'--disable-timezone-tools'
141 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
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142 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
143 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
144 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
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145
146 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
147 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
148 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
149 for more details.
150
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151'--enable-stack-protector'
152'--enable-stack-protector=strong'
153'--enable-stack-protector=all'
154 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
155 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
156 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
157 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
158 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
159 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
160 protection.
161
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162'--enable-bind-now'
163 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects. This provides
164 additional security hardening because it enables full RELRO and a
165 read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of slightly
166 increased program load times.
167
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168'--enable-pt_chown'
169 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
170 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
171 up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because
172 systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts'
173 filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages
174 pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using
175 '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid
176 and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional
177 security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you
178 understand and accept those risks.
179
180'--disable-werror'
181 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
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182 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
183 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
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184 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
185 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
186
21933112 187'--disable-mathvec'
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188 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
189 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
21933112 190
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191'--enable-tunables'
192 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
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193 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
194 option can take the following values:
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195
196 'yes'
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197 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
198 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
199 'valstring').
200
201 'no'
202 This option disables tunables.
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203
204 'valstring'
205 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
206 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
207 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
208 'GLIBC_TUNABLES'.
67e58f39 209
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210'--enable-obsolete-nsl'
211 By default, libnsl is only built as shared library for backward
212 compatibility and the NSS modules libnss_compat, libnss_nis and
213 libnss_nisplus are not built at all. Use this option to enable
214 libnsl with all depending NSS modules and header files.
215
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216'--disable-crypt'
217 Do not install the passphrase-hashing library 'libcrypt' or the
218 header file 'crypt.h'. 'unistd.h' will still declare the function
219 'crypt'. Using this option does not change the set of programs
220 that may need to be linked with '-lcrypt'; it only means that the
221 GNU C Library will not provide that library.
222
223 This option is for hackers and distributions experimenting with
224 independently-maintained implementations of libcrypt. It may
225 become the default in a future release.
226
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227'--disable-experimental-malloc'
228 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
229 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
230 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
231 remove it from the build completely.
232
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233'--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
234'--host=HOST-SYSTEM'
235 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
236 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
237 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
238 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
239 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
240 the compiler and/or binutils.
241
242 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
243 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
244 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
245 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
246 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
247 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
248 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
db9881ec 249 'CC'.
1792d4db 250
a8db092e 251 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
41aa20c2 252
a8db092e 253'--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
8b748aed 254 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
a8db092e 255 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
8b748aed 256 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
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257 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
258 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
8b748aed 259
a8db092e 260'--with-bugurl=URL'
8b748aed 261 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
a8db092e 262 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
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263 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
264 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
265
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266 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
267produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
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268but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
269Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
41aa20c2 270
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271 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
272configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
273take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
274machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
00c1176b 275
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276 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
277an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
278'make' version, though.
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279
280 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
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281facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
282not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
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283problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
284on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
a8db092e 285being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
1f77f049 286Library as an unprivileged user.
41aa20c2 287
8d4b5a8a 288 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
6736e93b 289The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
a8db092e 290system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
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291files must all contain correct and sensible content.
292
a8db092e 293 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
d6fe5e58 294problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
a8db092e 295You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
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296make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
297failure occurs.
298
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299 The GNU C Library pretty printers come with their own set of scripts
300for testing, which run together with the rest of the testsuite through
301'make check'. These scripts require the following tools to run
302successfully:
303
f650932b 304 * Python 2.7/3.4 or later
23b5cae1 305
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306 Python is required for running the printers' test scripts. As of
307 release time, Python 3.6 is the newest verified to work to test the
308 pretty printers.
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309
310 * PExpect 4.0
311
312 The printer tests drive GDB through test programs and compare its
313 output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture the output of
314 GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version in your
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315 system. As of release time PExpect 4.3 is the newest verified to
316 work to test the pretty printers.
23b5cae1 317
f650932b 318 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7/3.4 or later
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319
320 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
321 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
322 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
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323 system's Python and GDB's have the same version. As of release
324 time GNU 'debugger' 8.0.1 is the newest verified to work to test
325 the pretty printers.
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326
327If these tools are absent, the printer tests will report themselves as
328'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that some of the printer tests require the GNU C
329Library to be compiled with debugging symbols.
330
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331 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
332'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
333distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
334files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
335'make info'.
1792d4db 336
c0389ee4 337 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
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338which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
339file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
340build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
341is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
342makefiles.
c0389ee4 343
1f77f049 344 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
a8db092e 345setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
c0389ee4 346cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
a8db092e 347important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
db9881ec 348this: 'configure TARGET CC=TARGET-gcc'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
6736e93b 349to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
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350library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
351if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
352target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
353may be tested using 'make check
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354test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
355is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
356HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
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357binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
358visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
c0389ee4 359
a8db092e 360 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
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361to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
362This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
8540f6d2 363working directory and the standard input, output and error file
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364descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
365environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
8540f6d2 366program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
a8db092e 367assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
8540f6d2 368before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
a8db092e 369the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
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370precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
371program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
372directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
373the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
374semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
375rather than the ambient set.
