lh | 9ed821d | 2023-04-07 01:36:19 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Installing the GNU C Library |
| 2 | **************************** |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at |
| 5 | <http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions and |
| 6 | describes problems you may experience with compilation and installation. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Features can be added to the GNU C Library via "add-on" bundles. |
| 9 | These are separate tar files, which you unpack into the top level of the |
| 10 | source tree. Then you give 'configure' the '--enable-add-ons' option to |
| 11 | activate them, and they will be compiled into the library. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC |
| 14 | and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::, |
| 15 | below. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library |
| 18 | =========================================== |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must |
| 21 | build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have |
| 22 | unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a |
| 23 | directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This |
| 24 | allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which |
| 25 | is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located |
| 28 | at the top level of the source tree. In the scenario above, you'd type |
| 29 | |
| 30 | $ ../glibc-VERSION/configure ARGS... |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Please note that even though you're building in a separate build |
| 33 | directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and |
| 34 | directories in the source directory. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | 'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually |
| 37 | mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want |
| 38 | the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the |
| 39 | normal setting to install as the standard system library is |
| 40 | '--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix) |
| 41 | for GNU/Hurd systems. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the |
| 44 | environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that |
| 45 | will be used, and CFLAGS sets optimization options for the compiler. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | The following list describes all of the available options for |
| 48 | 'configure': |
| 49 | |
| 50 | '--prefix=DIRECTORY' |
| 51 | Install machine-independent data files in subdirectories of |
| 52 | 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to install in '/usr/local'. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | '--exec-prefix=DIRECTORY' |
| 55 | Install the library and other machine-dependent files in |
| 56 | subdirectories of 'DIRECTORY'. The default is to the '--prefix' |
| 57 | directory if that option is specified, or '/usr/local' otherwise. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | '--with-headers=DIRECTORY' |
| 60 | Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not '/usr/include'. The |
| 61 | GNU C Library needs information from the kernel's header files |
| 62 | describing the interface to the kernel. The GNU C Library will |
| 63 | normally look in '/usr/include' for them, but if you specify this |
| 64 | option, it will look in DIRECTORY instead. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | This option is primarily of use on a system where the headers in |
| 67 | '/usr/include' come from an older version of the GNU C Library. |
| 68 | Conflicts can occasionally happen in this case. You can also use |
| 69 | this option if you want to compile the GNU C Library with a newer |
| 70 | set of kernel headers than the ones found in '/usr/include'. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | '--enable-add-ons[=LIST]' |
| 73 | Specify add-on packages to include in the build. If this option is |
| 74 | specified with no list, it enables all the add-on packages it finds |
| 75 | in the main source directory; this is the default behavior. You |
| 76 | may specify an explicit list of add-ons to use in LIST, separated |
| 77 | by spaces or commas (if you use spaces, remember to quote them from |
| 78 | the shell). Each add-on in LIST can be an absolute directory name |
| 79 | or can be a directory name relative to the main source directory, |
| 80 | or relative to the build directory (that is, the current working |
| 81 | directory). For example, |
| 82 | '--enable-add-ons=nptl,../glibc-libidn-VERSION'. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | '--enable-kernel=VERSION' |
| 85 | This option is currently only useful on GNU/Linux systems. The |
| 86 | VERSION parameter should have the form X.Y.Z and describes the |
| 87 | smallest version of the Linux kernel the generated library is |
| 88 | expected to support. The higher the VERSION number is, the less |
| 89 | compatibility code is added, and the faster the code gets. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | '--with-binutils=DIRECTORY' |
| 92 | Use the binutils (assembler and linker) in 'DIRECTORY', not the |
| 93 | ones the C compiler would default to. You can use this option if |
| 94 | the default binutils on your system cannot deal with all the |
| 95 | constructs in the GNU C Library. In that case, 'configure' will |
| 96 | detect the problem and suppress these constructs, so that the |
| 97 | library will still be usable, but functionality may be lost--for |
| 98 | example, you can't build a shared libc with old binutils. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | '--without-fp' |
| 101 | Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point |
| 102 | support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | '--disable-shared' |
| 105 | Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all |
| 106 | systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and |
| 107 | (currently) the GNU linker. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | '--disable-profile' |
| 110 | Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to |
| 111 | use this option if you don't plan to do profiling. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | '--enable-static-nss' |
| 114 | Compile static versions of the NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries. |
| 115 | This is not recommended because it defeats the purpose of NSS; a |
| 116 | program linked statically with the NSS libraries cannot be |
| 117 | dynamically reconfigured to use a different name database. |
| 118 | |
| 119 | '--without-tls' |
| 120 | By default the C library is built with support for thread-local |
| 121 | storage if the used tools support it. By using '--without-tls' |
| 122 | this can be prevented though there generally is no reason since it |
| 123 | creates compatibility problems. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | '--enable-hardcoded-path-in-tests' |
| 126 | By default, dynamic tests are linked to run with the installed C |
