]> sourceware.org Git - glibc.git/blame - FAQ
Update
[glibc.git] / FAQ
CommitLineData
61952351 1 Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU C Library
f8cac037 2
f12944ec
UD
3This document tries to answer questions a user might have when installing
4and using glibc. Please make sure you read this before sending questions or
5bug reports to the maintainers.
f8cac037 6
f12944ec 7The GNU C library is very complex. The installation process has not been
fdacb17d 8completely automated; there are too many variables. You can do substantial
f12944ec
UD
9damage to your system by installing the library incorrectly. Make sure you
10understand what you are undertaking before you begin.
f8cac037 11
41f27456
RM
12If you have any questions you think should be answered in this document,
13please let me know.
f8cac037 14
934b77ac 15 --drepper@redhat.com
f8cac037 16\f
61952351
UD
17~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
18
191. Compiling glibc
20
211.1. What systems does the GNU C Library run on?
221.2. What compiler do I need to build GNU libc?
231.3. When I try to compile glibc I get only error messages.
24 What's wrong?
5edb9387 251.4. Do I need a special linker or assembler?
8619129f 261.5. Which compiler should I use for powerpc?
348ed515
UD
271.6. Which tools should I use for ARM?
281.7. Do I need some more things to compile the GNU C Library?
291.8. What version of the Linux kernel headers should be used?
301.9. The compiler hangs while building iconvdata modules. What's
f12944ec 31 wrong?
348ed515 321.10. When I run `nm -u libc.so' on the produced library I still
61952351 33 find unresolved symbols. Can this be ok?
348ed515
UD
341.11. What are these `add-ons'?
351.12. My XXX kernel emulates a floating-point coprocessor for me.
61952351 36 Should I enable --with-fp?
348ed515 371.13. When compiling GNU libc I get lots of errors saying functions
61952351 38 in glibc are duplicated in libgcc.
348ed515 391.14. Why do I get messages about missing thread functions when I use
a35cb74d 40 librt? I don't even use threads.
348ed515 411.15. What's the problem with configure --enable-omitfp?
b1418d8f 421.16. I get failures during `make check'. What should I do?
348ed515 431.17. What is symbol versioning good for? Do I need it?
c7f7281e
UD
441.18. How can I compile on my fast ix86 machine a working libc for my slow
45 i386? After installing libc, programs abort with "Illegal
46 Instruction".
150ae521
UD
471.19. `make' complains about a missing dlfcn/libdl.so when building
48 malloc/libmemprof.so. How can I fix this?
2c88f872 491.20. Which tools should I use for MIPS?
61952351
UD
50
512. Installation and configuration issues
52
532.1. Can I replace the libc on my Linux system with GNU libc?
542.2. How do I configure GNU libc so that the essential libraries
55 like libc.so go into /lib and the other into /usr/lib?
562.3. How should I avoid damaging my system when I install GNU libc?
572.4. Do I need to use GNU CC to compile programs that will use the
58 GNU C Library?
592.5. When linking with the new libc I get unresolved symbols
60 `crypt' and `setkey'. Why aren't these functions in the
61 libc anymore?
622.6. When I use GNU libc on my Linux system by linking against
63 the libc.so which comes with glibc all I get is a core dump.
642.7. Looking through the shared libc file I haven't found the
65 functions `stat', `lstat', `fstat', and `mknod' and while
66 linking on my Linux system I get error messages. How is
67 this supposed to work?
5edb9387
UD
682.8. When I run an executable on one system which I compiled on
69 another, I get dynamic linker errors. Both systems have the same
70 version of glibc installed. What's wrong?
712.9. How can I compile gcc 2.7.2.1 from the gcc source code using
61952351 72 glibc 2.x?
5edb9387 732.10. The `gencat' utility cannot process the catalog sources which
61952351 74 were used on my Linux libc5 based system. Why?
5edb9387 752.11. Programs using libc have their messages translated, but other
a35cb74d 76 behavior is not localized (e.g. collating order); why?
5edb9387 772.12. I have set up /etc/nis.conf, and the Linux libc 5 with NYS
61952351 78 works great. But the glibc NIS+ doesn't seem to work.
5edb9387 792.13. I have killed ypbind to stop using NIS, but glibc
3dcf8ea6 80 continues using NIS.
5edb9387 812.14. Under Linux/Alpha, I always get "do_ypcall: clnt_call:
3dcf8ea6 82 RPC: Unable to receive; errno = Connection refused" when using NIS.
5edb9387
UD
832.15. After installing glibc name resolving doesn't work properly.
842.16. How do I create the databases for NSS?
852.17. I have /usr/include/net and /usr/include/scsi as symlinks
61952351 86 into my Linux source tree. Is that wrong?
5edb9387 872.18. Programs like `logname', `top', `uptime' `users', `w' and
61952351
UD
88 `who', show incorrect information about the (number of)
89 users on my system. Why?
5edb9387 902.19. After upgrading to glibc 2.1 with symbol versioning I get
61952351 91 errors about undefined symbols. What went wrong?
5edb9387 922.20. When I start the program XXX after upgrading the library
61952351
UD
93 I get
94 XXX: Symbol `_sys_errlist' has different size in shared
95 object, consider re-linking
96 Why? What should I do?
5edb9387
UD
972.21. What do I need for C++ development?
982.22. Even statically linked programs need some shared libraries
ff44f2a5 99 which is not acceptable for me. What can I do?
5edb9387 1002.23. I just upgraded my Linux system to glibc and now I get
fdacb17d 101 errors whenever I try to link any program.
5edb9387 1022.24. When I use nscd the machine freezes.
0155a773 1032.25. I need lots of open files. What do I have to do?
7db169c9
UD
1042.26. How do I get the same behavior on parsing /etc/passwd and
105 /etc/group as I have with libc5 ?
b710a6e2
UD
1062.27. What needs to be recompiled when upgrading from glibc 2.0 to glibc
107 2.1?
b7398be5 1082.28. Why is extracting files via tar so slow?
2ee511d9
UD
1092.29. Compiling programs I get parse errors in libio.h (e.g. "parse error
110 before `_IO_seekoff'"). How should I fix this?
4f7ea427
UD
1112.30. After upgrading to glibc 2.1, libraries that were compiled against
112 glibc 2.0.x don't work anymore.
9de4e203
UD
1132.31. What happened to the Berkeley DB libraries? Can I still use db
114 in /etc/nsswitch.conf?
2c88f872 1152.32. What has do be done when upgrading to glibc 2.2?
4442d7e8 1162.33. The makefiles want to do a CVS commit.
1324affa
UD
1172.34. When compiling C++ programs, I get a compilation error in streambuf.h.
1182.35. When recompiling GCC, I get compilation errors in libio.
934b77ac
UD
1192.36. Why shall glibc never get installed on GNU/Linux systems in
120/usr/local?
61952351
UD
121
1223. Source and binary incompatibilities, and what to do about them
123
1243.1. I expect GNU libc to be 100% source code compatible with
125 the old Linux based GNU libc. Why isn't it like this?
1263.2. Why does getlogin() always return NULL on my Linux box?
1273.3. Where are the DST_* constants found in <sys/time.h> on many
128 systems?
1293.4. The prototypes for `connect', `accept', `getsockopt',
130 `setsockopt', `getsockname', `getpeername', `send',
131 `sendto', and `recvfrom' are different in GNU libc from
132 any other system I saw. This is a bug, isn't it?
1333.5. On Linux I've got problems with the declarations in Linux
134 kernel headers.
1353.6. I don't include any kernel headers myself but the compiler
136 still complains about redeclarations of types in the kernel
137 headers.
1383.7. Why don't signals interrupt system calls anymore?
1393.8. I've got errors compiling code that uses certain string
140 functions. Why?
4775243a
UD
1413.9. I get compiler messages "Initializer element not constant" with
142 stdin/stdout/stderr. Why?
1433.10. I can't compile with gcc -traditional (or
144 -traditional-cpp). Why?
1453.11. I get some errors with `gcc -ansi'. Isn't glibc ANSI compatible?
a35cb74d
UD
1463.12. I can't access some functions anymore. nm shows that they do
147 exist but linking fails nevertheless.
a5f4e34a
UD
1483.13. When using the db-2 library which comes with glibc is used in
149 the Perl db modules the testsuite is not passed. This did not
150 happen with db-1, gdbm, or ndbm.
5148d49f
UD
1513.14. The pow() inline function I get when including <math.h> is broken.
152 I get segmentation faults when I run the program.
05f732b3 1533.15. The sys/sem.h file lacks the definition of `union semun'.
33127459 1543.16. Why has <netinet/ip_fw.h> disappeared?
28ab8526
UD
1553.17. I get floods of warnings when I use -Wconversion and include
156 <string.h> or <math.h>.
5ff1a70a
UD
1573.18. After upgrading to glibc 2.1, I receive errors about
158 unresolved symbols, like `_dl_initial_searchlist' and can not
159 execute any binaries. What went wrong?
7d1de115
UD
1603.19. bonnie reports that char i/o with glibc 2 is much slower than with
161 libc5. What can be done?
b93492aa
UD
1623.20. Programs compiled with glibc 2.1 can't read db files made with glibc
163 2.0. What has changed that programs like rpm break?
b5a9efcd
UD
1643.21. Autoconf's AC_CHECK_FUNC macro reports that a function exists, but
165 when I try to use it, it always returns -1 and sets errno to ENOSYS.
1663.22. My program segfaults when I call fclose() on the FILE* returned
167 from setmntent(). Is this a glibc bug?
c891b2df 1683.23. I get "undefined reference to `atexit'"
61952351 169
7d1de115 1704. Miscellaneous
61952351 171
7d1de115 1724.1. After I changed configure.in I get `Autoconf version X.Y.
61952351 173 or higher is required for this script'. What can I do?
7d1de115 1744.2. When I try to compile code which uses IPv6 headers and
61952351
UD
175 definitions on my Linux 2.x.y system I am in trouble.
176 Nothing seems to work.
7d1de115 1774.3. When I set the timezone by setting the TZ environment variable
ff44f2a5
UD
178 to EST5EDT things go wrong since glibc computes the wrong time
179 from this information.
7d1de115
UD
1804.4. What other sources of documentation about glibc are available?
1814.5. The timezone string for Sydney/Australia is wrong since even when
348ed515 182 daylight saving time is in effect the timezone string is EST.
7d1de115 1834.6. I've build make 3.77 against glibc 2.1 and now make gets
eeabe877 184 segmentation faults.
c63598bf 1854.7. Why do so many programs using math functions fail on my AlphaStation?
8892c471
UD
1864.8. The conversion table for character set XX does not match with
187what I expect.
be76803a 1884.9. How can I find out which version of glibc I am using in the moment?
5e014387
UD
1894.10. Context switching with setcontext() does not work from within
190 signal handlers.
f8cac037 191
61952351
UD
192\f
193~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
f4017d20 194
61952351 1951. Compiling glibc
04be94a8 196
61952351 1971.1. What systems does the GNU C Library run on?
