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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.
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38
39 It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the
a8db092e 40environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that
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41will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler.
42
bd952512 43 The following list describes all of the available options for
a8db092e 44'configure':
00c1176b 45
a8db092e 46'--prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 47 Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of
a8db092e 48 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'.
00c1176b 49
a8db092e 50'--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY'
00c1176b 51 Install the library and other machine-dependent files in
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52 subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix'
53 directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise.
00c1176b 54
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55'--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
56 Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The
57 GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files
1f77f049 58 describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will
a8db092e 59 normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this
1f77f049 60 option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead.
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61
62 This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in
a8db092e 63 '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library.
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64 Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use
65 this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer
a8db092e 66 set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'.
41aa20c2 67
a8db092e 68'--enable-kernel=VERSION'
90d1d40b 69 This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The
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70 VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the
71 smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is
72 expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less
73 compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets.
74
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75'--with-binutils=DIRECTORY'
76 Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the
6736e93b 77 ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if
41aa20c2 78 the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the
a8db092e 79 constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will
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80 detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the
81 library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for
82 example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils.
41aa20c2 83
a8db092e 84'--disable-shared'
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85 Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
86 systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
87 (currently) the GNU linker.
41aa20c2 88
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89'--enable-static-pie'
90 Enable static position independent executable (static PIE) support.
91 Static PIE is similar to static executable, but can be loaded at
92 any address without help from a dynamic linker. All static
93 programs as well as static tests are built as static PIE, except
94 for those marked with no-pie. The resulting glibc can be used with
95 the GCC option, -static-pie, which is available with GCC 8 or
96 above, to create static PIE.
97
a8db092e 98'--disable-profile'
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99 Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
100 use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
41aa20c2 101
a8db092e 102'--enable-static-nss'
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103 Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries.
104 This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a
105 program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be
106 dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database.
107
a8db092e 108'--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests'
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109 By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C
110 library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in
111 dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly.
112
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113'--disable-timezone-tools'
114 By default, timezone related utilities ('zic', 'zdump', and
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115 'tzselect') are installed with the GNU C Library. If you are
116 building these independently (e.g. by using the 'tzcode' package),
117 then this option will allow disabling the install of these.
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118
119 Note that you need to make sure the external tools are kept in sync
120 with the versions that the GNU C Library expects as the data
121 formats may change over time. Consult the 'timezone' subdirectory
122 for more details.
123
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124'--enable-stack-protector'
125'--enable-stack-protector=strong'
126'--enable-stack-protector=all'
127 Compile the C library and all other parts of the glibc package
128 (including the threading and math libraries, NSS modules, and
129 transliteration modules) using the GCC '-fstack-protector',
130 '-fstack-protector-strong' or '-fstack-protector-all' options to
131 detect stack overruns. Only the dynamic linker and a small number
132 of routines called directly from assembler are excluded from this
133 protection.
134
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135'--enable-bind-now'
136 Disable lazy binding for installed shared objects. This provides
137 additional security hardening because it enables full RELRO and a
138 read-only global offset table (GOT), at the cost of slightly
139 increased program load times.
140
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141'--enable-pt_chown'
142 The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note
143 Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix
144 up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because
145 systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts'
146 filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages
147 pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using
148 '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid
149 and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional
150 security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you
151 understand and accept those risks.
152
153'--disable-werror'
154 By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish
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155 to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer
156 version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested
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157 with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you
158 can configure with '--disable-werror'.
159
21933112 160'--disable-mathvec'
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161 By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with the vector
162 math library. Use this option to disable the vector math library.
21933112 163
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164'--enable-tunables'
165 Tunables support allows additional library parameters to be
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166 customized at runtime. This feature is enabled by default. This
167 option can take the following values:
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168
169 'yes'
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170 This is the default if no option is passed to configure. This
171 enables tunables and selects the default frontend (currently
172 'valstring').
173
174 'no'
175 This option disables tunables.
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176
177 'valstring'
178 This enables tunables and selects the 'valstring' frontend for
179 tunables. This frontend allows users to specify tunables as a
180 colon-separated list in a single environment variable
181 'GLIBC_TUNABLES'.
67e58f39 182
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183'--enable-obsolete-nsl'
184 By default, libnsl is only built as shared library for backward
185 compatibility and the NSS modules libnss_compat, libnss_nis and
186 libnss_nisplus are not built at all. Use this option to enable
187 libnsl with all depending NSS modules and header files.