| 127 | library. This option hardcodes the newly built C library path in |
| 128 | dynamic tests so that they can be invoked directly. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | '--enable-lock-elision=yes' |
| 131 | Enable lock elision for pthread mutexes by default. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | '--enable-pt_chown' |
| 134 | The file 'pt_chown' is a helper binary for 'grantpt' (*note |
| 135 | Pseudo-Terminals: Allocation.) that is installed setuid root to fix |
| 136 | up pseudo-terminal ownership. It is not built by default because |
| 137 | systems using the Linux kernel are commonly built with the 'devpts' |
| 138 | filesystem enabled and mounted at '/dev/pts', which manages |
| 139 | pseudo-terminal ownership automatically. By using |
| 140 | '--enable-pt_chown', you may build 'pt_chown' and install it setuid |
| 141 | and owned by 'root'. The use of 'pt_chown' introduces additional |
| 142 | security risks to the system and you should enable it only if you |
| 143 | understand and accept those risks. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | '--disable-werror' |
| 146 | By default, the GNU C Library is built with '-Werror'. If you wish |
| 147 | to build without this option (for example, if building with a newer |
| 148 | version of GCC than this version of the GNU C Library was tested |
| 149 | with, so new warnings cause the build with '-Werror' to fail), you |
| 150 | can configure with '--disable-werror'. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | '--disable-mathvec' |
| 153 | By default for x86_64, the GNU C Library is built with vector math |
| 154 | library. Use this option to disable vector math library. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | '--build=BUILD-SYSTEM' |
| 157 | '--host=HOST-SYSTEM' |
| 158 | These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both options |
| 159 | and BUILD-SYSTEM is different from HOST-SYSTEM, 'configure' will |
| 160 | prepare to cross-compile the GNU C Library from BUILD-SYSTEM to be |
| 161 | used on HOST-SYSTEM. You'll probably need the '--with-headers' |
| 162 | option too, and you may have to override CONFIGURE's selection of |
| 163 | the compiler and/or binutils. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | If you only specify '--host', 'configure' will prepare for a native |
| 166 | compile but use what you specify instead of guessing what your |
| 167 | system is. This is most useful to change the CPU submodel. For |
| 168 | example, if 'configure' guesses your machine as 'i686-pc-linux-gnu' |
| 169 | but you want to compile a library for 586es, give |
| 170 | '--host=i586-pc-linux-gnu' or just '--host=i586-linux' and add the |
| 171 | appropriate compiler flags ('-mcpu=i586' will do the trick) to |
| 172 | CFLAGS. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | If you specify just '--build', 'configure' will get confused. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | '--with-pkgversion=VERSION' |
| 177 | Specify a description, possibly including a build number or build |
| 178 | date, of the binaries being built, to be included in '--version' |
| 179 | output from programs installed with the GNU C Library. For |
| 180 | example, '--with-pkgversion='FooBar GNU/Linux glibc build 123''. |
| 181 | The default value is 'GNU libc'. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | '--with-bugurl=URL' |
| 184 | Specify the URL that users should visit if they wish to report a |
| 185 | bug, to be included in '--help' output from programs installed with |
| 186 | the GNU C Library. The default value refers to the main |
| 187 | bug-reporting information for the GNU C Library. |
| 188 | |
| 189 | To build the library and related programs, type 'make'. This will |
| 190 | produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make' |
| 191 | but isn't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'. Those |
| 192 | indicate that something is seriously wrong. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the |
| 195 | configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may |
| 196 | take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower |
| 197 | machines. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang. |
| 198 | |
| 199 | If you want to run a parallel make, simply pass the '-j' option with |
| 200 | an appropriate numeric parameter to 'make'. You need a recent GNU |
| 201 | 'make' version, though. |
| 202 | |
| 203 | To build and run test programs which exercise some of the library |
| 204 | facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do |
| 205 | not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the |
| 206 | problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions |
| 207 | on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not |
| 208 | being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C |
| 209 | Library as an unprivileged user. |
| 210 | |
| 211 | Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system. |
| 212 | The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the |
| 213 | system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These |
| 214 | files must all contain correct and sensible content. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all |
| 217 | problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred. |
| 218 | You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to |
| 219 | make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a |
| 220 | failure occurs. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | To format the 'GNU C Library Reference Manual' for printing, type |
| 223 | 'make dvi'. You need a working TeX installation to do this. The |
| 224 | distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info |
| 225 | files, as part of the build process. You can build them manually with |
| 226 | 'make info'. |
| 227 | |
| 228 | The library has a number of special-purpose configuration parameters |
| 229 | which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the |
| 230 | file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your |
| 231 | build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file |
| 232 | is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for |
| 233 | makefiles. |
| 234 | |
| 235 | It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by |
| 236 | setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the |
| 237 | cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is |
| 238 | important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like |
| 239 | this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler |
| 240 | to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the |
| 241 | library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar' |
| 242 | if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the |
| 243 | target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it |
| 244 | may be tested using 'make check |
| 245 | test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR |
| 246 | is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and |