613a76ff 198
f12944ec
UD
199{UD} This is difficult to answer. The file `README' lists the architectures
200GNU libc was known to run on *at some time*. This does not mean that it
201still can be compiled and run on them now.
f8cac037 202
f12944ec
UD
203The systems glibc is known to work on as of this release, and most probably
204in the future, are:
f8cac037
RM
205
206 *-*-gnu GNU Hurd
4775243a
UD
207 i[3456]86-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on Intel
208 m68k-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on Motorola 680x0
2bbc70d5 209 alpha*-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on DEC Alpha
9a0a462c 210 powerpc-*-linux-gnu Linux and MkLinux on PowerPC systems
4775243a
UD
211 sparc-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on SPARC
212 sparc64-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on UltraSPARC
ff44f2a5 213 arm-*-none ARM standalone systems
348ed515 214 arm-*-linux Linux-2.x on ARM
ff44f2a5 215 arm-*-linuxaout Linux-2.x on ARM using a.out binaries
2bbc70d5
AJ
216 mips*-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on MIPS
217 ia64-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on ia64
2c88f872 218 s390-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on IBM S/390
4a5b72ff 219 s390x-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.x on IBM S/390 64-bit
eacde9d0 220 cris-*-linux-gnu Linux-2.4+ on CRIS
f8cac037 221
f12944ec
UD
222Ports to other Linux platforms are in development, and may in fact work
223already, but no one has sent us success reports for them. Currently no
224ports to other operating systems are underway, although a few people have
225expressed interest.
f8cac037 226
f12944ec
UD
227If you have a system not listed above (or in the `README' file) and you are
228really interested in porting it, contact
f8cac037 229
4775243a 230 <bug-glibc@gnu.org>
f8cac037
RM
231
232
61952351 2331.2. What compiler do I need to build GNU libc?
f8cac037 234
f12944ec
UD
235{UD} You must use GNU CC to compile GNU libc. A lot of extensions of GNU CC
236are used to increase portability and speed.
f8cac037 237
61952351 238GNU CC is found, like all other GNU packages, on
f12944ec 239
a35cb74d 240 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu
f12944ec 241
a35cb74d 242and the many mirror sites. ftp.gnu.org is always overloaded, so try to find
61952351 243a local mirror first.
f8cac037 244
b0610668 245You should always try to use the latest official release. Older versions
f12944ec 246may not have all the features GNU libc requires. The current releases of
bb2fc850 247gcc (2.95 or newer) should work with the GNU C library (for powerpc see
2c88f872 248question 1.5; for ARM see question 1.6; for MIPS see question 1.20).
f8cac037 249
6e8afc1c 250Please note that gcc 2.95 and 2.95.x cannot compile glibc on Alpha due to
bd952512
UD
251problems in the complex float support.
252
f8cac037 253
61952351
UD
2541.3. When I try to compile glibc I get only error messages.
255 What's wrong?
f8cac037 256
b1418d8f 257{UD} You definitely need GNU make to build GNU libc. No other make
f12944ec 258program has the needed functionality.
f8cac037 259
2bbc70d5
AJ
260We recommend version GNU make version 3.79 or newer. Older versions have
261bugs and/or are missing features.
f8cac037 262
f8cac037 263
5edb9387 2641.4. Do I need a special linker or assembler?
f8cac037 265
5edb9387
UD
266{ZW} If you want a shared library, you need a linker and assembler that
267understand all the features of ELF, including weak and versioned symbols.
268The static library can be compiled with less featureful tools, but lacks key
269features such as NSS.
41f27456 270
b0ed91ae
AJ
271For Linux or Hurd, you want binutils 2.10.1 or higher. These are the only
272versions we've tested and found reliable. Other versions may work but we
273don't recommend them, especially not when C++ is involved.
a379e56a 274
5edb9387
UD
275Other operating systems may come with system tools that have all the
276necessary features, but this is moot because glibc hasn't been ported to
277them.
f8cac037 278
f8cac037 279
8619129f 2801.5. Which compiler should I use for powerpc?
4775243a 281
83f6a990 282{GK} You want to use at least gcc 2.95 (together with the right versions
199745d1 283of all the other tools, of course). See also question 2.8.
4775243a
UD
284
285
348ed515
UD
2861.6. Which tools should I use for ARM?
287
288{PB} You should use egcs 1.1 or a later version. For ELF systems some
289changes are needed to the compiler; a patch against egcs-1.1.x can be found
290at:
291
292<ftp://ftp.netwinder.org/users/p/philb/egcs-1.1.1pre2-diff-981126>
293
b0ed91ae 294Binutils 2.10.1 or later is also required.
348ed515
UD
295
296
2971.7. Do I need some more things to compile the GNU C Library?
f8cac037 298
61952351 299{UD} Yes, there are some more :-).
78b5ba3e 300
61952351
UD
301* GNU gettext. This package contains the tools needed to construct
302 `message catalog' files containing translated versions of system
a35cb74d 303 messages. See ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu or better any mirror
61952351 304 site. (We distribute compiled message catalogs, but they may not be
c26b4f64 305 updated in patches.)
f8cac037 306
5edb9387
UD
307* Some files are built with special tools. E.g., files ending in .gperf
308 need a `gperf' program. The GNU version (now available in a separate
309 package, formerly only as part of libg++) is known to work while some
310 vendor versions do not.
f8cac037 311
61952351 312 You should not need these tools unless you change the source files.
1f205a47 313
5edb9387
UD
314* Perl 5 is needed if you wish to test an installation of GNU libc
315 as the primary C library.
4775243a 316
61952351
UD
317* When compiling for Linux, the header files of the Linux kernel must
318 be available to the compiler as <linux/*.h> and <asm/*.h>.
f8cac037 319
02228370 320* lots of disk space (~400MB for i?86-linux; more for RISC platforms).
af6f3906 321
61952351 322* plenty of time. Compiling just the shared and static libraries for
bb2fc850
UD
323 35mins on a 2xPIII@550Mhz w/ 512MB RAM. On a 2xUltraSPARC-II@360Mhz
324 w/ 1GB RAM it takes about 14 minutes. Multiply this by 1.5 or 2.0
325 if you build profiling and/or the highly optimized version as well.
326 For Hurd systems times are much higher.
f8cac037 327
61952351
UD
328 You should avoid compiling in a NFS mounted filesystem. This is
329 very slow.
0200214b 330
bb2fc850
UD
331 James Troup <J.J.Troup@comp.brad.ac.uk> reports a compile time for
332 an earlier (and smaller!) version of glibc of 45h34m for a full build
333 (shared, static, and profiled) on Atari Falcon (Motorola 68030 @ 16 Mhz,
334 14 Mb memory) and Jan Barte <yann@plato.uni-paderborn.de> reports
335 22h48m on Atari TT030 (Motorola 68030 @ 32 Mhz, 34 Mb memory)
0200214b 336
83f6a990 337 A full build of the PowerPC library took 1h on a PowerPC 750@400Mhz w/
6e8afc1c 338 64MB of RAM, and about 9h on a 601@60Mhz w/ 72Mb.
83f6a990 339
61952351 340 If you have some more measurements let me know.
0200214b 341
ba1ffaa1 342
348ed515 3431.8. What version of the Linux kernel headers should be used?
a35cb74d 344
f12944ec
UD
345{AJ,UD} The headers from the most recent Linux kernel should be used. The
346headers used while compiling the GNU C library and the kernel binary used
347when using the library do not need to match. The GNU C library runs without
348problems on kernels that are older than the kernel headers used. The other
349way round (compiling the GNU C library with old kernel headers and running
350on a recent kernel) does not necessarily work. For example you can't use
b1418d8f 351new kernel features if you used old kernel headers to compile the GNU C
f12944ec
UD
352library.
353
b0610668 354{ZW} Even if you are using a 2.0 kernel on your machine, we recommend you
b710a6e2
UD
355compile GNU libc with 2.2 kernel headers. That way you won't have to
356recompile libc if you ever upgrade to kernel 2.2. To tell libc which
b0610668 357headers to use, give configure the --with-headers switch
b710a6e2 358(e.g. --with-headers=/usr/src/linux-2.2.0/include).
b0610668 359
b710a6e2 360Note that you must configure the 2.2 kernel if you do this, otherwise libc
62595351 361will be unable to find <linux/version.h>. Just change the current directory
b710a6e2 362to the root of the 2.2 tree and do `make include/linux/version.h'.
b0610668 363
f12944ec 364
348ed515 3651.9. The compiler hangs while building iconvdata modules. What's
f12944ec
UD
366 wrong?
367
bb2fc850 368{} Removed. Does not apply anymore.
a35cb74d 369
f12944ec 370
348ed515 3711.10. When I run `nm -u libc.so' on the produced library I still
61952351 372 find unresolved symbols. Can this be ok?
f8cac037 373
f12944ec 374{UD} Yes, this is ok. There can be several kinds of unresolved symbols:
f8cac037 375
61952351
UD
376* magic symbols automatically generated by the linker. These have names
377 like __start_* and __stop_*
f8cac037 378
78b5ba3e
RM
379* symbols starting with _dl_* come from the dynamic linker
380
61952351 381* weak symbols, which need not be resolved at all (fabs for example)
f8cac037
RM
382
383Generally, you should make sure you find a real program which produces
41f27456 384errors while linking before deciding there is a problem.
f8cac037
RM
385
386
348ed515 3871.11. What are these `add-ons'?
999493cb 388
f12944ec 389{UD} To avoid complications with export rules or external source code some
b669ab02
UD
390optional parts of the libc are distributed as separate packages, e.g., the
391linuxthreads package.
999493cb 392
f12944ec
UD
393To use these packages as part of GNU libc, just unpack the tarfiles in the
394libc source directory and tell the configuration script about them using the
395--enable-add-ons option. If you give just --enable-add-ons configure tries
396to find all the add-on packages in your source tree. This may not work. If
397it doesn't, or if you want to select only a subset of the add-ons, give a
398comma-separated list of the add-ons to enable:
613a76ff 399
b669ab02 400 configure --enable-add-ons=linuxthreads
41f27456 401
61952351 402for example.
0200214b 403
f12944ec
UD
404Add-ons can add features (including entirely new shared libraries), override
405files, provide support for additional architectures, and just about anything
406else. The existing makefiles do most of the work; only some few stub rules
407must be written to get everything running.
613a76ff 408
bd952512 409Most add-ons are tightly coupled to a specific GNU libc version. Please
b669ab02
UD
410check that the add-ons work with the GNU libc. For example the linuxthreads
411add-on has the same numbering scheme as the libc and will in general only
412work with the corresponding libc.
413
414{AJ} With glibc 2.2 the crypt add-on and with glibc 2.1 the localedata
415add-on have been integrated into the normal glibc distribution, crypt and
416localedata are therefore not anymore add-ons.
bd952512 417
613a76ff 418
348ed515 4191.12. My XXX kernel emulates a floating-point coprocessor for me.
61952351 420 Should I enable --with-fp?
613a76ff 421
f12944ec
UD
422{ZW} An emulated FPU is just as good as a real one, as far as the C library
423is concerned. You only need to say --without-fp if your machine has no way
424to execute floating-point instructions.
f8cac037 425
61952351
UD
426People who are interested in squeezing the last drop of performance
427out of their machine may wish to avoid the trap overhead, but this is
428far more trouble than it's worth: you then have to compile
429*everything* this way, including the compiler's internal libraries
430(libgcc.a for GNU C), because the calling conventions change.
a1470b6f 431
999493cb 432
348ed515 4331.13. When compiling GNU libc I get lots of errors saying functions
61952351 434 in glibc are duplicated in libgcc.
5290baf0 435
f12944ec
UD
436{EY} This is *exactly* the same problem that I was having. The problem was
437due to the fact that configure didn't correctly detect that the linker flag
438--no-whole-archive was supported in my linker. In my case it was because I
439had run ./configure with bogus CFLAGS, and the test failed.
78b5ba3e 440
f12944ec
UD
441One thing that is particularly annoying about this problem is that once this
442is misdetected, running configure again won't fix it unless you first delete
443config.cache.
78b5ba3e 444
f12944ec
UD
445{UD} Starting with glibc-2.0.3 there should be a better test to avoid some
446problems of this kind. The setting of CFLAGS is checked at the very
447beginning and if it is not usable `configure' will bark.
78b5ba3e 448
af6f3906 449
348ed515 4501.14. Why do I get messages about missing thread functions when I use
a35cb74d 451 librt? I don't even use threads.