0eb69512 376
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377Installing the C Library
378========================
41aa20c2 379
80ed68b7 380To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
a8db092e 381manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
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382before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
383first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
384library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
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385first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
386when the library changes out from underneath.
1792d4db 387
a8db092e 388 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
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389installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
390headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
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391generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
392do things in the following order.
c0389ee4 393
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394 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
395check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
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396install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
397directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
398files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
399library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
a8db092e 400library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
02c4bbad 401directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
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402headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
403headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
1f77f049 404installing the library.
c0389ee4 405
1f77f049 406 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
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407configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
408on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
1f77f049 409prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
a8db092e 410setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
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411directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
412with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
413not supported.
1792d4db 414
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415 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
416may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
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417dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
418well.
1792d4db 419
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420 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
421'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
422program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
423a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
424using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
425'/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
41aa20c2 426
bd952512 427 After installation you might want to configure the timezone and
1f77f049 428locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
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429locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
430set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command
431'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
432are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
433directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
434
435 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
436variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
437As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
438'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
439are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
440which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
441Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
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442/etc/localtime'.
443
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444Recommended Tools for Compilation
445=================================
41aa20c2 446
80ed68b7 447We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
1f77f049 448build the GNU C Library:
41aa20c2 449
f2873d2d 450 * GNU 'make' 4.0 or newer
41aa20c2 451
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452 As of relase time, GNU 'make' 4.2.1 is the newest verified to work
453 to build the GNU C Library.
454
4add8674 455 * GCC 4.9 or newer
0e7727f7 456
4add8674 457 GCC 4.9 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
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458 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
459 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
f650932b 460 better code. As of release time, GCC 8.1.1 is the newest compiler
4863355a 461 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
91ea72b7 462
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463 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), GCC 6.2 or higher
464 is required. This compiler version is the first to provide the
465 features required for building the GNU C Library with support for
466 '_Float128'.
467
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468 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
469 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
470 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
471 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
472 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
473 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
474 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
475 'gcc/config.gcc'.
476
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477 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
478 the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 479
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480 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
481 platforms.
5713a71e 482
073e8fa7 483 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
41aa20c2 484
a8db092e 485 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
7a49a7d5 486 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
f650932b 487 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.31.1 is the newest
04cb913d 488 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 489
a8db092e 490 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
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491
492 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
a8db092e 493 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
41aa20c2 494 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
1792d4db 495 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
93493119 496 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.5 is the newest
04cb913d 497 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 498
a8db092e 499 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
00c1176b 500
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501 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
502 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
2c8f75f7 503 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
f650932b 504 version 4.2.1 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
2c8f75f7 505 Library.
41aa20c2 506
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507 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
508
509 'bison' is used to generate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
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510 subdirectory. As of release time, 'bison' version 3.0.4 is the
511 newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
1faaf703 512
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513 * Perl 5
514
515 Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
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516 installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future. As
517 of release time 'perl' version 5.28.0 is the newest verified to
518 work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 519
a8db092e 520 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
c0389ee4 521
a8db092e 522 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
2c8f75f7 523 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
f650932b 524 4.5 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
c0389ee4 525
a8db092e 526If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
0cc70fcf 527
a8db092e 528 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
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529
530and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
531
a8db092e 532 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
41aa20c2 533
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534 As of release time, GNU 'gettext' version 0.19.8.1 is the newest
535 version verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
536
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537You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
538patches, although we try to avoid this.
539
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540Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
541=====================================
80ed68b7 542
a7a93d50 543If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
5b4ecd3f 544to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
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545reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
546because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
547call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
548the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
549direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
550just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
551referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
552unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
553directory, run 'make headers_install
1f77f049 554INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
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555Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
556the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
1f77f049 557cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
a8db092e 558'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
1f77f049 559ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
a8db092e 560'x86' or 'powerpc'.)
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561
562 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
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563directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
564replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
565'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
566'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
567Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
568provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
569by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
570are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
571directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
572not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
573kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
574using '--with-headers'.
1f77f049 575
a7a93d50 576 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
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577components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
578'/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
579Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
580to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
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582Reporting Bugs
583==============
41aa20c2 584
1f77f049 585There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
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586errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
587fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
588remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
589
bd952512 590 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
a8db092e 591reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
8b748aed 592a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
a306c790 593system has a WWW interface at <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
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594WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
595report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
6736e93b 596
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597 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
598the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
599good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
600some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
601libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
602is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
603Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
604twice.
1792d4db 605
1f77f049 606 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
1792d4db 607not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
c0389ee4 608Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
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609
610 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
611smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
612library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
613call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
614
615 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
a8db092e 616Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
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617
618 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
619doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
620function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
621or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
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622errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
623database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
624include the section names for easier identification.