| 247 | HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built |
| 248 | binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be |
| 249 | visible at the same locations on both the build system and HOSTNAME. |
| 250 | |
| 251 | In general, when testing the GNU C Library, 'test-wrapper' may be set |
| 252 | to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries. |
| 253 | This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its |
| 254 | working directory and the standard input, output and error file |
| 255 | descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with |
| 256 | environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a |
| 257 | program that runs a newly built program with environment variable |
| 258 | assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE' |
| 259 | before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to |
| 260 | the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take |
| 261 | precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a |
| 262 | program with an environment completely empty of variables except those |
| 263 | directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has |
| 264 | the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its |
| 265 | semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables |
| 266 | rather than the ambient set. |
| 267 | |
| 268 | Installing the C Library |
| 269 | ======================== |
| 270 | |
| 271 | To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the |
| 272 | manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary, |
| 273 | before installing them; however, you should still compile everything |
| 274 | first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C |
| 275 | library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode |
| 276 | first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things |
| 277 | when the library changes out from underneath. |
| 278 | |
| 279 | 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous |
| 280 | installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be |
| 281 | headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are |
| 282 | generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can |
| 283 | do things in the following order. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make |
| 286 | check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make |
| 287 | install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the |
| 288 | directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header |
| 289 | files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the |
| 290 | library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old |
| 291 | library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include |
| 292 | directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux |
| 293 | headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any |
| 294 | headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after |
| 295 | installing the library. |
| 296 | |
| 297 | You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you |
| 298 | configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable |
| 299 | on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is |
| 300 | prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when |
| 301 | setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The |
| 302 | directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing |
| 303 | with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is |
| 304 | not supported. |
| 305 | |
| 306 | The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or |
| 307 | may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can |
| 308 | dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as |
| 309 | well. |
| 310 | |
| 311 | One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid |
| 312 | 'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This |
| 313 | program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on |
| 314 | a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are |
| 315 | using a Linux kernel with the 'devpts' filesystem enabled and mounted at |
| 316 | '/dev/pts', you don't need this program. |
| 317 | |
| 318 | After installation you might want to configure the timezone and |
| 319 | locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a |
| 320 | locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to |
| 321 | set up a German locale with name 'de_DE', simply issue the command |
| 322 | 'localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE'. To configure all locales that |
| 323 | are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build |
| 324 | directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'. |
| 325 | |
| 326 | To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment |
| 327 | variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value. |
| 328 | As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use |
| 329 | 'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths |
| 330 | are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file |
| 331 | which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For |
| 332 | Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin |
| 333 | /etc/localtime'. |
| 334 | |
| 335 | Recommended Tools for Compilation |
| 336 | ================================= |
| 337 | |
| 338 | We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to |
| 339 | build the GNU C Library: |
| 340 | |
| 341 | * GNU 'make' 3.79 or newer |
| 342 | |
| 343 | You need the latest version of GNU 'make'. Modifying the GNU C |
| 344 | Library to work with other 'make' programs would be so difficult |
| 345 | that we recommend you port GNU 'make' instead. *Really.* We |
| 346 | recommend GNU 'make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have |
| 347 | severe bugs or lack features. |
| 348 | |
| 349 | * GCC 4.6 or newer |
| 350 | |
| 351 | GCC 4.6 or higher is required. In general it is recommended to use |
| 352 | the newest version of the compiler that is known to work for |
| 353 | building the GNU C Library, as newer compilers usually produce |
| 354 | better code. As of release time, GCC 4.9.2 is the newest compiler |
| 355 | verified to work to build the GNU C Library. |
| 356 | |
| 357 | You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use |
| 358 | the GNU C Library. |
| 359 | |
| 360 | Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular |
| 361 | platforms. |
| 362 | |
| 363 | * GNU 'binutils' 2.22 or later |
| 364 | |
| 365 | You must use GNU 'binutils' (as and ld) to build the GNU C Library. |
| 366 | No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the |
| 367 | moment. As of release time, GNU 'binutils' 2.25 is the newest |
| 368 | verified to work to build the GNU C Library. |
| 369 | |
| 370 | * GNU 'texinfo' 4.7 or later |
| 371 | |
| 372 | To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you |
| 373 | need this version of the 'texinfo' package. Earlier versions do |