4775243a 452
a35cb74d
UD
453{UD} In this case you probably mixed up your installation. librt uses
454threads internally and has implicit references to the thread library.
f12944ec
UD
455Normally these references are satisfied automatically but if the thread
456library is not in the expected place you must tell the linker where it is.
457When using GNU ld it works like this:
4775243a
UD
458
459 gcc -o foo foo.c -Wl,-rpath-link=/some/other/dir -lrt
460
f12944ec
UD
461The `/some/other/dir' should contain the thread library. `ld' will use the
462given path to find the implicitly referenced library while not disturbing
463any other link path.
4775243a
UD
464
465
348ed515 4661.15. What's the problem with configure --enable-omitfp?
78b5ba3e 467
61952351 468{AJ} When --enable-omitfp is set the libraries are built without frame
fdacb17d 469pointers. Some compilers produce buggy code for this model and therefore we
f12944ec 470don't advise using it at the moment.
66219c07 471
fdacb17d 472If you use --enable-omitfp, you're on your own. If you encounter problems
f12944ec
UD
473with a library that was build this way, we advise you to rebuild the library
474without --enable-omitfp. If the problem vanishes consider tracking the
475problem down and report it as compiler failure.
66219c07 476
b1418d8f
UD
477Since a library built with --enable-omitfp is undebuggable on most systems,
478debuggable libraries are also built - you can use them by appending "_g" to
f12944ec 479the library names.
66219c07 480
f12944ec
UD
481The compilation of these extra libraries and the compiler optimizations slow
482down the build process and need more disk space.
66219c07 483
b0610668 484
b1418d8f 4851.16. I get failures during `make check'. What should I do?
b0610668 486
b1418d8f
UD
487{AJ} The testsuite should compile and run cleanly on your system; every
488failure should be looked into. Depending on the failures, you probably
489should not install the library at all.
b0610668
UD
490
491You should consider using the `glibcbug' script to report the failure,
492providing as much detail as possible. If you run a test directly, please
493remember to set up the environment correctly. You want to test the compiled
494library - and not your installed one. The best way is to copy the exact
495command line which failed and run the test from the subdirectory for this
496test in the sources.
497
498There are some failures which are not directly related to the GNU libc:
b1418d8f
UD
499- Some compilers produce buggy code. No compiler gets single precision
500 complex numbers correct on Alpha. Otherwise, the egcs 1.1 release should be
501 ok; gcc 2.8.1 might cause some failures; gcc 2.7.2.x is so buggy that
502 explicit checks have been used so that you can't build with it.
b0610668
UD
503- The kernel might have bugs. For example on Linux/Alpha 2.0.34 the
504 floating point handling has quite a number of bugs and therefore most of
b710a6e2 505 the test cases in the math subdirectory will fail. Linux 2.2 has
b1418d8f
UD
506 fixes for the floating point support on Alpha. The Linux/SPARC kernel has
507 also some bugs in the FPU emulation code (as of Linux 2.2.0).
d32a4020
UD
508- Other tools might have problems. For example bash 2.03 gives a
509 segmentation fault running the tst-rpmatch.sh test script.
b0610668 510
a379e56a 511
348ed515 5121.17. What is symbol versioning good for? Do I need it?
a379e56a
UD
513
514{AJ} Symbol versioning solves problems that are related to interface
515changes. One version of an interface might have been introduced in a
516previous version of the GNU C library but the interface or the semantics of
517the function has been changed in the meantime. For binary compatibility
518with the old library, a newer library needs to still have the old interface
b1418d8f 519for old programs. On the other hand, new programs should use the new
a379e56a 520interface. Symbol versioning is the solution for this problem. The GNU
b1418d8f
UD
521libc version 2.1 uses symbol versioning by default if the installed binutils
522supports it.
a379e56a 523
b1418d8f
UD
524We don't advise building without symbol versioning, since you lose binary
525compatibility - forever! The binary compatibility you lose is not only
526against the previous version of the GNU libc (version 2.0) but also against
527all future versions.
a379e56a 528
c7f7281e
UD
529
5301.18. How can I compile on my fast ix86 machine a working libc for my slow
531 i386? After installing libc, programs abort with "Illegal
532 Instruction".
533
534{AJ} glibc and gcc might generate some instructions on your machine that
535aren't available on i386. You've got to tell glibc that you're configuring
536for i386 with adding i386 as your machine, for example:
537
538 ../configure --prefix=/usr i386-pc-linux-gnu
539
540And you need to tell gcc to only generate i386 code, just add `-mcpu=i386'
541(just -m386 doesn't work) to your CFLAGS.
542
543{UD} This applies not only to the i386. Compiling on a i686 for any older
544model will also fail if the above methods are not used.
545
150ae521
UD
546
5471.19. `make' complains about a missing dlfcn/libdl.so when building
548 malloc/libmemprof.so. How can I fix this?
549
550{AJ} Older make version (<= 3.78.90) have a bug which was hidden by a bug in
2bbc70d5 551glibc (<= 2.1.2). You need to upgrade make to a newer or fixed version.
150ae521
UD
552
553After upgrading make, you should remove the file sysd-sorted in your build
554directory. The problem is that the broken make creates a wrong order for
555one list in that file. The list has to be recreated with the new make -
556which happens if you remove the file.
557
558You might encounter this bug also in other situations where make scans
2bbc70d5
AJ
559directories. I strongly advise to upgrade your make version to 3.79 or
560newer.
150ae521 561
2c88f872
AJ
562
5631.20. Which tools should I use for MIPS?
564
02eca23b
AJ
565{AJ} You should use the current development version of gcc 3.0 or newer from
566CVS. gcc 2.95.x does not work correctly on mips-linux.
2c88f872 567
02eca23b
AJ
568You need also recent binutils, anything before and including 2.11 will not
569work correctly. Either try the Linux binutils 2.11.90.0.5 from HJ Lu or the
7e5fc672
AJ
570current development version of binutils from CVS.
571
572Please note that `make check' might fail for a number of the math tests
573because of problems of the FPU emulation in the Linux kernel (the MIPS FPU
574doesn't handle all cases and needs help from the kernel).
2c88f872
AJ
575
576For details check also my page <http://www.suse.de/~aj/glibc-mips.html>.
577
61952351
UD
578\f
579. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
e6c9a67a 580
61952351 5812. Installation and configuration issues
e6c9a67a 582
61952351 5832.1. Can I replace the libc on my Linux system with GNU libc?
e6c9a67a 584
f12944ec
UD
585{UD} You cannot replace any existing libc for Linux with GNU libc. It is
586binary incompatible and therefore has a different major version. You can,
587however, install it alongside your existing libc.
e6c9a67a 588
61952351
UD
589For Linux there are three major libc versions:
590 libc-4 a.out libc
591 libc-5 original ELF libc
592 libc-6 GNU libc
e6c9a67a 593
f12944ec
UD
594You can have any combination of these three installed. For more information
595consult documentation for shared library handling. The Makefiles of GNU
596libc will automatically generate the needed symbolic links which the linker
597will use.
e6c9a67a
RM
598
599
61952351
UD
6002.2. How do I configure GNU libc so that the essential libraries
601 like libc.so go into /lib and the other into /usr/lib?
ec42724d 602
61952351
UD
603{UD,AJ} Like all other GNU packages GNU libc is designed to use a base
604directory and install all files relative to this. The default is
f12944ec
UD
605/usr/local, because this is safe (it will not damage the system if installed
606there). If you wish to install GNU libc as the primary C library on your
607system, set the base directory to /usr (i.e. run configure --prefix=/usr
608<other_options>). Note that this can damage your system; see question 2.3 for
609details.
610
611Some systems like Linux have a filesystem standard which makes a difference
612between essential libraries and others. Essential libraries are placed in
613/lib because this directory is required to be located on the same disk
614partition as /. The /usr subtree might be found on another
615partition/disk. If you configure for Linux with --prefix=/usr, then this
616will be done automatically.
ec42724d 617
61952351 618To install the essential libraries which come with GNU libc in /lib on
f12944ec
UD
619systems other than Linux one must explicitly request it. Autoconf has no
620option for this so you have to use a `configparms' file (see the `INSTALL'
621file for details). It should contain:
ec42724d
RM
622
623slibdir=/lib
624sysconfdir=/etc
625
f12944ec
UD
626The first line specifies the directory for the essential libraries, the
627second line the directory for system configuration files.
ec42724d 628
5290baf0 629
61952351 6302.3. How should I avoid damaging my system when I install GNU libc?
ec42724d 631
f12944ec
UD
632{ZW} If you wish to be cautious, do not configure with --prefix=/usr. If
633you don't specify a prefix, glibc will be installed in /usr/local, where it
634will probably not break anything. (If you wish to be certain, set the
635prefix to something like /usr/local/glibc2 which is not used for anything.)
845dcb57 636
61952351 637The dangers when installing glibc in /usr are twofold:
845dcb57 638
61952351 639* glibc will overwrite the headers in /usr/include. Other C libraries
27e309c1
UD
640 install a different but overlapping set of headers there, so the effect
641 will probably be that you can't compile anything. You need to rename
642 /usr/include out of the way before running `make install'. (Do not throw
643 it away; you will then lose the ability to compile programs against your
644 old libc.)
845dcb57 645
61952351
UD
646* None of your old libraries, static or shared, can be used with a
647 different C library major version. For shared libraries this is not a
648 problem, because the filenames are different and the dynamic linker
649 will enforce the restriction. But static libraries have no version
650 information. You have to evacuate all the static libraries in
651 /usr/lib to a safe location.
845dcb57 652
61952351
UD
653The situation is rather similar to the move from a.out to ELF which
654long-time Linux users will remember.
845dcb57 655
845dcb57 656
61952351
UD
6572.4. Do I need to use GNU CC to compile programs that will use the
658 GNU C Library?
845dcb57 659
f12944ec
UD
660{ZW} In theory, no; the linker does not care, and the headers are supposed
661to check for GNU CC before using its extensions to the C language.
845dcb57 662
f12944ec
UD
663However, there are currently no ports of glibc to systems where another
664compiler is the default, so no one has tested the headers extensively
665against another compiler. You may therefore encounter difficulties. If you
666do, please report them as bugs.
845dcb57 667
61952351
UD
668Also, in several places GNU extensions provide large benefits in code
669quality. For example, the library has hand-optimized, inline assembly
f12944ec
UD
670versions of some string functions. These can only be used with GCC. See
671question 3.8 for details.
845dcb57 672
845dcb57 673
61952351
UD
6742.5. When linking with the new libc I get unresolved symbols
675 `crypt' and `setkey'. Why aren't these functions in the
676 libc anymore?
845dcb57 677
037f8020 678{} Removed. Does not apply anymore.
c4029823 679
c4029823 680
61952351
UD
6812.6. When I use GNU libc on my Linux system by linking against
682 the libc.so which comes with glibc all I get is a core dump.
c4029823 683
f12944ec 684{UD} On Linux, gcc sets the dynamic linker to /lib/ld-linux.so.1 unless the
a582750d 685user specifies a --dynamic-linker argument. This is the name of the libc5
f12944ec 686dynamic linker, which does not work with glibc.
