Installing the GNU C Library
****************************
- Before you do anything else, you should read the file `FAQ' found at
+Before you do anything else, you should read the file `FAQ' located at
the top level of the source tree. This file answers common questions
and describes problems you may experience with compilation and
installation. It is updated more frequently than this manual.
Features can be added to GNU Libc via "add-on" bundles. These are
-separate tarfiles which you unpack into the top level of the source
+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. As of the
-2.1 release, two important components of glibc are distributed as
-"official" add-ons. Unless you are doing an unusual installation, you
-should get them both.
-
- Support for POSIX threads is maintained by someone else, so it's in a
-separate package. It is only available for Linux systems, but this will
-change in the future. Get it from the same place you got the main
-bundle; the file is `glibc-linuxthreads-VERSION.tar.gz'. Support for
-the `crypt' function is distributed separately because of United States
-export restrictions. If you are outside the US or Canada, you must get
-`crypt' support from a site outside the US, such as `ftp.gwdg.de'.
-`ftp.gwdg.de' has the crypt distribution in `pub/linux/glibc'. (Most
-non-US mirrors of `ftp.gnu.org' will have it too.) The file you need
-is `glibc-crypt-VERSION.tar.gz'.
+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::,
Configuring and compiling GNU Libc
==================================
- GNU libc can be compiled in the source directory, but we strongly
-advise to build it in a separate build directory. For example, if you
-have unpacked the glibc sources in `/src/gnu/glibc-2.1.0', create a
-directory `/src/gnu/glibc-build' to put the object files in. This
-allows to remove the whole build directory in case an error occurs
-which is the safest way to get a clean way and should always be done.
+GNU libc cannot be compiled in the source directory. You must build it
+in a separate build directory. For example, if you have unpacked the
+glibc sources in `/src/gnu/glibc-2.4', 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' found
+ 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-2.1.0/configure ARGS...
+ $ ../glibc-2.4/configure ARGS...
- Please note that even if you're building in a separate build
+ Please note that even though you're building in a separate build
directory, the compilation needs to modify a few files in the source
directory, especially some files in the manual subdirectory.
-`configure' takes many options, but you can get away with knowing only
-two: `--prefix' and `--enable-add-ons'. The `--prefix' option tells
-configure where you want glibc installed. This defaults to
-`/usr/local'. The `--enable-add-ons' option tells configure to use all
-the add-on bundles it finds in the source directory. Since important
-functionality is provided in add-ons, you should always specify this
-option.
+`configure' takes many options, but the only one that is usually
+mandatory is `--prefix'. This option tells `configure' where you want
+glibc 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
`--with-headers=DIRECTORY'
Look for kernel header files in DIRECTORY, not `/usr/include'.
Glibc needs information from the kernel's private header files.
- It will normally look in `/usr/include' for them, but if you
+ Glibc 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
ones found in `/usr/include'.
`--enable-add-ons[=LIST]'
- Enable add-on packages in your source tree. If this option is
+ 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. If you do not wish to use some add-on package that you
- have present in your source tree, give this option a list of the
- add-ons that you _do_ want used, like this:
- `--enable-add-ons=crypt,linuxthreads'
+ 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-2.4'.
+
+`--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 could use this option if
+ 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
Use this option if your computer lacks hardware floating-point
support and your operating system does not emulate an FPU.
+ these
+
`--disable-shared'
Don't build shared libraries even if it is possible. Not all
systems support shared libraries; you need ELF support and
Don't build libraries with profiling information. You may want to
use this option if you don't plan to do profiling.
-`--enable-omitfp'
- Use maximum optimization for the normal (static and shared)
- libraries, and compile separate static libraries with debugging
- information and no optimisation. We recommend against this. The
- extra optimization doesn't gain you much, it may provoke compiler
- bugs, and you won't be able to trace bugs through the C library.
-
`--disable-versioning'
Don't compile the shared libraries with symbol version information.
Doing this will make the resulting library incompatible with old
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.
+
`--build=BUILD-SYSTEM'
`--host=HOST-SYSTEM'
These options are for cross-compiling. If you specify both
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 `i586-pc-linux-gnu'
- but you want to compile a library for 386es, give
- `--host=i386-pc-linux-gnu' or just `--host=i386-linux' and add the
- appropriate compiler flags (`-mcpu=i386' will do the trick) to
+ 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
+ `i586-pc-linux-gnu' but you want to compile a library for 386es,
+ give `--host=i386-pc-linux-gnu' or just `--host=i386-linux' and add
+ the appropriate compiler flags (`-mcpu=i386' will do the trick) to
CFLAGS.
