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lh9ed821d2023-04-07 01:36:19 -07001Installing the GNU C Library
2****************************
3
4Before you do anything else, you should read the FAQ at
5<http://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FAQ>. It answers common questions and
6describes problems you may experience with compilation and installation.
7
8 Features can be added to the GNU C Library via "add-on" bundles.
9These are separate tar files, which you unpack into the top level of the
10source tree. Then you give 'configure' the '--enable-add-ons' option to
11activate them, and they will be compiled into the library.
12
13 You will need recent versions of several GNU tools: definitely GCC
14and GNU Make, and possibly others. *Note Tools for Compilation::,
15below.
16
17Configuring and compiling the GNU C Library
18===========================================
19
20The GNU C Library cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must
21build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you have
22unpacked the GNU C Library sources in '/src/gnu/glibc-VERSION', create a
23directory '/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
24allows removing the whole build directory in case an error occurs, which
25is the safest way to get a fresh start and should always be done.
26
27 From your object directory, run the shell script 'configure' located
28at 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
33directory, the compilation may need to create or modify files and
34directories in the source directory.
35
36'configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
37mandatory is '--prefix'. This option tells 'configure' where you want
38the GNU C Library installed. This defaults to '/usr/local', but the
39normal setting to install as the standard system library is
40'--prefix=/usr' for GNU/Linux systems and '--prefix=' (an empty prefix)
41for GNU/Hurd systems.
42
43 It may also be useful to set the CC and CFLAGS variables in the
44environment when running 'configure'. CC selects the C compiler that
45will 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
190produce a lot of output, some of which may look like errors from 'make'
191but isn't. Look for error messages from 'make' containing '***'. Those
192indicate that something is seriously wrong.
193
194 The compilation process can take a long time, depending on the
195configuration and the speed of your machine. Some complex modules may
196take a very long time to compile, as much as several minutes on slower
197machines. 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
200an 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
204facilities, type 'make check'. If it does not complete successfully, do
205not use the built library, and report a bug after verifying that the
206problem is not already known. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for instructions
207on reporting bugs. Note that some of the tests assume they are not
208being run by 'root'. We recommend you compile and test the GNU C
209Library as an unprivileged user.
210
211 Before reporting bugs make sure there is no problem with your system.
212The tests (and later installation) use some pre-existing files of the
213system such as '/etc/passwd', '/etc/nsswitch.conf' and others. These
214files must all contain correct and sensible content.
215
216 Normally, 'make check' will run all the tests before reporting all
217problems found and exiting with error status if any problems occurred.
218You can specify 'stop-on-test-failure=y' when running 'make check' to
219make the test run stop and exit with an error status immediately when a
220failure 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
224distribution builds the on-line formatted version of the manual, as Info
225files, 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
229which you can find in 'Makeconfig'. These can be overwritten with the
230file 'configparms'. To change them, create a 'configparms' in your
231build directory and add values as appropriate for your system. The file
232is included and parsed by 'make' and has to follow the conventions for
233makefiles.
234
235 It is easy to configure the GNU C Library for cross-compilation by
236setting a few variables in 'configparms'. Set 'CC' to the
237cross-compiler for the target you configured the library for; it is
238important to use this same 'CC' value when running 'configure', like
239this: 'CC=TARGET-gcc configure TARGET'. Set 'BUILD_CC' to the compiler
240to use for programs run on the build system as part of compiling the
241library. You may need to set 'AR' to cross-compiling versions of 'ar'
242if the native tools are not configured to work with object files for the
243target you configured for. When cross-compiling the GNU C Library, it
244may be tested using 'make check
245test-wrapper="SRCDIR/scripts/cross-test-ssh.sh HOSTNAME"', where SRCDIR
246is the absolute directory name for the main source directory and
247HOSTNAME is the host name of a system that can run the newly built
248binaries of the GNU C Library. The source and build directories must be
249visible 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
252to the name and arguments of any program to run newly built binaries.
253This program must preserve the arguments to the binary being run, its
254working directory and the standard input, output and error file
255descriptors. If 'TEST-WRAPPER env' will not work to run a program with
256environment variables set, then 'test-wrapper-env' must be set to a
257program that runs a newly built program with environment variable
258assignments in effect, those assignments being specified as 'VAR=VALUE'
259before the name of the program to be run. If multiple assignments to
260the same variable are specified, the last assignment specified must take
261precedence. Similarly, if 'TEST-WRAPPER env -i' will not work to run a
262program with an environment completely empty of variables except those
263directly assigned, then 'test-wrapper-env-only' must be set; its use has
264the same syntax as 'test-wrapper-env', the only difference in its
265semantics being starting with an empty set of environment variables
266rather than the ambient set.
267
268Installing the C Library
269========================
270
271To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of the
272manual, type 'make install'. This will build things, if necessary,
273before installing them; however, you should still compile everything
274first. If you are installing the GNU C Library as your primary C
275library, we recommend that you shut the system down to single-user mode
276first, and reboot afterward. This minimizes the risk of breaking things
277when the library changes out from underneath.
278
279 'make install' will do the entire job of upgrading from a previous
280installation of the GNU C Library version 2.x. There may sometimes be
281headers left behind from the previous installation, but those are
282generally harmless. If you want to avoid leaving headers behind you can
283do things in the following order.