61952351 687
a379e56a
UD
688For casual use of GNU libc you can just specify to the linker
689 --dynamic-linker=/lib/ld-linux.so.2
61952351 690
f12944ec 691which is the glibc dynamic linker, on Linux systems. On other systems the
a379e56a
UD
692name is /lib/ld.so.1. When linking via gcc, you've got to add
693 -Wl,--dynamic-linker=/lib/ld-linux.so.2
694
695to the gcc command line.
c4029823 696
f12944ec
UD
697To change your environment to use GNU libc for compiling you need to change
698the `specs' file of your gcc. This file is normally found at
c4029823
UD
699
700 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/<arch>/<version>/specs
701
702In this file you have to change a few things:
703
61952351 704- change `ld-linux.so.1' to `ld-linux.so.2'
c4029823
UD
705
706- remove all expression `%{...:-lgmon}'; there is no libgmon in glibc
707
f4017d20
UD
708- fix a minor bug by changing %{pipe:-} to %|
709
f12944ec
UD
710Here is what the gcc-2.7.2 specs file should look like when GNU libc is
711installed at /usr:
c4029823
UD
712
713-----------------------------------------------------------------------
714*asm:
715%{V} %{v:%{!V:-V}} %{Qy:} %{!Qn:-Qy} %{n} %{T} %{Ym,*} %{Yd,*} %{Wa,*:%*}
716
717*asm_final:
f4017d20 718%|
c4029823
UD
719
720*cpp:
68dbb3a6 721%{fPIC:-D__PIC__ -D__pic__} %{fpic:-D__PIC__ -D__pic__} %{!m386:-D__i486__} %{posix:-D_POSIX_SOURCE} %{pthread:-D_REENTRANT}
c4029823
UD
722
723*cc1:
68dbb3a6 724%{profile:-p}
c4029823
UD
725
726*cc1plus:
727
728
729*endfile:
68dbb3a6 730%{!shared:crtend.o%s} %{shared:crtendS.o%s} crtn.o%s
c4029823
UD
731
732*link:
68dbb3a6 733-m elf_i386 %{shared:-shared} %{!shared: %{!ibcs: %{!static: %{rdynamic:-export-dynamic} %{!dynamic-linker:-dynamic-linker /lib/ld-linux.so.2}} %{static:-static}}}
c4029823
UD
734
735*lib:
68dbb3a6 736%{!shared: %{pthread:-lpthread} %{profile:-lc_p} %{!profile: -lc}}
c4029823
UD
737
738*libgcc:
68dbb3a6 739-lgcc
c4029823
UD
740
741*startfile:
61952351 742%{!shared: %{pg:gcrt1.o%s} %{!pg:%{p:gcrt1.o%s} %{!p:%{profile:gcrt1.o%s} %{!profile:crt1.o%s}}}} crti.o%s %{!shared:crtbegin.o%s} %{shared:crtbeginS.o%s}
c4029823
UD
743
744*switches_need_spaces:
745
746
747*signed_char:
748%{funsigned-char:-D__CHAR_UNSIGNED__}
749
750*predefines:
751-D__ELF__ -Dunix -Di386 -Dlinux -Asystem(unix) -Asystem(posix) -Acpu(i386) -Amachine(i386)
752
753*cross_compile:
7540
755
756*multilib:
757. ;
758
759-----------------------------------------------------------------------
760
f12944ec
UD
761Things get a bit more complicated if you have GNU libc installed in some
762other place than /usr, i.e., if you do not want to use it instead of the old
763libc. In this case the needed startup files and libraries are not found in
764the regular places. So the specs file must tell the compiler and linker
765exactly what to use.
0d204b0a 766
f41c8091 767Version 2.7.2.3 does and future versions of GCC will automatically
0d8733c4 768provide the correct specs.
c4029823
UD
769
770
61952351
UD
7712.7. Looking through the shared libc file I haven't found the
772 functions `stat', `lstat', `fstat', and `mknod' and while
773 linking on my Linux system I get error messages. How is
774 this supposed to work?
c4029823 775
f12944ec
UD
776{RM} Believe it or not, stat and lstat (and fstat, and mknod) are supposed
777to be undefined references in libc.so.6! Your problem is probably a missing
778or incorrect /usr/lib/libc.so file; note that this is a small text file now,
779not a symlink to libc.so.6. It should look something like this:
c4029823 780
ff44f2a5 781GROUP ( libc.so.6 libc_nonshared.a )
1f205a47 782
c4029823 783
5edb9387
UD
7842.8. When I run an executable on one system which I compiled on
785 another, I get dynamic linker errors. Both systems have the same
786 version of glibc installed. What's wrong?
787
788{ZW} Glibc on one of these systems was compiled with gcc 2.7 or 2.8, the
789other with egcs (any version). Egcs has functions in its internal
790`libgcc.a' to support exception handling with C++. They are linked into
791any program or dynamic library compiled with egcs, whether it needs them or
792not. Dynamic libraries then turn around and export those functions again
793unless special steps are taken to prevent them.
794
795When you link your program, it resolves its references to the exception
796functions to the ones exported accidentally by libc.so. That works fine as
797long as libc has those functions. On the other system, libc doesn't have
798those functions because it was compiled by gcc 2.8, and you get undefined
799symbol errors. The symbols in question are named things like
800`__register_frame_info'.
801
802For glibc 2.0, the workaround is to not compile libc with egcs. We've also
803incorporated a patch which should prevent the EH functions sneaking into
804libc. It doesn't matter what compiler you use to compile your program.
805
806For glibc 2.1, we've chosen to do it the other way around: libc.so
807explicitly provides the EH functions. This is to prevent other shared
95f7cecb
UD
808libraries from doing it.
809
810{UD} Starting with glibc 2.1.1 you can compile glibc with gcc 2.8.1 or
811newer since we have explicitly add references to the functions causing the
812problem. But you nevertheless should use EGCS for other reasons
813(see question 1.2).
5edb9387 814
83f6a990
UD
815{GK} On some Linux distributions for PowerPC, you can see this when you have
816built gcc or egcs from the Web sources (gcc versions 2.95 or earlier), then
817re-built glibc. This happens because in these versions of gcc, exception
818handling is implemented using an older method; the people making the
819distributions are a little ahead of their time.
820
821A quick solution to this is to find the libgcc.a file that came with the
6e8afc1c 822distribution (it would have been installed under /usr/lib/gcc-lib), do
83f6a990
UD
823`ar x libgcc.a frame.o' to get the frame.o file out, and add a line saying
824`LDLIBS-c.so += frame.o' to the file `configparms' in the directory you're
825building in. You can check you've got the right `frame.o' file by running
826`nm frame.o' and checking that it has the symbols defined that you're
827missing.
828
829This will let you build glibc with the C compiler. The C++ compiler
830will still be binary incompatible with any C++ shared libraries that
831you got with your distribution.
832
5edb9387
UD
833
8342.9. How can I compile gcc 2.7.2.1 from the gcc source code using
61952351 835 glibc 2.x?
ba1ffaa1 836
f12944ec 837{AJ} There's only correct support for glibc 2.0.x in gcc 2.7.2.3 or later.
5ef50d00 838But you should get at least gcc 2.95.2.1 (or later versions) instead.
ba1ffaa1
UD
839
840
5edb9387 8412.10. The `gencat' utility cannot process the catalog sources which
61952351 842 were used on my Linux libc5 based system. Why?
47707456 843
f12944ec
UD
844{UD} The `gencat' utility provided with glibc complies to the XPG standard.
845The older Linux version did not obey the standard, so they are not
846compatible.
47707456 847
61952351 848To ease the transition from the Linux version some of the non-standard
f12944ec
UD
849features are also present in the `gencat' program of GNU libc. This mainly
850includes the use of symbols for the message number and the automatic
61952351
UD
851generation of header files which contain the needed #defines to map the
852symbols to integers.
47707456 853
f12944ec
UD
854Here is a simple SED script to convert at least some Linux specific catalog
855files to the XPG4 form:
68dbb3a6 856
61952351
UD
857-----------------------------------------------------------------------
858# Change catalog source in Linux specific format to standard XPG format.
934b77ac 859# Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>, 1996.
61952351
UD
860#
861/^\$ #/ {
862 h
863 s/\$ #\([^ ]*\).*/\1/
864 x
865 s/\$ #[^ ]* *\(.*\)/\$ \1/
866}
68dbb3a6 867
61952351
UD
868/^# / {
869 s/^# \(.*\)/\1/
870 G
871 s/\(.*\)\n\(.*\)/\2 \1/
872}
873-----------------------------------------------------------------------
19361cb7 874
19361cb7 875
5edb9387 8762.11. Programs using libc have their messages translated, but other
a35cb74d
UD
877 behavior is not localized (e.g. collating order); why?
878
879{ZW} Translated messages are automatically installed, but the locale
f12944ec
UD
880database that controls other behaviors is not. You need to run localedef to
881install this database, after you have run `make install'. For example, to
882set up the French Canadian locale, simply issue the command
a35cb74d
UD
883
884 localedef -i fr_CA -f ISO-8859-1 fr_CA
885
886Please see localedata/README in the source tree for further details.
887
888
5edb9387 8892.12. I have set up /etc/nis.conf, and the Linux libc 5 with NYS
61952351 890 works great. But the glibc NIS+ doesn't seem to work.
19361cb7 891
f12944ec
UD
892{TK} The glibc NIS+ implementation uses a /var/nis/NIS_COLD_START file for
893storing information about the NIS+ server and their public keys, because the
894nis.conf file does not contain all the necessary information. You have to
895copy a NIS_COLD_START file from a Solaris client (the NIS_COLD_START file is
896byte order independent) or generate it with nisinit from the nis-tools
897package; available at
898
612fdf25 899 http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/linux/nisplus.html
19361cb7 900
68dbb3a6 901
5edb9387 9022.13. I have killed ypbind to stop using NIS, but glibc
3dcf8ea6 903 continues using NIS.
4d06461a 904
f12944ec
UD
905{TK} For faster NIS lookups, glibc uses the /var/yp/binding/ files from
906ypbind. ypbind 3.3 and older versions don't always remove these files, so
907glibc will continue to use them. Other BSD versions seem to work correctly.
908Until ypbind 3.4 is released, you can find a patch at
909
66f6a52b 910 <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/NIS/ypbind-3.3-glibc4.diff.gz>
a35cb74d 911
4d06461a 912
5edb9387 9132.14. Under Linux/Alpha, I always get "do_ypcall: clnt_call:
3dcf8ea6 914 RPC: Unable to receive; errno = Connection refused" when using NIS.
4d06461a 915
f12944ec
UD
916{TK} You need a ypbind version which is 64bit clean. Some versions are not
91764bit clean. A 64bit clean implementation is ypbind-mt. For ypbind 3.3,
918you need the patch from ftp.kernel.org (See the previous question). I don't
919know about other versions.
a35cb74d
UD
920
921
5edb9387 9222.15. After installing glibc name resolving doesn't work properly.
68dbb3a6 923
f12944ec
UD
924{AJ} You probably should read the manual section describing nsswitch.conf
925(just type `info libc "NSS Configuration File"'). The NSS configuration
926file is usually the culprit.
22d57dd3 927
22d57dd3 928
5edb9387 9292.16. How do I create the databases for NSS?
3dcf8ea6
UD
930
931{AJ} If you have an entry "db" in /etc/nsswitch.conf you should also create
932the database files. The glibc sources contain a Makefile which does the
a379e56a 933necessary conversion and calls to create those files. The file is
3dcf8ea6
UD
934`db-Makefile' in the subdirectory `nss' and you can call it with `make -f
935db-Makefile'. Please note that not all services are capable of using a
936database. Currently passwd, group, ethers, protocol, rpc, services shadow
199745d1 937and netgroup are implemented. See also question 2.31.
3dcf8ea6
UD
938
939
5edb9387 9402.17. I have /usr/include/net and /usr/include/scsi as symlinks
61952351 941 into my Linux source tree. Is that wrong?
22d57dd3 942
f12944ec
UD
943{PB} This was necessary for libc5, but is not correct when using glibc.
944Including the kernel header files directly in user programs usually does not
945work (see question 3.5). glibc provides its own <net/*> and <scsi/*> header
946files to replace them, and you may have to remove any symlink that you have
947in place before you install glibc. However, /usr/include/asm and
948/usr/include/linux should remain as they were.
22d57dd3 949
22d57dd3 950
5edb9387 9512.18. Programs like `logname', `top', `uptime' `users', `w' and
61952351
UD
952 `who', show incorrect information about the (number of)
953 users on my system. Why?