| 374 | not understand all the tags used in the document, and the |
| 375 | installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works |
| 376 | differently. As of release time, 'texinfo' 5.2 is the newest |
| 377 | verified to work to build the GNU C Library. |
| 378 | |
| 379 | * GNU 'awk' 3.1.2, or higher |
| 380 | |
| 381 | 'awk' is used in several places to generate files. Some 'gawk' |
| 382 | extensions are used, including the 'asorti' function, which was |
| 383 | introduced in version 3.1.2 of 'gawk'. |
| 384 | |
| 385 | * Perl 5 |
| 386 | |
| 387 | Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the |
| 388 | installation. We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future. |
| 389 | |
| 390 | * GNU 'sed' 3.02 or newer |
| 391 | |
| 392 | 'Sed' is used in several places to generate files. Most scripts |
| 393 | work with any version of 'sed'. The known exception is the script |
| 394 | 'po2test.sed' in the 'intl' subdirectory which is used to generate |
| 395 | 'msgs.h' for the test suite. This script works correctly only with |
| 396 | GNU 'sed' 3.02. If you like to run the test suite, you should |
| 397 | definitely upgrade 'sed'. |
| 398 | |
| 399 | If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need |
| 400 | |
| 401 | * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly) |
| 402 | |
| 403 | and if you change any of the message translation files you will need |
| 404 | |
| 405 | * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later |
| 406 | |
| 407 | If you wish to regenerate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl' |
| 408 | subdirectory you will need |
| 409 | |
| 410 | * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later |
| 411 | |
| 412 | You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using |
| 413 | patches, although we try to avoid this. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems |
| 416 | ===================================== |
| 417 | |
| 418 | If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need |
| 419 | to have the header files from a 2.6.32 or newer kernel around for |
| 420 | reference. These headers must be installed using 'make |
| 421 | headers_install'; the headers present in the kernel source directory are |
| 422 | not suitable for direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to |
| 423 | use that kernel, just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library |
| 424 | can access them, referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way |
| 425 | to do this is to unpack it in a directory such as |
| 426 | '/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that directory, run 'make headers_install |
| 427 | INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C |
| 428 | Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use |
| 429 | the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are |
| 430 | cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify |
| 431 | 'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where |
| 432 | ARCHITECTURE is the architecture name used by the Linux kernel, such as |
| 433 | 'x86' or 'powerpc'.) |
| 434 | |
| 435 | After installing the GNU C Library, you may need to remove or rename |
| 436 | directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and |
| 437 | replace them with copies of directories such as 'linux' and 'asm' from |
| 438 | 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. All directories present in |
| 439 | 'INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include' should be copied, except that the GNU C |
| 440 | Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files |
| 441 | provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided |
| 442 | by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories |
| 443 | are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other |
| 444 | directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if |
| 445 | not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy |
| 446 | kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source |
| 447 | using '--with-headers'. |
| 448 | |
| 449 | The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some |
| 450 | components of the GNU C Library installation to be in '/lib' and some in |
| 451 | '/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you configure the GNU C |
| 452 | Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it |
| 453 | to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there. |
| 454 | |
| 455 | Reporting Bugs |
| 456 | ============== |
| 457 | |
| 458 | There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly |
| 459 | errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get |
| 460 | fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will |
| 461 | remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer. |
| 462 | |
| 463 | It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been |
| 464 | reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes |
| 465 | a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking |
| 466 | system has a WWW interface at <http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The |
| 467 | WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed |
| 468 | report normally includes a patch or a hint on solving the problem. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | To report a bug, first you must find it. With any luck, this will be |
| 471 | the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A |
| 472 | good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way |
| 473 | some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the |
| 474 | libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries |
| 475 | is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical |
| 476 | Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file |
| 477 | twice. |
| 478 | |
| 479 | If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does |
| 480 | not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and |
| 481 | Portability::), that is definitely a bug. Report it! |
| 482 | |
| 483 | Once you're sure you've found a bug, try to narrow it down to the |
| 484 | smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C |
| 485 | library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function |
| 486 | call, if possible. This should not be too difficult. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | The final step when you have a simple test case is to report the bug. |
| 489 | Do this at <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/bugs.html>. |
| 490 | |
| 491 | If you are not sure how a function should behave, and this manual |
| 492 | doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the |
| 493 | function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library |
| 494 | or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any |
| 495 | errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug |
| 496 | database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please |
| 497 | include the section names for easier identification. |