| Installing the GNU C Library |
| **************************** |
| |
| Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at |
| `http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ'. It answers common questions |
| and describes problems you may experience with compilation and |
| installation. |
| |
| Features can be added to the GNU C Library via "add-on" bundles. These |
| are separate tar files, which you unpack into the top level of the |
| source tree. Then you give `configure' the `--enable-add-ons' option |
| to activate them, and they will be compiled into the library. |
| |
| You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC |
| and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::, |
| below. |
| |
| Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library |
| =========================================== |
| |
| The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must |
| build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have |
| unpacked the GNU C Library sources in `/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create |
| a directory `/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This |
| allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, |
| which is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done. |
| |
| From your object directory, run the shell script `configure' located |
| at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type |
| |
| $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS... |
| |
| Please note that even though you're building in a separate build |
| directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and |
| directories in the source directory. |
| |
| `configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually |
| mandatory is `--prefix'. This option tells `configure' where you want |
| the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to `/usr/local', but the |
| normal setting to install as the standard system library is |
| `--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and `--prefix=' (an empty prefix) |
| for GNU/Hurd systems. |
| |
| It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the |
| environment when running `configure'. CC selects the C compiler that |
| will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler. |
| |
| The following list describes all of the available options for |
| `configure': |
| |
| `--prefix=DIRECTORY' |
| Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of |
| `DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in `/usr/local'. |
| |
| `--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY' |
| Install the library and other machine-dependent files in |
| subdirectories of `DIRECTORY'. The default is to the `--prefix' |
| directory if that option is specified, or `/usr/local' otherwise. |
| |
| `--with-headers=DIRECTORY' |
| Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not `/usr/include'. |
| The GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files |
| describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will |
| normally look in `/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this |
| option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead. |
| |
| This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in |
| `/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library. |
| Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use |
| this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer |
| set of kernel headers than the ones found in `/usr/include'. |
| |
| `--enable-add-ons[=LIST]' |
| Specify add-on packages to include in the build. If this option is |
| specified with no list, it enables all the add-on packages it |
| finds in the main source directory; this is the default behavior. |
| You may specify an explicit list of add-ons to use in LIST, |
| separated by spaces or commas (if you use spaces, remember to |
| quote them from the shell). Each add-on in LIST can be an |
| absolute directory name or can be a directory name relative to the |
| main source directory, or relative to the build directory (that |
| is, the current working directory). For example, |
| `--enable-add-ons=nptl,../glibc-libidn-VERSION'. |
| |
| `--enable-kernel=VERSION' |
| This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The |
| VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the |
| smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is |
| expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less |
| compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets. |
| |
| `--with-binutils=DIRECTORY' |
| Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in `DIRECTORY', not the |
| ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if |
| the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the |
| constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, `configure' will |
| detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the |
| library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for |
| example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils. |
| |
| `--without-fp' |
| Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point |
| support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU. |
| |
| `--disable-shared' |
| Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all |
| systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and |
| (currently) the GNU linker. |
| |
| `--disable-profile' |
| Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to |
| use this option if you don't plan to do profiling. |
| |
| `--enable-static-nss' |
| Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries. |
| This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a |
| program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be |
| dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database. |
| |
| `--without-tls' |
| By default the C library is built with support for thread-local |
| storage if the used tools support it. By using `--without-tls' |
| this can be prevented though there generally is no reason since it |
| creates compatibility problems. |
| |
| `--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests' |
| By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C |
| library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in |
| dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly. |
| |
| `--enable-lock-elision=yes' |
| Enable lock elision for pthread mutexes by default. |
| |
| `--enable-pt_chown' |
| The file `pt_chown' is a helper binary for `grantpt' (*note |
| Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to |
| fix up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default |
| because systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the |
| `devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at `/dev/pts', which |
| manages pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using |
| `--enable-pt_chown', you may build `pt_chown' and install it |
| setuid and owned by `root'. The use of `pt_chown' introduces |
| additional security risks to the system and you should enable it |
| only if you understand and accept those risks. |
| |
| `--build=BUILD-SYSTEM' |
| `--host=HOST-SYSTEM' |
| These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both |
| options and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, `configure' |
| will prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM |
| to be used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the |
| `--with-headers' option too, and you may have to override |
| CONFIGURE's selection of the compiler and/or binutils. |
| |
| If you only specify `--host', `configure' will prepare for a |
| native compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what |
| your system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. |
| For example, if `configure' guesses your machine as |
