Re: Which Linux distributions are the developers of glibc using?

[james harvey <jamespharvey20 at gmail dot com>]

On Fedora 22:

glibc-2.21-5.fc22.x86_64.rpm only has 5 test failures.
(elf/tst-audit2, rtkaio/tst-{cancel17, cancelx17, mqueue8, mqueue8x)
glibc git # 3ed0151 (5/28/2015) has 184 test failures, and bricked my
system.  (In a VM, snapshotted before I did it.)
Merging the two (conflicts weren't too horrible) has 6 failures.
(elf/tst-audit2 now passes, elf/tst-protected1{a, b} now fail, rtkaio
has the same 4 failures)

I don't get it.  Why are distributions applying bug fixes to packages
on their own, rather than submitting them upstream, to the actual
project?

So, do people who run glibc git master, such as the primary glibc
developers, install vanilla glibc and get away with whatever
arch/gentoo would have added?  Or, do they merge in their
distribution's bugfixes?

> Gentoo, like every distro, has its own patchset on top of glibc.  i can't speak
> to specifics in Redhat/Fedora, but the Gentoo patchset are largely bug fixes.
> i glanced through them (they're in git under gentoo/2.21) and i can't see any
> that would cause your system to fail if you used vanilla glibc.  of course, if
> you needed one of those build fixes (like some of the arch updates), then it's
> to be expected that vanilla glibc also won't work :).  but that largely applies
> to arches like hppa.
> -mike