188
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189'--disable-experimental-malloc'
190 By default, a per-thread cache is enabled in 'malloc'. While this
191 cache can be disabled on a per-application basis using tunables
192 (set glibc.malloc.tcache_count to zero), this option can be used to
193 remove it from the build completely.
194
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195'--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
196'--host=HOST-SYSTEM'
197 These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options
198 and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will
199 prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be
200 used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers'
201 option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of
202 the compiler and/or binutils.
203
204 If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native
205 compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your
206 system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For
207 example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu'
208 but you want to compile a library for 586es, give
209 '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the
210 appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to
ad1b5f19 211 CFLAGS.
1792d4db 212
a8db092e 213 If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused.
41aa20c2 214
a8db092e 215'--with-pkgversion=VERSION'
8b748aed 216 Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build
a8db092e 217 date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version'
8b748aed 218 output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For
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219 example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''.
220 The default value is 'GNU libc'.
8b748aed 221
a8db092e 222'--with-bugurl=URL'
8b748aed 223 Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a
a8db092e 224 bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with
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225 the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main
226 bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library.
227
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228 To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will
229produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
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230but aren't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'.
231Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
41aa20c2 232
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233 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
234configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
235take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
236machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
00c1176b 237
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238 If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with
239an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU
240'make' version, though.
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241
242 To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library
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243facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
244not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
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245problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
246on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
a8db092e 247being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
1f77f049 248Library as an unprivileged user.
41aa20c2 249
8d4b5a8a 250 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
6736e93b 251The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
a8db092e 252system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
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253files must all contain correct and sensible content.
254
a8db092e 255 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
d6fe5e58 256problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
a8db092e 257You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
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258make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
259failure occurs.
260
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261 The GNU C Library pretty printers come with their own set of scripts
262for testing, which run together with the rest of the testsuite through
263'make check'. These scripts require the following tools to run
264successfully:
265
266 * Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
267
268 Python is required for running the printers' test scripts.
269
270 * PExpect 4.0
271
272 The printer tests drive GDB through test programs and compare its
273 output to the printers'. PExpect is used to capture the output of
274 GDB, and should be compatible with the Python version in your
275 system.
276
277 * GDB 7.8 or later with support for Python 2.7.6/3.4.3 or later
278
279 GDB itself needs to be configured with Python support in order to
280 use the pretty printers. Notice that your system having Python
281 available doesn't imply that GDB supports it, nor that your
282 system's Python and GDB's have the same version.
283
284If these tools are absent, the printer tests will report themselves as
285'UNSUPPORTED'. Notice that some of the printer tests require the GNU C
286Library to be compiled with debugging symbols.
287
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288 To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type
289'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The
290distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
291files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with
292'make info'.
1792d4db 293
c0389ee4 294 The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters
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295which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
296file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
297build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
298is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
299makefiles.
c0389ee4 300
1f77f049 301 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
a8db092e 302setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
c0389ee4 303cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
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304important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
305this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
6736e93b 306to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
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307library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
308if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
309target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
310may be tested using 'make check
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311test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
312is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
313HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
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314binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
315visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME.
c0389ee4 316
a8db092e 317 In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set
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318to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
319This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
8540f6d2 320working directory and the standard input, output and error file
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321descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
322environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
8540f6d2 323program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
a8db092e 324assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
8540f6d2 325before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
a8db092e 326the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
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327precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
328program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
329directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
330the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
331semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
332rather than the ambient set.
0eb69512 333
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334Installing the C Library
335========================
41aa20c2 336
80ed68b7 337To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
a8db092e 338manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
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339before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
340first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
341library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
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342first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
343when the library changes out from underneath.
1792d4db 344
a8db092e 345 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
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346installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
347headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
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348generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
349do things in the following order.
c0389ee4 350
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351 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
352check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
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353install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
354directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
355files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
356library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
a8db092e 357library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
02c4bbad 358directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
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359headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
360headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
1f77f049 361installing the library.
c0389ee4 362
1f77f049 363 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
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364configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
365on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
1f77f049 366prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
a8db092e 367setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
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368directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
369with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
370not supported.
1792d4db 371
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372 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
373may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
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374dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
375well.
1792d4db 376
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377 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
378'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
379program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
380a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
381using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at
382'/dev/pts', you don't need this program.
41aa20c2 383
bd952512 384 After installation you might want to configure the timezone and
1f77f049 385locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
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386locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
387set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command
388'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that
389are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
390directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
391
392 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
393variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
394As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
395'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
396are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
397which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
398Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
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399/etc/localtime'.