| `i686-pc-linux-gnu' but you want to compile a library for 586es, |
| give `--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just `--host=i586-linux' and add |
| the appropriate compiler flags (`-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to |
| CFLAGS. |
| |
| If you specify just `--build', `configure' will get confused. |
| |
| `--with-pkgversion=VERSION' |
| Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build |
| date, of the binaries being built, to be included in `--version' |
| output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For |
| example, `--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''. |
| The default value is `GNU libc'. |
| |
| `--with-bugurl=URL' |
| Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a |
| bug, to be included in `--help' output from programs installed with |
| the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main |
| bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library. |
| |
| To build the library and related programs, type `make'. This will |
| produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from `make' |
| but isn't. Look for error messages from `make' containing `***'. |
| Those indicate that something is seriously wrong. |
| |
| The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the |
| configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may |
| take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower |
| machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang. |
| |
| If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the `-j' option with |
| an appropriate numeric parameter to `make'. You need a recent GNU |
| `make' version, though. |
| |
| To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library |
| facilities, type `make check'. If it does not complete successfully, |
| do not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the |
| problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions |
| on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not |
| being run by `root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C |
| Library as an unprivileged user. |
| |
| Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system. |
| The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the |
| system such as `/etc/passwd', `/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These |
| files must all contain correct and sensible content. |
| |
| To format the `GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type |
| `make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The |
| distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as |
| Info files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually |
| with `make info'. |
| |
| The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters |
| which you can find in `Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the |
| file `configparms'. To change them, create a `configparms' in your |
| build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The |
| file is included and parsed by `make' and has to follow the conventions |
| for makefiles. |
| |
| It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by |
| setting a few variables in `configparms'. Set `CC' to the |
| cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is |
| important to use this same `CC' value when running `configure', like |
| this: `CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set `BUILD_CC' to the compiler |
| to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the |
| library. You may need to set `AR' to cross-compiling versions of `ar' |
| if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for |
| the target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, |
| it may be tested using `make check |
| test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR |
| is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and |
| HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built |
| binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must |
| be visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME. |
| |
| In general, when testing the GNU C Library, `test-wrapper' may be set |
| to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries. |
| This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its |
| working directory, all environment variables set as part of testing and |
| the standard input, output and error file descriptors. If |
| `TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with environment |
| variables set, then `test-wrapper-env' must be set to a program that |
| runs a newly built program with environment variable assignments in |
| effect, those assignments being specified as `VAR=VALUE' before the |
| name of the program to be run. |
| |
| Installing the C Library |
| ======================== |
| |
| To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the |
| manual, type `env LANGUAGE=C LC_ALL=C make install'. This will build |
| things, if necessary, before installing them; however, you should still |
| compile everything first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as |
| your primary C library, we recommend that you shut the system down to |
| single-user mode first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk |
| of breaking things when the library changes out from underneath. |
| |
| `make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous |
| installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be |
| headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are |
| generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you |
| can do things in the following order. |
| |
| You must first build the library (`make'), optionally check it |
| (`make check'), switch the include directories and then install (`make |
| install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the |
| directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header |
| files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the |
| library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old |
| library. The new `/usr/include', after switching the include |
| directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux |
| headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore |
| any headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after |
| installing the library. |
| |
| You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you |
| configured it to go by setting the `install_root' variable on the |
| command line for `make install'. The value of this variable is |
| prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when |
| setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. |
| The directory should be specified with an absolute file name. |
| |
| The GNU C Library includes a daemon called `nscd', which you may or |
| may not want to run. `nscd' caches name service lookups; it can |
| dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as |
| well. |
| |
| One auxiliary program, `/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid |
| `root' if the `--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This |
| program is invoked by the `grantpt' function; it sets the permissions |
| on a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you |
| are using a Linux kernel with the `devpts' filesystem enabled and |
| mounted at `/dev/pts', you don't need this program. |
| |
| After installation you might want to configure the timezone and |
| locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a |
| locale database which gets configured with `localedef'. For example, to |
| set up a German locale with name `de_DE', simply issue the command |
| `localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales |
| that are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build |
| directory the command `make localedata/install-locales'. |
| |