- If you specify just `--build', configure will get confused.
+ If you specify just `--build', `configure' will get confused.
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 really wrong.
-
- The compilation process takes several hours even on fast hardware.
-Expect at least two hours for the default configuration on i586 for
-Linux. For Hurd times are much longer. Except for EGCS 1.1 (and later
-versions of EGCS), all supported versions of GCC have a problem which
-causes them to take several minutes to compile certain files in the
-iconvdata directory. Do not panic if the compiler appears to hang.
-
- If you want to run a parallel make, you can't just give `make' the
-`-j' option, because it won't be passed down to the sub-makes.
-Instead, edit the generated `Makefile' and uncomment the line
+Those indicate that something is seriously wrong.
- # PARALLELMFLAGS = -j 4
+ 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.
-You can change the `4' to some other number as appropriate for your
-system. Instead of changing the `Makefile', you could give this option
-directly to `make' and call it as, for example, `make
-PARALLELMFLAGS=-j4'. If you're building in the source directory, you
-must use the latter approach since in this case no new `Makefile' is
-generated for you to change.
+ 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,
being run by `root'. We recommend you compile and test glibc 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 already includes the on-line formatted version of the
manual, as Info files. You can regenerate those with `make info', but
it shouldn't be necessary.
+ 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.
+
Installing the C Library
========================
- To install the library and its header files, and the Info files of
-the manual, type `make install'. This will build things if necessary,
-before installing them. However, you should still compile everything
-first. If you are installing glibc 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.
+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 glibc 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.
+
+ If you're upgrading from Linux libc5 or some other C library, you
+need to replace the `/usr/include' with a fresh directory before
+installing it. The new `/usr/include' should contain the Linux
+headers, but nothing else.
+
+ 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.
If you are upgrading from a previous installation of glibc 2.0 or
-2.1, `make install' will do the entire job. If you're upgrading from
-Linux libc5 or some other C library, you need to rename the old
-`/usr/include' directory before running `make install', or you will end
-up with a mixture of header files from both libraries, and you won't be
-able to compile anything. You may also need to reconfigure GCC to work
-with the new library. The easiest way to do that is to figure out the
-compiler switches to make it work again
-(`-Wl,--dynamic-linker=/lib/ld-linux.so.2' should work on Linux
-systems) and use them to recompile gcc. You can also edit the specs
-file (`/usr/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION/specs'), but that is a bit of a
-black art.
+2.1, `make install' will do the entire job. You do not need to remove
+the old includes - if you want to do so anyway you must then follow the
+order given above.
+
+ You may also need to reconfigure GCC to work with the new library.
+The easiest way to do that is to figure out the compiler switches to
+make it work again (`-Wl,--dynamic-linker=/lib/ld-linux.so.2' should
+work on GNU/Linux systems) and use them to recompile gcc. You can also
+edit the specs file (`/usr/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION/specs'), but that
+is a bit of a black art.
You can install glibc 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.
+environment or preparing a binary distribution. The directory should be
+specified with an absolute file name.
- Glibc 2.1 includes two daemons, `nscd' and `utmpd', 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. `utmpd' allows programs that use the old format for the `utmp'
-file to coexist with new programs. For more information see the file
-`login/README.utmpd'.
+ Glibc 2.2 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'. This program is invoked by the `grantpt' function; it sets the
that are supported by glibc, you can issue from your build directory the
command `make localedata/install-locales'.
- To configure the locally used timezone, you can either 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
+ 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
Recommended Tools for Compilation
=================================
- We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
+We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
build the GNU C library:
- * GNU `make' 3.75
+ * 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 version GNU `make' version 3.75 or 3.77. All earlier
- versions have severe bugs or lack features. Version 3.76 is known
- to have bugs which only show up in big projects like GNU `libc'.
- Version 3.76.1 seems OK but some people have reported problems.
-
- * EGCS 1.1.1, 1.1 or 1.0.3, or GCC 2.8.1
-
- The GNU C library can only be compiled with the GNU C compiler
- family. As of the 2.1 release, EGCS 1.0.3 or higher is required.
- GCC 2.8.1 can also be used (but see the FAQ for reasons why you
- might not want to). Earlier versions simply are too buggy.
+ recommend GNU `make' version 3.79. All earlier versions have
+ severe bugs or lack features.