400
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401Recommended Tools for Compilation
402=================================
41aa20c2 403
80ed68b7 404We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
1f77f049 405build the GNU C Library:
41aa20c2 406
a8db092e 407 * GNU 'make' 3.79 or newer
41aa20c2 408
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409 You need the latest version of GNU 'make'. Modifying the GNU C
410 Library to work with other 'make' programs would be so difficult
411 that we recommend you port GNU 'make' instead. *Really.* We
412 recommend GNU 'make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have
6736e93b 413 severe bugs or lack features.
41aa20c2 414
4add8674 415 * GCC 4.9 or newer
0e7727f7 416
4add8674 417 GCC 4.9 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use
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418 the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for
419 building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce
15192aaa 420 better code. As of release time, GCC 7.1 is the newest compiler
4863355a 421 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
91ea72b7 422
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423 For PowerPC 64-bits little-endian (powerpc64le), GCC 6.2 or higher
424 is required. This compiler version is the first to provide the
425 features required for building the GNU C Library with support for
426 '_Float128'.
427
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428 For multi-arch support it is recommended to use a GCC which has
429 been built with support for GNU indirect functions. This ensures
430 that correct debugging information is generated for functions
431 selected by IFUNC resolvers. This support can either be enabled by
432 configuring GCC with '--enable-gnu-indirect-function', or by
433 enabling it by default by setting 'default_gnu_indirect_function'
434 variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
435 'gcc/config.gcc'.
436
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437 You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use
438 the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 439
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440 Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
441 platforms.
5713a71e 442
073e8fa7 443 * GNU 'binutils' 2.25 or later
41aa20c2 444
a8db092e 445 You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library.
7a49a7d5 446 No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
15192aaa 447 moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.27 is the newest
04cb913d 448 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 449
a8db092e 450 * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later
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451
452 To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you
a8db092e 453 need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do
41aa20c2 454 not understand all the tags used in the document, and the
1792d4db 455 installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
2c8f75f7 456 differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 6.0 is the newest
04cb913d 457 verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
41aa20c2 458
a8db092e 459 * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher
00c1176b 460
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461 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk'
462 extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was
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463 introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. As of release time, 'gawk'
464 version 4.1.3 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C
465 Library.
41aa20c2 466
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467 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
468
469 'bison' is used to generate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
470 subdirectory.
471
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472 * Perl 5
473
474 Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
475 installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future.
41aa20c2 476
a8db092e 477 * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer
c0389ee4 478
a8db092e 479 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts
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480 work with any version of 'sed'. As of release time, 'sed' version
481 4.2.2 is the newest verified to work to build the GNU C Library.
c0389ee4 482
a8db092e 483If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
0cc70fcf 484
a8db092e 485 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
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486
487and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
488
a8db092e 489 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
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490
491You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
492patches, although we try to avoid this.
493
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494Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
495=====================================
80ed68b7 496
a7a93d50 497If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
5b4ecd3f 498to have the header files from a 3.2 or newer kernel around for
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499reference. (For the ia64 architecture, you need version 3.2.18 or newer
500because this is the first version with support for the 'accept4' system
501call.) These headers must be installed using 'make headers_install';
502the headers present in the kernel source directory are not suitable for
503direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to use that kernel,
504just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library can access them,
505referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way to do this is to
506unpack it in a directory such as '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that
507directory, run 'make headers_install
1f77f049 508INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
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509Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
510the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
1f77f049 511cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
a8db092e 512'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
1f77f049 513ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as
a8db092e 514'x86' or 'powerpc'.)
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515
516 After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename
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517directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
518replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from
519'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in
520'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C
521Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
522provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
523by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
524are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
525directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
526not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
527kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
528using '--with-headers'.
1f77f049 529
a7a93d50 530 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
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531components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in
532'/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C
533Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
534to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
1792d4db 535
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536Reporting Bugs
537==============
41aa20c2 538
1f77f049 539There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
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540errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
541fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
542remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
543
bd952512 544 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
a8db092e 545reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
8b748aed 546a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
a306c790 547system has a WWW interface at <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
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548WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
549report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
6736e93b 550
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551 To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be
552the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
553good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
554some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
555libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
556is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
557Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
558twice.
1792d4db 559
1f77f049 560 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
1792d4db 561not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
c0389ee4 562Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it!
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563
564 Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the
565smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
566library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
567call, if possible. This should not be too difficult.
568
569 The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug.
a8db092e 570Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>.
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571
572 If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual
573doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
574function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
575or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
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576errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
577database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
578include the section names for easier identification.