22d57dd3 954
61952351 955{MK} See question 3.2.
22d57dd3 956
22d57dd3 957
5edb9387 9582.19. After upgrading to glibc 2.1 with symbol versioning I get
61952351 959 errors about undefined symbols. What went wrong?
26dee9c4 960
f12944ec
UD
961{AJ} The problem is caused either by wrong program code or tools. In the
962versioned libc a lot of symbols are now local that were global symbols in
963previous versions. It seems that programs linked against older versions
964often accidentally used libc global variables -- something that should not
965happen.
26dee9c4 966
f12944ec
UD
967The only way to fix this is to recompile your program. Sorry, that's the
968price you might have to pay once for quite a number of advantages with
969symbol versioning.
26dee9c4 970
26dee9c4 971
5edb9387 9722.20. When I start the program XXX after upgrading the library
61952351
UD
973 I get
974 XXX: Symbol `_sys_errlist' has different size in shared
975 object, consider re-linking
976 Why? What should I do?
26dee9c4 977
f12944ec
UD
978{UD} As the message says, relink the binary. The problem is that a few
979symbols from the library can change in size and there is no way to avoid
980this. _sys_errlist is a good example. Occasionally there are new error
981numbers added to the kernel and this must be reflected at user level,
982breaking programs that refer to them directly.
a2b08ee5 983
f12944ec
UD
984Such symbols should normally not be used at all. There are mechanisms to
985avoid using them. In the case of _sys_errlist, there is the strerror()
986function which should _always_ be used instead. So the correct fix is to
987rewrite that part of the application.
a2b08ee5 988
f12944ec
UD
989In some situations (especially when testing a new library release) it might
990be possible that a symbol changed size when that should not have happened.
991So in case of doubt report such a warning message as a problem.
a2b08ee5 992
a35cb74d 993
5edb9387
UD
9942.21. What do I need for C++ development?
995
996{HJ,AJ} You need either egcs 1.1 which comes directly with libstdc++ or
997gcc-2.8.1 together with libstdc++ 2.8.1.1. egcs 1.1 has the better C++
998support and works directly with glibc 2.1. If you use gcc-2.8.1 with
999libstdc++ 2.8.1.1, you need to modify libstdc++ a bit. A patch is available
1000as:
66f6a52b 1001 <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/libstdc++-2.8.1.1-glibc2.1-diff.gz>
a35cb74d 1002
5edb9387
UD
1003Please note that libg++ 2.7.2 (and the Linux Versions 2.7.2.x) doesn't work
1004very well with the GNU C library due to vtable thunks. If you're upgrading
1005from glibc 2.0.x to 2.1 you have to recompile libstdc++ since the library
1006compiled for 2.0 is not compatible due to the new Large File Support (LFS)
1007in version 2.1.
fb98e2bf
UD
1008
1009{UD} But since in the case of a shared libstdc++ the version numbers should
1010be different existing programs will continue to work.
a35cb74d 1011
ff44f2a5 1012
5edb9387 10132.22. Even statically linked programs need some shared libraries
ff44f2a5
UD
1014 which is not acceptable for me. What can I do?
1015
f12944ec
UD
1016{AJ} NSS (for details just type `info libc "Name Service Switch"') won't
1017work properly without shared libraries. NSS allows using different services
1018(e.g. NIS, files, db, hesiod) by just changing one configuration file
1019(/etc/nsswitch.conf) without relinking any programs. The only disadvantage
1020is that now static libraries need to access shared libraries. This is
1021handled transparently by the GNU C library.
ff44f2a5 1022
f12944ec
UD
1023A solution is to configure glibc with --enable-static-nss. In this case you
1024can create a static binary that will use only the services dns and files
1025(change /etc/nsswitch.conf for this). You need to link explicitly against
1026all these services. For example:
ff44f2a5 1027
2c88f872
AJ
1028 gcc -static test-netdb.c -o test-netdb \
1029 -Wl,--start-group -lc -lnss_files -lnss_dns -lresolv -Wl,--end-group
ff44f2a5
UD
1030
1031The problem with this approach is that you've got to link every static
1032program that uses NSS routines with all those libraries.
1033
1034{UD} In fact, one cannot say anymore that a libc compiled with this
1035option is using NSS. There is no switch anymore. Therefore it is
1036*highly* recommended *not* to use --enable-static-nss since this makes
1037the behaviour of the programs on the system inconsistent.
1038
fdacb17d 1039
5edb9387 10402.23. I just upgraded my Linux system to glibc and now I get
fdacb17d
UD
1041 errors whenever I try to link any program.
1042
1043{ZW} This happens when you have installed glibc as the primary C library but
1044have stray symbolic links pointing at your old C library. If the first
1045`libc.so' the linker finds is libc 5, it will use that. Your program
1046expects to be linked with glibc, so the link fails.
1047
1048The most common case is that glibc put its `libc.so' in /usr/lib, but there
1049was a `libc.so' from libc 5 in /lib, which gets searched first. To fix the
1050problem, just delete /lib/libc.so. You may also need to delete other
1051symbolic links in /lib, such as /lib/libm.so if it points to libm.so.5.
1052
1053{AJ} The perl script test-installation.pl which is run as last step during
1054an installation of glibc that is configured with --prefix=/usr should help
1055detect these situations. If the script reports problems, something is
1056really screwed up.
1057
48244d09 1058
5edb9387 10592.24. When I use nscd the machine freezes.
48244d09 1060
5edb9387
UD
1061{UD} You cannot use nscd with Linux 2.0.*. There is functionality missing
1062in the kernel and work-arounds are not suitable. Besides, some parts of the
1063kernel are too buggy when it comes to using threads.
48244d09 1064
b710a6e2 1065If you need nscd, you have to use at least a 2.1 kernel.
48244d09
UD
1066
1067Note that I have at this point no information about any other platform.
1068
0155a773
UD
1069
10702.25. I need lots of open files. What do I have to do?
1071
1072{AJ} This is at first a kernel issue. The kernel defines limits with
1073OPEN_MAX the number of simultaneous open files and with FD_SETSIZE the
1074number of used file descriptors. You need to change these values in your
c0389ee4 1075kernel and recompile the kernel so that the kernel allows more open
0155a773
UD
1076files. You don't necessarily need to recompile the GNU C library since the
1077only place where OPEN_MAX and FD_SETSIZE is really needed in the library
1078itself is the size of fd_set which is used by select.
1079
249fd241
UD
1080The GNU C library is now select free. This means it internally has no
1081limits imposed by the `fd_set' type. Instead all places where the
0155a773
UD
1082functionality is needed the `poll' function is used.
1083
1084If you increase the number of file descriptors in the kernel you don't need
6e8afc1c 1085to recompile the C library.
0155a773
UD
1086
1087{UD} You can always get the maximum number of file descriptors a process is
1088allowed to have open at any time using
1089
1090 number = sysconf (_SC_OPEN_MAX);
1091
1092This will work even if the kernel limits change.
1093
7db169c9
UD
1094
10952.26. How do I get the same behavior on parsing /etc/passwd and
1096 /etc/group as I have with libc5 ?
1097
1098{TK} The name switch setup in /etc/nsswitch.conf selected by most Linux
1099distributions does not support +/- and netgroup entries in the files like
1100/etc/passwd. Though this is the preferred setup some people might have
1101setups coming over from the libc5 days where it was the default to recognize
1102lines like this. To get back to the old behaviour one simply has to change
1103the rules for passwd, group, and shadow in the nsswitch.conf file as
1104follows:
1105
1106passwd: compat
1107group: compat
1108shadow: compat
1109
1110passwd_compat: nis
1111group_compat: nis
1112shadow_compat: nis
1113
b710a6e2
UD
1114
11152.27. What needs to be recompiled when upgrading from glibc 2.0 to glibc
1116 2.1?
1117
1118{AJ,CG} If you just upgrade the glibc from 2.0.x (x <= 7) to 2.1, binaries
1119that have been linked against glibc 2.0 will continue to work.
1120
1121If you compile your own binaries against glibc 2.1, you also need to
c19559b0
UD
1122recompile some other libraries. The problem is that libio had to be changed
1123and therefore libraries that are based or depend on the libio of glibc,
1124e.g. ncurses, slang and most C++ libraries, need to be recompiled. If you
1125experience strange segmentation faults in your programs linked against glibc
11262.1, you might need to recompile your libraries.
b710a6e2
UD
1127
1128Another problem is that older binaries that were linked statically against
1129glibc 2.0 will reference the older nss modules (libnss_files.so.1 instead of
1130libnss_files.so.2), so don't remove them. Also, the old glibc-2.0 compiled
1131static libraries (libfoo.a) which happen to depend on the older libio
1132behavior will be broken by the glibc 2.1 upgrade. We plan to produce a
1133compatibility library that people will be able to link in if they want
1134to compile a static library generated against glibc 2.0 into a program
1135on a glibc 2.1 system. You just add -lcompat and you should be fine.
1136
1137The glibc-compat add-on will provide the libcompat.a library, the older
1138nss modules, and a few other files. Together, they should make it
1139possible to do development with old static libraries on a glibc 2.1
8d8c6efa 1140system. This add-on is still in development. You can get it from
df08cc56 1141 <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-compat-2.1.tar.gz>
b710a6e2
UD
1142but please keep in mind that it is experimental.
1143
b7398be5
UD
1144
11452.28. Why is extracting files via tar so slow?
1146
1147{AJ} Extracting of tar archives might be quite slow since tar has to look up
1148userid and groupids and doesn't cache negative results. If you have nis or
1149nisplus in your /etc/nsswitch.conf for the passwd and/or group database,
1150each file extractions needs a network connection. There are two possible
1151solutions:
1152
1153- do you really need NIS/NIS+ (some Linux distributions add by default
1154 nis/nisplus even if it's not needed)? If not, just remove the entries.
1155
1156- if you need NIS/NIS+, use the Name Service Cache Daemon nscd that comes
1157 with glibc 2.1.
1158
2ee511d9
UD
1159
11602.29. Compiling programs I get parse errors in libio.h (e.g. "parse error
1161 before `_IO_seekoff'"). How should I fix this?
1162
1163{AJ} You might get the following errors when upgrading to glibc 2.1:
1164
1165 In file included from /usr/include/stdio.h:57,
1166 from ...
1167 /usr/include/libio.h:335: parse error before `_IO_seekoff'
1168 /usr/include/libio.h:335: parse error before `_G_off64_t'
1169 /usr/include/libio.h:336: parse error before `_IO_seekpos'
1170 /usr/include/libio.h:336: parse error before `_G_fpos64_t'
1171
1172The problem is a wrong _G_config.h file in your include path. The
1173_G_config.h file that comes with glibc 2.1 should be used and not one from
1174libc5 or from a compiler directory. To check which _G_config.h file the
1175compiler uses, compile your program with `gcc -E ...|grep G_config.h' and
1176remove that file. Your compiler should pick up the file that has been
1177installed by glibc 2.1 in your include directory.
1178
4f7ea427
UD
1179
11802.30. After upgrading to glibc 2.1, libraries that were compiled against
1181 glibc 2.0.x don't work anymore.
1182
1183{AJ} See question 2.27.
1184
9de4e203
UD
1185
11862.31. What happened to the Berkeley DB libraries? Can I still use db
1187 in /etc/nsswitch.conf?
1188
1189{AJ} Due to too many incompatible changes in disk layout and API of Berkeley
1190DB and a too tight coupling of libc and libdb, the db library has been
1191removed completely from glibc 2.2. The only place that really used the
1192Berkeley DB was the NSS db module.