| To configure the locally used timezone, set the `TZ' environment |
| variable. The script `tzselect' helps you to select the right value. |
| As an example, for Germany, `tzselect' would tell you to use |
| `TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths |
| are for an installation with `--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file |
| which is in `/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file `/etc/localtime'. For |
| Germany, you might execute `ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin |
| /etc/localtime'. |
| |
| Recommended Tools for Compilation |
| ================================= |
| |
| We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to |
| build the GNU C Library: |
| |
| * GNU `make' 3.79 or newer |
| |
| You need the latest version of GNU `make'. Modifying the GNU C |
| Library to work with other `make' programs would be so difficult |
| that we recommend you port GNU `make' instead. *Really.* We |
| recommend GNU `make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have |
| severe bugs or lack features. |
| |
| * GCC 4.4 or newer, GCC 4.6 recommended |
| |
| GCC 4.4 or higher is required; as of this writing, GCC 4.6 is the |
| compiler we advise to use to build the GNU C Library. |
| |
| You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use |
| the GNU C Library. |
| |
| Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular |
| platforms. |
| |
| * GNU `binutils' 2.20 or later |
| |
| You must use GNU `binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library. |
| No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the |
| moment. |
| |
| * GNU `texinfo' 4.5 or later |
| |
| To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you |
| need this version of the `texinfo' package. Earlier versions do |
| not understand all the tags used in the document, and the |
| installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works |
| differently. |
| |
| * GNU `awk' 3.1.2, or higher |
| |
| `awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some `gawk' |
| extensions are used, including the `asorti' function, which was |
| introduced in version 3.1.2 of `gawk'. |
| |
| * Perl 5 |
| |
| Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the |
| installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future. |
| |
| * GNU `sed' 3.02 or newer |
| |
| `Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts |
| work with any version of `sed'. The known exception is the script |
| `po2test.sed' in the `intl' subdirectory which is used to generate |
| `msgs.h' for the test suite. This script works correctly only |
| with GNU `sed' 3.02. If you like to run the test suite, you |
| should definitely upgrade `sed'. |
| |
| |
| If you change any of the `configure.ac' files you will also need |
| |
| * GNU `autoconf' 2.53 or higher |
| |
| and if you change any of the message translation files you will need |
| |
| * GNU `gettext' 0.10.36 or later |
| |
| You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using |
| patches, although we try to avoid this. |
| |
| Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems |
| ===================================== |
| |
| If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need |
| to have the header files from a 2.6.19.1 or newer kernel around for |
| reference. These headers must be installed using `make |
| headers_install'; the headers present in the kernel source directory |
| are not suitable for direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need |
| to use that kernel, just have its headers installed where the GNU C |
| Library can access them, referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The |
| easiest way to do this is to unpack it in a directory such as |
| `/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that directory, run `make headers_install |
| INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C |
| Library with the option `--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. |
| Use the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are |
| cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify |
| `ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the `make headers_install' command, where |
| ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as |
| `x86' or `powerpc'.) |
| |
| After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename |
| directories such as `/usr/include/linux' and `/usr/include/asm', and |
| replace them with copies of directories such as `linux' and `asm' from |
| `INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in |
| `INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C |
| Library provides its own version of `/usr/include/scsi'; the files |
| provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those |
| provided by the GNU C Library. The `linux', `asm' and `asm-generic' |
| directories are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; |
| the other directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not |
| required if not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not |
| need to copy kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel |
| header source using `--with-headers'. |
| |
| The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some |
| components of the GNU C Library installation to be in `/lib' and some |
| in `/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU |
| C Library with `--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow |
| it to default to `/usr/local', then all the components are installed |
| there. |
| |
| Reporting Bugs |
| ============== |
| |
| There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly |
| errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get |
| fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will |
| remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer. |
| |
| It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been |
| reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file `BUGS' describes |
| a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking |
| system has a WWW interface at `http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/'. The |
| WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed |
| report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem. |
| |
| To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will |
| be the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a |
| bug. A good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the |
| same way some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and |
| the libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the |
| libraries is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many |
| historical Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as |
| closing a file twice. |
| |
| If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does |
| not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and |
| Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it! |
| |
| Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the |
| smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C |
| library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function |
| call, if possible. This should not be too difficult. |
| |
| The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug. |
| Do this at `http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html'. |
| |
| If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual |
| doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the |
| function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library |
| or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any |
| errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug |
| database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please |
| include the section names for easier identification. |