+
+ * GCC 3.4 or newer, GCC 4.1 recommended
+
+ For the 2.4 release or later, GCC 3.4 or higher is required; as of
+ this writing, GCC 4.4 is the compiler we advise to use for current
+ versions. On certain machines including `powerpc64', compilers
+ prior to GCC 4.0 have bugs that prevent them compiling the C
+ library code in the 2.4 release. On other machines, GCC 4.1 is
+ required to build the C library with support for the correct `long
+ double' type format; these include `powerpc' (32 bit), `s390' and
+ `s390x'. For other architectures special compiler-provided
+ headers are needed (like `cpuid.h' on x86) which only come with
+ later compiler versions.
You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that
use GNU libc, but be aware that both GCC 2.7 and 2.8 have bugs in
their floating-point support that may be triggered by the math
library.
- On Alpha machines you need at least EGCS 1.1.1. Earlier versions
- don't work reliably.
+ Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular
+ platforms.
- For PPC you might need some patches even on top of the last EGCS
- version. See the FAQ.
+ * GNU `binutils' 2.15 or later
- * GNU `binutils' 2.9.1, 2.9.1.0.16, or later 2.9.1.0.x release
-
- You must use GNU binutils (as and ld) if you want to build a shared
- library. Even if you don't, we recommend you use them anyway. No
- one has tested compilation with non-GNU binutils in a long time.
-
- The quality of binutils releases has varied a bit recently. The
- bugs are in obscure features, but glibc uses quite a few of those.
- 2.9.1, 2.9.1.0.16, and later 2.9.1.0.x releases are known to
- work. Versions after 2.8.1.0.23 may or may not work. Older
- versions definitely don't. 2.9.1.0.16 or higher is required on
- some platforms, like PPC and Arm.
-
- For PPC you might need some patches even on top of the last
- binutils version. See the FAQ.
+ 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' 3.12f
installation mechanism for the info files is not present or works
differently.
- * GNU `awk' 3.0, or some other POSIX awk
+ * GNU `awk' 3.0, or higher
- Awk is used in several places to generate files. The scripts
- should work with any POSIX-compliant awk implementation; `gawk'
- 3.0 and `mawk' 1.3 are known to work.
+ `Awk' is used in several places to generate files. `gawk' 3.0 is
+ known to work.
* 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.in' files you will also need
- * GNU `autoconf' 2.12 or higher
+ * GNU `autoconf' 2.53 or higher
and if you change any of the message translation files you will need
- * GNU `gettext' 0.10.35 or later (version 0.10.35 is a alpha release
- and available via ftp from alpha.gnu.org/gnu)
+ * 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.
-Supported Configurations
-========================
-
- The GNU C Library currently supports configurations that match the
-following patterns:
-
- alpha-*-linux
- arm-*-linux
- arm-*-linuxaout
- arm-*-none
- iX86-*-gnu
- iX86-*-linux
- m68k-*-linux
- powerpc-*-linux
- sparc-*-linux
- sparc64-*-linux
-
- Former releases of this library (version 1.09.1 and perhaps earlier
-versions) used to run on the following configurations:
-
- alpha-dec-osf1
- alpha-*-linuxecoff
- iX86-*-bsd4.3
- iX86-*-isc2.2
- iX86-*-isc3.N
- iX86-*-sco3.2
- iX86-*-sco3.2v4
- iX86-*-sysv
- iX86-*-sysv4
- iX86-force_cpu386-none
- iX86-sequent-bsd
- i960-nindy960-none
- m68k-hp-bsd4.3
- m68k-mvme135-none
- m68k-mvme136-none
- m68k-sony-newsos3
- m68k-sony-newsos4
- m68k-sun-sunos4.N
- mips-dec-ultrix4.N
- mips-sgi-irix4.N
- sparc-sun-solaris2.N
- sparc-sun-sunos4.N
-
- Since no one has volunteered to test and fix these configurations,
-they are not supported at the moment. They probably don't compile;
-they definitely don't work anymore. Porting the library is not hard.
-If you are interested in doing a port, please contact the glibc
-maintainers by sending electronic mail to <bug-glibc@gnu.org>.
-
- Valid cases of `iX86' include `i386', `i486', `i586', and `i686'.
-All of those configurations produce a library that can run on this
-processor and newer processors. The GCC compiler by default generates
-code that's optimized for the machine it's configured for and will use
-the instructions available on that machine. For example if your GCC is
-configured for `i686', gcc will optimize for `i686' and might issue
-some `i686' specific instructions. To generate code for other models,
-you have to configure for that model and give GCC the appropriate
-`-march=' and `-mcpu=' compiler switches via CFLAGS.