1193
1194The NSS db module has been rewritten to support a number of different
1195versions of Berkeley DB for the NSS db module. Currently the releases 2.x
1196and 3.x of Berkeley DB are supported. The older db 1.85 library is not
1197supported. You can use the version from glibc 2.1.x or download a version
1198from Sleepycat Software (http://www.sleepycat.com). The library has to be
1199compiled as shared library and installed in the system lib directory
1200(normally /lib). The library needs to have a special soname to be found by
1201the NSS module.
1202
1203If public structures change in a new Berkeley db release, this needs to be
1204reflected in glibc.
1205
1206Currently the code searches for libraries with a soname of "libdb.so.3"
1207(that's the name from db 2.4.14 which comes with glibc 2.1.x) and
1208"libdb-3.0.so" (the name used by db 3.0.55 as default).
1209
2c88f872
AJ
1210The nss_db module is now in a separate package since it requires a database
1211library being available.
1212
1213
12142.32. What has do be done when upgrading to glibc 2.2?
1215
1216{AJ} The upgrade to glibc 2.2 should run smoothly, there's in general no
1217need to recompile programs or libraries. Nevertheless, some changes might
1218be needed after upgrading:
1219- The utmp daemon has been removed and is not supported by glibc anymore.
1220 If it has been in use, it should be switched off.
1221- Programs using IPv6 have to be recompiled due to incompatible changes in
1222 sockaddr_in6 by the IPv6 working group.
467cc99e 1223- The Berkeley db libraries have been removed (for details see question 2.31).
2c88f872
AJ
1224- The format of the locale files has changed, all locales should be
1225 regenerated with localedef. All statically linked applications which use
1226 i18n should be recompiled, otherwise they'll not be localized.
1227- glibc comes with a number of new applications. For example ldconfig has
1228 been implemented for glibc, the libc5 version of ldconfig is not needed
1229 anymore.
1230- There's no more K&R compatibility in the glibc headers. The GNU C library
1231 requires a C compiler that handles especially prototypes correctly.
e0272133 1232 Especially gcc -traditional will not work with glibc headers.
2c88f872
AJ
1233
1234Please read also the NEWS file which is the authoritative source for this
1235and gives more details for some topics.
1236
4442d7e8
UD
1237
12382.33. The makefiles want to do a CVS commit.
1239
1240{UD} Only if you are not specifying the --without-cvs flag at configure
1241time. This is what you always have to use if you are checking sources
1242directly out of the public CVS repository or you have your own private
1243repository.
1244
1324affa
UD
1245
12462.34. When compiling C++ programs, I get a compilation error in streambuf.h.
1247
1248{BH} You are using g++ 2.95.2? After upgrading to glibc 2.2, you need to
1249apply a patch to the include files in /usr/include/g++, because the fpos_t
1250type has changed in glibc 2.2. The patch is at
1251http://clisp.cons.org/~haible/gccinclude-glibc-2.2-compat.diff
1252
1253
12542.35. When recompiling GCC, I get compilation errors in libio.
1255
4a5b72ff 1256{BH} You are trying to recompile gcc 2.95.2? Use gcc 2.95.3 instead.
5ef50d00 1257This version is needed because the fpos_t type and a few libio internals
4a5b72ff 1258have changed in glibc 2.2, and gcc 2.95.3 contains a corresponding patch.
1324affa 1259
934b77ac
UD
1260
12612.36. Why shall glibc never get installed on GNU/Linux systems in
1262/usr/local?
1263
1264{AJ} The GNU C compiler treats /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib in a
1265special way, these directories will be searched before the system
1266directories. Since on GNU/Linux the system directories /usr/include and
1267/usr/lib contain a --- possibly different --- version of glibc and mixing
1268certain files from different glibc installations is not supported and will
1269break, you risk breaking your complete system. If you want to test a glibc
1270installation, use another directory as argument to --prefix. If you like to
1271install this glibc version as default version, overriding the existing one,
1272use --prefix=/usr and everything will go in the right places.
1273
61952351
UD
1274\f
1275. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
a5a0310d 1276
61952351 12773. Source and binary incompatibilities, and what to do about them
a5a0310d 1278
61952351
UD
12793.1. I expect GNU libc to be 100% source code compatible with
1280 the old Linux based GNU libc. Why isn't it like this?
a5a0310d 1281
f12944ec
UD
1282{DMT,UD} Not every extension in Linux libc's history was well thought-out.
1283In fact it had a lot of problems with standards compliance and with
1284cleanliness. With the introduction of a new version number these errors can
1285now be corrected. Here is a list of the known source code
61952351 1286incompatibilities:
af6f3906 1287
61952351
UD
1288* _GNU_SOURCE: glibc does not make the GNU extensions available
1289 automatically. If a program depends on GNU extensions or some
1290 other non-standard functionality, it is necessary to compile it
1291 with the C compiler option -D_GNU_SOURCE, or better, to put
1292 `#define _GNU_SOURCE' at the beginning of your source files, before
1293 any C library header files are included. This difference normally
1294 manifests itself in the form of missing prototypes and/or data type
1295 definitions. Thus, if you get such errors, the first thing you
1296 should do is try defining _GNU_SOURCE and see if that makes the
1297 problem go away.
af6f3906 1298
61952351
UD
1299 For more information consult the file `NOTES' in the GNU C library
1300 sources.
af6f3906 1301
61952351
UD
1302* reboot(): GNU libc sanitizes the interface of reboot() to be more
1303 compatible with the interface used on other OSes. reboot() as
1304 implemented in glibc takes just one argument. This argument
1305 corresponds to the third argument of the Linux reboot system call.
1306 That is, a call of the form reboot(a, b, c) needs to be changed into
1307 reboot(c). Beside this the header <sys/reboot.h> defines the needed
1308 constants for the argument. These RB_* constants should be used
1309 instead of the cryptic magic numbers.
1310
1311* swapon(): the interface of this function didn't change, but the
1312 prototype is in a separate header file <sys/swap.h>. This header
1313 file also provides the SWAP_* constants defined by <linux/swap.h>;
1314 you should use them for the second argument to swapon().
1315
1316* errno: If a program uses the variable "errno", then it _must_
1317 include <errno.h>. The old libc often (erroneously) declared this
1318 variable implicitly as a side-effect of including other libc header
1319 files. glibc is careful to avoid such namespace pollution, which,
1320 in turn, means that you really need to include the header files that
1321 you depend on. This difference normally manifests itself in the
1322 form of the compiler complaining about references to an undeclared
1323 symbol "errno".
dd7d45e8 1324
61952351
UD
1325* Linux-specific syscalls: All Linux system calls now have appropriate
1326 library wrappers and corresponding declarations in various header files.
1327 This is because the syscall() macro that was traditionally used to
1328 work around missing syscall wrappers are inherently non-portable and
1329 error-prone. The following table lists all the new syscall stubs,
1330 the header-file declaring their interface and the system call name.
dd7d45e8 1331
61952351
UD
1332 syscall name: wrapper name: declaring header file:
1333 ------------- ------------- ----------------------
1334 bdflush bdflush <sys/kdaemon.h>
1335 syslog ksyslog_ctl <sys/klog.h>
dd7d45e8 1336
61952351
UD
1337* lpd: Older versions of lpd depend on a routine called _validuser().
1338 The library does not provide this function, but instead provides
1339 __ivaliduser() which has a slightly different interface. Simply
1340 upgrading to a newer lpd should fix this problem (e.g., the 4.4BSD
1341 lpd is known to be working).
dd7d45e8 1342
61952351
UD
1343* resolver functions/BIND: like on many other systems the functions of
1344 the resolver library are not included in libc itself. There is a
1345 separate library libresolv. If you get undefined symbol errors for
1346 symbols starting with `res_*' simply add -lresolv to your linker
1347 command line.
dd7d45e8 1348
61952351
UD
1349* the `signal' function's behavior corresponds to the BSD semantic and
1350 not the SysV semantic as it was in libc-5. The interface on all GNU
1351 systems shall be the same and BSD is the semantic of choice. To use
1352 the SysV behavior simply use `sysv_signal', or define _XOPEN_SOURCE.
1353 See question 3.7 for details.
1cab5444 1354
1cab5444 1355
61952351
UD
13563.2. Why does getlogin() always return NULL on my Linux box?
1357
f12944ec
UD
1358{UD} The GNU C library has a format for the UTMP and WTMP file which differs
1359from what your system currently has. It was extended to fulfill the needs
1360of the next years when IPv6 is introduced. The record size is different and
1361some fields have different positions. The files written by functions from
1362the one library cannot be read by functions from the other library. Sorry,
1363but this is what a major release is for. It's better to have a cut now than
1364having no means to support the new techniques later.
1cab5444 1365
6973fc01 1366
61952351
UD
13673.3. Where are the DST_* constants found in <sys/time.h> on many
1368 systems?
6973fc01 1369
f12944ec
UD
1370{UD} These constants come from the old BSD days and are not used anymore
1371(libc5 does not actually implement the handling although the constants are
1372defined).
6973fc01 1373
f12944ec 1374Instead GNU libc contains zone database support and compatibility code for
8b4a4715 1375POSIX TZ environment variable handling. For former is very much preferred
7d1de115 1376(see question 4.3).
6973fc01
UD
1377
1378
61952351
UD
13793.4. The prototypes for `connect', `accept', `getsockopt',
1380 `setsockopt', `getsockname', `getpeername', `send',
1381 `sendto', and `recvfrom' are different in GNU libc from
1382 any other system I saw. This is a bug, isn't it?
f4017d20 1383
f12944ec
UD
1384{UD} No, this is no bug. This version of GNU libc already follows the new
1385Single Unix specifications (and I think the POSIX.1g draft which adopted the
1386solution). The type for a parameter describing a size is now `socklen_t', a
1387new type.
f4017d20 1388
f4017d20 1389
61952351
UD
13903.5. On Linux I've got problems with the declarations in Linux
1391 kernel headers.
f4017d20 1392
f12944ec
UD
1393{UD,AJ} On Linux, the use of kernel headers is reduced to the minimum. This
1394gives Linus the ability to change the headers more freely. Also, user
8f1c9b09 1395programs are now insulated from changes in the size of kernel data
f12944ec 1396structures.
f4017d20 1397
f12944ec
UD
1398For example, the sigset_t type is 32 or 64 bits wide in the kernel. In
1399glibc it is 1024 bits wide. This guarantees that when the kernel gets a
1400bigger sigset_t (for POSIX.1e realtime support, say) user programs will not
1401have to be recompiled. Consult the header files for more information about
1402the changes.
61952351 1403
f12944ec
UD
1404Therefore you shouldn't include Linux kernel header files directly if glibc
1405has defined a replacement. Otherwise you might get undefined results because
1406of type conflicts.
f4017d20 1407
f4017d20 1408
61952351
UD
14093.6. I don't include any kernel headers myself but the compiler
1410 still complains about redeclarations of types in the kernel
1411 headers.
1412
f12944ec
UD
1413{UD} The kernel headers before Linux 2.1.61 and 2.0.32 don't work correctly
1414with glibc. Compiling C programs is possible in most cases but C++ programs
1415have (due to the change of the name lookups for `struct's) problems. One
1416prominent example is `struct fd_set'.
61952351 1417
f12944ec
UD
1418There might be some problems left but 2.1.61/2.0.32 fix most of the known
1419ones. See the BUGS file for other known problems.
61952351
UD
1420
1421
14223.7. Why don't signals interrupt system calls anymore?
1423
f12944ec
UD
1424{ZW} By default GNU libc uses the BSD semantics for signal(), unlike Linux
1425libc 5 which used System V semantics. This is partially for compatibility
1426with other systems and partially because the BSD semantics tend to make
1427programming with signals easier.
f4017d20
UD
1428
1429There are three differences:
1430
1431* BSD-style signals that occur in the middle of a system call do not
1432 affect the system call; System V signals cause the system call to
1433 fail and set errno to EINTR.