284
285 You must first build the library ('make'), optionally check it ('make
286check'), switch the include directories and then install ('make
287install'). The steps must be done in this order. Not moving the
288directory before install will result in an unusable mixture of header
289files from both libraries, but configuring, building, and checking the
290library requires the ability to compile and run programs against the old
291library. The new '/usr/include', after switching the include
292directories and before installing the library should contain the Linux
293headers, but nothing else. If you do this, you will need to restore any
294headers from libraries other than the GNU C Library yourself after
295installing the library.
296
297 You can install the GNU C Library somewhere other than where you
298configured it to go by setting the 'DESTDIR' GNU standard make variable
299on the command line for 'make install'. The value of this variable is
300prepended to all the paths for installation. This is useful when
301setting up a chroot environment or preparing a binary distribution. The
302directory should be specified with an absolute file name. Installing
303with the 'prefix' and 'exec_prefix' GNU standard make variables set is
304not supported.
305
306 The GNU C Library includes a daemon called 'nscd', which you may or
307may not want to run. 'nscd' caches name service lookups; it can
308dramatically improve performance with NIS+, and may help with DNS as
309well.
310
311 One auxiliary program, '/usr/libexec/pt_chown', is installed setuid
312'root' if the '--enable-pt_chown' configuration option is used. This
313program is invoked by the 'grantpt' function; it sets the permissions on
314a pseudoterminal so it can be used by the calling process. If you are
315using 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
319locale installation of your system. The GNU C Library comes with a
320locale database which gets configured with 'localedef'. For example, to
321set 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
323are supported by the GNU C Library, you can issue from your build
324directory the command 'make localedata/install-locales'.
325
326 To configure the locally used timezone, set the 'TZ' environment
327variable. The script 'tzselect' helps you to select the right value.
328As an example, for Germany, 'tzselect' would tell you to use
329'TZ='Europe/Berlin''. For a system wide installation (the given paths
330are for an installation with '--prefix=/usr'), link the timezone file
331which is in '/usr/share/zoneinfo' to the file '/etc/localtime'. For
332Germany, you might execute 'ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin
333/etc/localtime'.
334
335Recommended Tools for Compilation
336=================================
337
338We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
339build 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
399If you change any of the 'configure.ac' files you will also need
400
401 * GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)
402
403and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
404
405 * GNU 'gettext' 0.10.36 or later
406
407If you wish to regenerate the 'yacc' parser code in the 'intl'
408subdirectory you will need
409
410 * GNU 'bison' 2.7 or later
411
412You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
413patches, although we try to avoid this.
414
415Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
416=====================================
417
418If you are installing the GNU C Library on GNU/Linux systems, you need
419to have the header files from a 2.6.32 or newer kernel around for
420reference. These headers must be installed using 'make
421headers_install'; the headers present in the kernel source directory are
422not suitable for direct use by the GNU C Library. You do not need to
423use that kernel, just have its headers installed where the GNU C Library
424can access them, referred to here as INSTALL-DIRECTORY. The easiest way
425to do this is to unpack it in a directory such as
426'/usr/src/linux-VERSION'. In that directory, run 'make headers_install
427INSTALL_HDR_PATH=INSTALL-DIRECTORY'. Finally, configure the GNU C
428Library with the option '--with-headers=INSTALL-DIRECTORY/include'. Use
429the most recent kernel you can get your hands on. (If you are
430cross-compiling the GNU C Library, you need to specify
431'ARCH=ARCHITECTURE' in the 'make headers_install' command, where
432ARCHITECTURE 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
436directories such as '/usr/include/linux' and '/usr/include/asm', and
437replace 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
440Library provides its own version of '/usr/include/scsi'; the files
441provided by the kernel should be copied without replacing those provided
442by the GNU C Library. The 'linux', 'asm' and 'asm-generic' directories
443are required to compile programs using the GNU C Library; the other
444directories describe interfaces to the kernel but are not required if
445not compiling programs using those interfaces. You do not need to copy
446kernel headers if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source
447using '--with-headers'.
448
449 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for GNU/Linux systems expects some
450components 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
452Library with '--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or allow it
453to default to '/usr/local', then all the components are installed there.
454
455Reporting Bugs
456==============
457
458There are probably bugs in the GNU C Library. There are certainly
459errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get
460fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will
461remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.
462
463 It is a good idea to verify that the problem has not already been
464reported. Bugs are documented in two places: The file 'BUGS' describes
465a number of well known bugs and the central GNU C Library bug tracking
466system has a WWW interface at <http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/>. The
467WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. A closed
468report 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
471the hard part. Once you've found a bug, make sure it's really a bug. A
472good way to do this is to see if the GNU C Library behaves the same way
473some other C library does. If so, probably you are wrong and the
474libraries are right (but not necessarily). If not, one of the libraries
475is probably wrong. It might not be the GNU C Library. Many historical
476Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
477twice.
478
479 If you think you have found some way in which the GNU C Library does
480not conform to the ISO and POSIX standards (*note Standards and
481Portability::), 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
484smallest test case that reproduces the problem. In the case of a C
485library, you really only need to narrow it down to one library function
486call, 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.
489Do 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
492doesn't tell you, that's a bug in the manual. Report that too! If the
493function's behavior disagrees with the manual, then either the library
494or the manual has a bug, so report the disagreement. If you find any
495errors or omissions in this manual, please report them to the bug
496database. If you refer to specific sections of the manual, please
497include the section names for easier identification.