-
-Specific advice for Linux systems
-=================================
-
- If you are installing GNU libc on a Linux system, you need to have
-the header files from a 2.2 kernel around for reference. You do not
-need to use the 2.2 kernel, just have its headers where glibc can access
-at them. The easiest way to do this is to unpack it in a directory
-such as `/usr/src/linux-2.2.1'. In that directory, run `make config'
-and accept all the defaults. Then run `make include/linux/version.h'.
+Specific advice for GNU/Linux systems
+=====================================
+
+If you are installing GNU libc on a GNU/Linux system, you need to have
+the header files from a 2.2 or newer kernel around for reference. For
+some architectures, like ia64, sh and hppa, you need at least headers
+from kernel 2.3.99 (sh and hppa) or 2.4.0 (ia64). You do not need to
+use that kernel, just have its headers where glibc can access at them.
+The easiest way to do this is to unpack it in a directory such as
+`/usr/src/linux-2.2.1'. In that directory, run `make config' and
+accept all the defaults. Then run `make include/linux/version.h'.
Finally, configure glibc with the option
`--with-headers=/usr/src/linux-2.2.1/include'. Use the most recent
kernel you can get your hands on.
An alternate tactic is to unpack the 2.2 kernel and run `make
-config' as above. Then rename or delete `/usr/include', create a new
-`/usr/include', and make the usual symbolic links of
-`/usr/include/linux' and `/usr/include/asm' into the 2.2 kernel
-sources. You can then configure glibc with no special options. This
-tactic is recommended if you are upgrading from libc5, since you need
-to get rid of the old header files anyway.
+config' as above; then, rename or delete `/usr/include', create a new
+`/usr/include', and make symbolic links of `/usr/include/linux' and
+`/usr/include/asm' into the kernel sources. You can then configure
+glibc with no special options. This tactic is recommended if you are
+upgrading from libc5, since you need to get rid of the old header files
+anyway.
+
+ After installing GNU libc, you may need to remove or rename
+`/usr/include/linux' and `/usr/include/asm', and replace them with
+copies of `include/linux' and `include/asm-$ARCHITECTURE' taken from
+the Linux source package which supplied kernel headers for building the
+library. ARCHITECTURE will be the machine architecture for which the
+library was built, such as `i386' or `alpha'. You do not need to do
+this if you did not specify an alternate kernel header source using
+`--with-headers'. The intent here is that these directories should be
+copies of, *not* symlinks to, the kernel headers used to build the
+library.
Note that `/usr/include/net' and `/usr/include/scsi' should *not* be
symlinks into the kernel sources. GNU libc provides its own versions
of these files.
- Linux expects some components of the libc installation to be in
+ GNU/Linux expects some components of the libc installation to be in
`/lib' and some in `/usr/lib'. This is handled automatically if you
configure glibc with `--prefix=/usr'. If you set some other prefix or
allow it to default to `/usr/local', then all the components are
library on your system against the new library for the sake of new code,
but keep the old libraries around for old binaries to use. This is
complicated and difficult. Consult the Glibc2 HOWTO at
-<http://www.imaxx.net/~thrytis/glibc> for details.
+`http://www.imaxx.net/~thrytis/glibc' for details.
You cannot use `nscd' with 2.0 kernels, due to bugs in the
kernel-side thread support. `nscd' happens to hit these bugs
Reporting Bugs
==============
- There are probably bugs in the GNU C library. There are certainly
+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 bug tracking system has a WWW
-interface at <http://www-gnats.gnu.org:8080/cgi-bin/wwwgnats.pl>. The
-WWW interface gives you access to open and closed reports. The closed
-reports normally include a patch or a hint on solving the problem.
-
- To report a bug, first you must find it. Hopefully, 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 library. Many historical
-Unix C libraries permit things that we don't, such as closing a file
-twice.
+interface at `http://sources.redhat.com/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 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!
+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
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 using the `glibcbug' script. It is installed with libc, or if
-you haven't installed it, will be in your build directory. Send your
-test case, the results you got, the results you expected, and what you
-think the problem might be (if you've thought of anything). `glibcbug'
-will insert the configuration information we need to see, and ship the
-report off to <bugs@gnu.org>. Don't send a message there directly; it
-is fed to a program that expects mail to be formatted in a particular
-way. Use the script.
+Do this using the WWW interface to the bug database.
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 Internet
-address <bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org>. If you refer to specific sections
-of the manual, please include the section names for easier
-identification.
-
+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.
projects / platform / upstream / glibc.git / blobdiff