1434
1435* BSD signal handlers remain installed once triggered. System V signal
1436 handlers work only once, so one must reinstall them each time.
1437
1438* A BSD signal is blocked during the execution of its handler. In other
1439 words, a handler for SIGCHLD (for example) does not need to worry about
61952351 1440 being interrupted by another SIGCHLD. It may, however, be interrupted
f4017d20
UD
1441 by other signals.
1442
1443There is general consensus that for `casual' programming with signals, the
1444BSD semantics are preferable. You don't need to worry about system calls
1445returning EINTR, and you don't need to worry about the race conditions
1446associated with one-shot signal handlers.
1447
1448If you are porting an old program that relies on the old semantics, you can
1449quickly fix the problem by changing signal() to sysv_signal() throughout.
1450Alternatively, define _XOPEN_SOURCE before including <signal.h>.
1451
1452For new programs, the sigaction() function allows you to specify precisely
1453how you want your signals to behave. All three differences listed above are
1454individually switchable on a per-signal basis with this function.
1455
f12944ec
UD
1456If all you want is for one specific signal to cause system calls to fail and
1457return EINTR (for example, to implement a timeout) you can do this with
f4017d20
UD
1458siginterrupt().
1459
1460
61952351
UD
14613.8. I've got errors compiling code that uses certain string
1462 functions. Why?
1463
f12944ec 1464{AJ} glibc 2.1 has special string functions that are faster than the normal
fdacb17d 1465library functions. Some of the functions are additionally implemented as
a25f2023
UD
1466inline functions and others as macros. This might lead to problems with
1467existing codes but it is explicitly allowed by ISO C.
04be94a8 1468
04be94a8 1469The optimized string functions are only used when compiling with
fdacb17d 1470optimizations (-O1 or higher). The behavior can be changed with two feature
f12944ec 1471macros:
61952351
UD
1472
1473* __NO_STRING_INLINES: Don't do any string optimizations.
1474* __USE_STRING_INLINES: Use assembly language inline functions (might
1475 increase code size dramatically).
04be94a8 1476
f12944ec
UD
1477Since some of these string functions are now additionally defined as macros,
1478code like "char *strncpy();" doesn't work anymore (and is unnecessary, since
fdacb17d 1479<string.h> has the necessary declarations). Either change your code or
f12944ec 1480define __NO_STRING_INLINES.
04be94a8 1481
f12944ec
UD
1482{UD} Another problem in this area is that gcc still has problems on machines
1483with very few registers (e.g., ix86). The inline assembler code can require
1484almost all the registers and the register allocator cannot always handle
1485this situation.
04be94a8 1486
61952351 1487One can disable the string optimizations selectively. Instead of writing
04be94a8
UD
1488
1489 cp = strcpy (foo, "lkj");
1490
1491one can write
1492
1493 cp = (strcpy) (foo, "lkj");
1494
61952351
UD
1495This disables the optimization for that specific call.
1496
4775243a
UD
1497
14983.9. I get compiler messages "Initializer element not constant" with
1499 stdin/stdout/stderr. Why?
1500
1501{RM,AJ} Constructs like:
66f6a52b 1502 static FILE *InPtr = stdin;
4775243a 1503
fdacb17d
UD
1504lead to this message. This is correct behaviour with glibc since stdin is
1505not a constant expression. Please note that a strict reading of ISO C does
f12944ec 1506not allow above constructs.
4775243a 1507
f12944ec
UD
1508One of the advantages of this is that you can assign to stdin, stdout, and
1509stderr just like any other global variable (e.g. `stdout = my_stream;'),
1510which can be very useful with custom streams that you can write with libio
fdacb17d 1511(but beware this is not necessarily portable). The reason to implement it
f12944ec 1512this way were versioning problems with the size of the FILE structure.
4775243a 1513
fdacb17d
UD
1514To fix those programs you've got to initialize the variable at run time.
1515This can be done, e.g. in main, like:
1516
66f6a52b
UD
1517 static FILE *InPtr;
1518 int main(void)
1519 {
1520 InPtr = stdin;
1521 }
fdacb17d
UD
1522
1523or by constructors (beware this is gcc specific):
1524
66f6a52b
UD
1525 static FILE *InPtr;
1526 static void inPtr_construct (void) __attribute__((constructor));
1527 static void inPtr_construct (void) { InPtr = stdin; }
fdacb17d 1528
4775243a
UD
1529
15303.10. I can't compile with gcc -traditional (or
1531 -traditional-cpp). Why?
1532
1533{AJ} glibc2 does break -traditional and -traditonal-cpp - and will continue
fdacb17d 1534to do so. For example constructs of the form:
f12944ec 1535
66f6a52b
UD
1536 enum {foo
1537 #define foo foo
1538 }
f12944ec
UD
1539
1540are useful for debugging purposes (you can use foo with your debugger that's
1541why we need the enum) and for compatibility (other systems use defines and
1542check with #ifdef).
4775243a
UD
1543
1544
15453.11. I get some errors with `gcc -ansi'. Isn't glibc ANSI compatible?
1546
1547{AJ} The GNU C library is compatible with the ANSI/ISO C standard. If
f12944ec 1548you're using `gcc -ansi', the glibc includes which are specified in the
fdacb17d 1549standard follow the standard. The ANSI/ISO C standard defines what has to be
f12944ec
UD
1550in the include files - and also states that nothing else should be in the
1551include files (btw. you can still enable additional standards with feature
1552flags).
4775243a 1553
f12944ec
UD
1554The GNU C library is conforming to ANSI/ISO C - if and only if you're only
1555using the headers and library functions defined in the standard.
4775243a 1556
a35cb74d
UD
1557
15583.12. I can't access some functions anymore. nm shows that they do
1559 exist but linking fails nevertheless.
1560
f12944ec
UD
1561{AJ} With the introduction of versioning in glibc 2.1 it is possible to
1562export only those identifiers (functions, variables) that are really needed
1563by application programs and by other parts of glibc. This way a lot of
1564internal interfaces are now hidden. nm will still show those identifiers
1565but marking them as internal. ISO C states that identifiers beginning with
1566an underscore are internal to the libc. An application program normally
1567shouldn't use those internal interfaces (there are exceptions,
1568e.g. __ivaliduser). If a program uses these interfaces, it's broken. These
1569internal interfaces might change between glibc releases or dropped
1570completely.
a35cb74d 1571
a5f4e34a
UD
1572
15733.13. When using the db-2 library which comes with glibc is used in
1574 the Perl db modules the testsuite is not passed. This did not
1575 happen with db-1, gdbm, or ndbm.
1576
037f8020 1577{} Removed. Does not apply anymore.
a5f4e34a 1578
5148d49f
UD
1579
15803.14. The pow() inline function I get when including <math.h> is broken.
1581 I get segmentation faults when I run the program.
1582
1583{UD} Nope, the implementation is correct. The problem is with egcs version
1584prior to 1.1. I.e., egcs 1.0 to 1.0.3 are all broken (at least on Intel).
1585If you have to use this compiler you must define __NO_MATH_INLINES before
1586including <math.h> to prevent the inline functions from being used. egcs 1.1
1587fixes the problem. I don't know about gcc 2.8 and 2.8.1.
1588
05f732b3
UD
1589
15903.15. The sys/sem.h file lacks the definition of `union semun'.
1591
1592{UD} Nope. This union has to be provided by the user program. Former glibc
1593versions defined this but it was an error since it does not make much sense
1594when thinking about it. The standards describing the System V IPC functions
1595define it this way and therefore programs must be adopted.
1596
33127459
UD
1597
15983.16. Why has <netinet/ip_fw.h> disappeared?
1599
1600{AJ} The corresponding Linux kernel data structures and constants are
b710a6e2 1601totally different in Linux 2.0 and Linux 2.2. This situation has to be
33127459
UD
1602taken care in user programs using the firewall structures and therefore
1603those programs (ipfw is AFAIK the only one) should deal with this problem
1604themselves.
1605
28ab8526
UD
1606
16073.17. I get floods of warnings when I use -Wconversion and include
1608 <string.h> or <math.h>.
1609
1610{ZW} <string.h> and <math.h> intentionally use prototypes to override
1611argument promotion. -Wconversion warns about all these. You can safely
1612ignore the warnings.
1613
1614-Wconversion isn't really intended for production use, only for shakedown
1615compiles after converting an old program to standard C.
1616
5ff1a70a
UD
1617
16183.18. After upgrading to glibc 2.1, I receive errors about
1619 unresolved symbols, like `_dl_initial_searchlist' and can not
1620 execute any binaries. What went wrong?
1621
1622{AJ} This normally happens if your libc and ld (dynamic linker) are from
1623different releases of glibc. For example, the dynamic linker
1624/lib/ld-linux.so.2 comes from glibc 2.0.x, but the version of libc.so.6 is
1625from glibc 2.1.
1626
1627The path /lib/ld-linux.so.2 is hardcoded in every glibc2 binary but
1628libc.so.6 is searched via /etc/ld.so.cache and in some special directories
1629like /lib and /usr/lib. If you run configure with another prefix than /usr
1630and put this prefix before /lib in /etc/ld.so.conf, your system will break.
1631
1632So what can you do? Either of the following should work:
1633
1634* Run `configure' with the same prefix argument you've used for glibc 2.0.x
1635 so that the same paths are used.
1636* Replace /lib/ld-linux.so.2 with a link to the dynamic linker from glibc
1637 2.1.
1638
1639You can even call the dynamic linker by hand if everything fails. You've
1640got to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that the corresponding libc is found and also
1641need to provide an absolute path to your binary:
1642
1643 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<path-where-libc.so.6-lives> \
1644 <path-where-corresponding-dynamic-linker-lives>/ld-linux.so.2 \
1645 <path-to-binary>/binary
1646
1647For example `LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/libold /libold/ld-linux.so.2 /bin/mv ...'
1648might be useful in fixing a broken system (if /libold contains dynamic
1649linker and corresponding libc).
1650
1651With that command line no path is used. To further debug problems with the
1652dynamic linker, use the LD_DEBUG environment variable, e.g.
1653`LD_DEBUG=help echo' for the help text.
1654
1655If you just want to test this release, don't put the lib directory in
1656/etc/ld.so.conf. You can call programs directly with full paths (as above).
1657When compiling new programs against glibc 2.1, you've got to specify the
1658correct paths to the compiler (option -I with gcc) and linker (options
1659--dynamic-linker, -L and --rpath).
1660
61952351 1661
7d1de115
UD
16623.19. bonnie reports that char i/o with glibc 2 is much slower than with
1663 libc5. What can be done?
1664
1665{AJ} The GNU C library uses thread safe functions by default and libc5 used
1666non thread safe versions. The non thread safe functions have in glibc the
1667suffix `_unlocked', for details check <stdio.h>. Using `putc_unlocked' etc.
1668instead of `putc' should give nearly the same speed with bonnie (bonnie is a
1669benchmark program for measuring disk access).
9f6b6d8d 1670
b93492aa
UD
1671
16723.20. Programs compiled with glibc 2.1 can't read db files made with glibc
1673 2.0. What has changed that programs like rpm break?
1674
037f8020 1675{} Removed. Does not apply anymore.
b93492aa 1676
b5a9efcd
UD
1677
16783.21. Autoconf's AC_CHECK_FUNC macro reports that a function exists, but
1679 when I try to use it, it always returns -1 and sets errno to ENOSYS.
1680
1681{ZW} You are using a 2.0 Linux kernel, and the function you are trying to
1682use is only implemented in 2.1/2.2. Libc considers this to be a function
1683which exists, because if you upgrade to a 2.2 kernel, it will work. One
1684such function is sigaltstack.
1685
1686Your program should check at runtime whether the function works, and
1687implement a fallback. Note that Autoconf cannot detect unimplemented
1688functions in other systems' C libraries, so you need to do this anyway.
1689
1690
16913.22. My program segfaults when I call fclose() on the FILE* returned
1692 from setmntent(). Is this a glibc bug?
1693
1694{GK} No. Don't do this. Use endmntent(), that's what it's for.
1695
1696In general, you should use the correct deallocation routine. For instance,
1697if you open a file using fopen(), you should deallocate the FILE * using
1698fclose(), not free(), even though the FILE * is also a pointer.
1699
1700In the case of setmntent(), it may appear to work in most cases, but it
1701won't always work. Unfortunately, for compatibility reasons, we can't
1702change the return type of setmntent() to something other than FILE *.
1703
c891b2df
UD
1704
17053.23. I get "undefined reference to `atexit'"
1706
1707{UD} This means that your installation is somehow broken. The situation is
1708the same as for 'stat', 'fstat', etc (see question 2.7). Investigate why the
1709linker does not pick up libc_nonshared.a.
1710
1711If a similar message is issued at runtime this means that the application or
1712DSO is not linked against libc. This can cause problems since 'atexit' is
1713not exported anymore.
1714
9f6b6d8d
UD
1715\f
1716. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1717
7d1de115 17184. Miscellaneous
61952351 1719
7d1de115 17204.1. After I changed configure.in I get `Autoconf version X.Y.
61952351
UD
1721 or higher is required for this script'. What can I do?
1722
1723{UD} You have to get the specified autoconf version (or a later one)
a35cb74d 1724from your favorite mirror of ftp.gnu.org.
61952351 1725
04be94a8 1726
7d1de115 17274.2. When I try to compile code which uses IPv6 headers and
61952351
UD
1728 definitions on my Linux 2.x.y system I am in trouble.
1729 Nothing seems to work.
1730
f12944ec
UD
1731{UD} The problem is that IPv6 development still has not reached a point
1732where the headers are stable. There are still lots of incompatible changes
1733made and the libc headers have to follow.
61952351 1734
348ed515
UD
1735{PB} The 2.1 release of GNU libc aims to comply with the current versions of
1736all the relevant standards. The IPv6 support libraries for older Linux
1737systems used a different naming convention and so code written to work with
1738them may need to be modified. If the standards make incompatible changes in
1739the future then the libc may need to change again.
1740
1741IPv6 will not work with a 2.0.x kernel. When kernel 2.2 is released it
1742should contain all the necessary support; until then you should use the
1743latest 2.1.x release you can find. As of 98/11/26 the currently recommended
1744kernel for IPv6 is 2.1.129.
1745
1746Also, as of the 2.1 release the IPv6 API provided by GNU libc is not
b669ab02 1747100% complete.
04be94a8 1748
ff44f2a5 1749
7d1de115 17504.3. When I set the timezone by setting the TZ environment variable
ff44f2a5
UD
1751 to EST5EDT things go wrong since glibc computes the wrong time
1752 from this information.
1753
f12944ec
UD
1754{UD} The problem is that people still use the braindamaged POSIX method to
1755select the timezone using the TZ environment variable with a format EST5EDT
8b4a4715
UD
1756or whatever. People, if you insist on using TZ instead of the timezone
1757database (see below), read the POSIX standard, the implemented behaviour is
f12944ec
UD
1758correct! What you see is in fact the result of the decisions made while
1759POSIX.1 was created. We've only implemented the handling of TZ this way to
1760be POSIX compliant. It is not really meant to be used.
1761
1762The alternative approach to handle timezones which is implemented is the
1763correct one to use: use the timezone database. This avoids all the problems
1764the POSIX method has plus it is much easier to use. Simply run the tzselect
1765shell script, answer the question and use the name printed in the end by
8b4a4715
UD
1766making a symlink /etc/localtime pointing to /usr/share/zoneinfo/NAME (NAME
1767is the returned value from tzselect). That's all. You never again have to
1768worry.
f12944ec
UD
1769
1770So, please avoid sending bug reports about time related problems if you use
1771the POSIX method and you have not verified something is really broken by
1772reading the POSIX standards.
ff44f2a5 1773
fdacb17d 1774
7d1de115 17754.4. What other sources of documentation about glibc are available?
fdacb17d
UD
1776
1777{AJ} The FSF has a page about the GNU C library at
1778<http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/>. The problem data base of open and
1779solved bugs in GNU libc is available at
1780<http://www-gnats.gnu.org:8080/cgi-bin/wwwgnats.pl>. Eric Green has written
9de4e203 1781a HowTo for converting from Linux libc5 to glibc2. The HowTo is accessible
fdacb17d
UD
1782via the FSF page and at <http://www.imaxx.net/~thrytis/glibc>. Frodo
1783Looijaard describes a different way installing glibc2 as secondary libc at
1784<http://huizen.dds.nl/~frodol/glibc>.
1785
1786Please note that this is not a complete list.
1787
348ed515 1788
7d1de115 17894.5. The timezone string for Sydney/Australia is wrong since even when
348ed515
UD
1790 daylight saving time is in effect the timezone string is EST.
1791
1792{UD} The problem for some timezones is that the local authorities decided
1793to use the term "summer time" instead of "daylight saving time". In this
1794case the abbreviation character `S' is the same as the standard one. So,
1795for Sydney we have
1796
1797 Eastern Standard Time = EST
1798 Eastern Summer Time = EST
1799
1800Great! To get this bug fixed convince the authorities to change the laws
1801and regulations of the country this effects. glibc behaves correctly.
1802
eeabe877 1803
7d1de115 18044.6. I've build make 3.77 against glibc 2.1 and now make gets
eeabe877
UD
1805 segmentation faults.
1806
037f8020 1807{} Removed. Does not apply anymore, use make 3.79 or newer.
eeabe877 1808
c63598bf
UD
1809
18104.7. Why do so many programs using math functions fail on my AlphaStation?
1811
1812{AO} The functions floor() and floorf() use an instruction that is not
1813implemented in some old PALcodes of AlphaStations. This may cause
1814`Illegal Instruction' core dumps or endless loops in programs that
1815catch these signals. Updating the firmware to a 1999 release has
1816fixed the problem on an AlphaStation 200 4/166.
1817
8892c471
UD
1818
18194.8. The conversion table for character set XX does not match with
1820what I expect.
1821
1822{UD} I don't doubt for a minute that some of the conversion tables contain
1823errors. We tried the best we can and relied on automatic generation of the
1824data to prevent human-introduced errors but this still is no guarantee. If
1825you think you found a problem please send a bug report describing it and
1826give an authoritive reference. The latter is important since otherwise
1827the current behaviour is as good as the proposed one.
1828
1829Before doing this look through the list of known problem first:
1830
1831- the GBK (simplified Chinese) encoding is based on Unicode tables. This
1832 is good. These tables, however, differ slightly from the tables used
1833 by the M$ people. The differences are these [+ Unicode, - M$]:
1834
1835 +0xA1AA 0x2015
1836 +0xA844 0x2014
1837 -0xA1AA 0x2014
1838 -0xA844 0x2015
1839
1840 In addition the Unicode tables contain mappings for the GBK characters
1841 0xA8BC, 0xA8BF, 0xA989 to 0xA995, and 0xFE50 to 0xFEA0.
1842
ffa156af
UD
1843- when mapping from EUC-CN to GBK and vice versa we ignore the fact that
1844 the coded character at position 0xA1A4 maps to different Unicode
1845 characters. Since the iconv() implementation can do whatever it wants
1846 if it cannot directly map a character this is a perfectly good solution
1847 since the semantics and appearance of the character does not change.
1848
be76803a
UD
1849
18504.9. How can I find out which version of glibc I am using in the moment?
1851
1852{UD} If you want to find out about the version from the command line simply
1853run the libc binary. This is probably not possible on all platforms but
1854where it is simply locate the libc DSO and start it as an application. On
1855Linux like
1856
1857 /lib/libc.so.6
1858
1859This will produce all the information you need.
1860
1861What always will work is to use the API glibc provides. Compile and run the
1862following little program to get the version information:
1863
1864~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1865#include <stdio.h>
1866#include <gnu/libc-version.h>
1867int main (void) { puts (gnu_get_libc_version ()); return 0; }
1868~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1869
1870This interface can also obviously be used to perform tests at runtime if
1871this should be necessary.
1872
5e014387
UD
1873
18744.10. Context switching with setcontext() does not work from within
1875 signal handlers.
1876
1877{DMT} The Linux implementations (IA-64, S390 so far) of setcontext()
1878supports synchronous context switches only. There are several reasons for
1879this:
1880
02eca23b
AJ
1881- UNIX provides no other (portable) way of effecting a synchronous
1882 context switch (also known as co-routine switch). Some versions
1883 support this via setjmp()/longjmp() but this does not work
1884 universally.
1885
1886- As defined by the UNIX '98 standard, the only way setcontext()
1887 could trigger an asychronous context switch is if this function
1888 were invoked on the ucontext_t pointer passed as the third argument
1889 to a signal handler. But according to draft 5, XPG6, XBD 2.4.3,
1890 setcontext() is not among the set of routines that may be called
1891 from a signal handler.
1892
1893- If setcontext() were to be used for asynchronous context switches,
1894 all kinds of synchronization and re-entrancy issues could arise and
1895 these problems have already been solved by real multi-threading
1896 libraries (e.g., POSIX threads or Linux threads).
1897
1898- Synchronous context switching can be implemented entirely in
1899 user-level and less state needs to be saved/restored than for an
1900 asynchronous context switch. It is therefore useful to distinguish
1901 between the two types of context switches. Indeed, some
1902 application vendors are known to use setcontext() to implement
1903 co-routines on top of normal (heavier-weight) pre-emptable threads.
5e014387
UD
1904
1905It should be noted that if someone was dead-bent on using setcontext()
1906on the third arg of a signal handler, then IA-64 Linux could support
1907this via a special version of sigaction() which arranges that all
1908signal handlers start executing in a shim function which takes care of
1909saving the preserved registers before calling the real signal handler
1910and restoring them afterwards. In other words, we could provide a
1911compatibility layer which would support setcontext() for asynchronous
1912context switches. However, given the arguments above, I don't think
1913that makes sense. setcontext() provides a decent co-routine interface
1914and we should just discourage any asynchronous use (which just calls
1915for trouble at any rate).
1916
f8cac037 1917\f
61952351
UD
1918~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1919
f8cac037 1920Answers were given by:
5e014387
UD
1921{UD} Ulrich Drepper, <drepper@redhat.com>
1922{DMT} David Mosberger-Tang, <davidm@hpl.hp.com>
dd7d45e8 1923{RM} Roland McGrath, <roland@gnu.org>
9de4e203 1924{AJ} Andreas Jaeger, <aj@suse.de>
22d57dd3 1925{EY} Eric Youngdale, <eric@andante.jic.com>
a5a0310d 1926{PB} Phil Blundell, <Philip.Blundell@pobox.com>
af6f3906 1927{MK} Mark Kettenis, <kettenis@phys.uva.nl>
f4017d20 1928{ZW} Zack Weinberg, <zack@rabi.phys.columbia.edu>
612fdf25 1929{TK} Thorsten Kukuk, <kukuk@suse.de>
5e014387 1930{GK} Geoffrey Keating, <geoffk@redhat.com>
a35cb74d 1931{HJ} H.J. Lu, <hjl@gnu.org>
b710a6e2 1932{CG} Cristian Gafton, <gafton@redhat.com>
5e014387 1933{AO} Alexandre Oliva, <aoliva@redhat.com>
1324affa 1934{BH} Bruno Haible, <haible@clisp.cons.org>
f8cac037
RM
1935\f
1936Local Variables:
61952351
UD
1937 mode:outline
1938 outline-regexp:"\\?"
f12944ec 1939 fill-column:76
f8cac037 1940End:
This page took 0.37334 seconds and 5 git commands to generate.