<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Tools for Compilation - The GNU C Library</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">
<meta name="description" content="The GNU C Library">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Installation.html#Installation" title="Installation">
<link rel="prev" href="Running-make-install.html#Running-make-install" title="Running make install">
<link rel="next" href="Linux.html#Linux" title="Linux">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<!--
This file documents the GNU C library.

This is Edition 0.12, last updated 2007-10-27,
of `The GNU C Library Reference Manual', for version
2.8 (Sourcery G++ Lite 2011.03-41).

Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2007, 2008, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being ``Free Software Needs Free Documentation''
and ``GNU Lesser General Public License'', the Front-Cover texts being
``A GNU Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.  A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License".

(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to
copy and modify this GNU manual.  Buying copies from the FSF
supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''-->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
  pre.display { font-family:inherit }
  pre.format  { font-family:inherit }
  pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
  pre.smallformat  { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
  pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
  pre.smalllisp    { font-size:smaller }
  span.sc    { font-variant:small-caps }
  span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } 
  span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } 
--></style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="node">
<a name="Tools-for-Compilation"></a>
<p>
Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Linux.html#Linux">Linux</a>,
Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Running-make-install.html#Running-make-install">Running make install</a>,
Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Installation.html#Installation">Installation</a>
<hr>
</div>

<h3 class="appendixsec">C.3 Recommended Tools for Compilation</h3>

<p><a name="index-installation-tools-3816"></a><a name="index-tools_002c-for-installing-library-3817"></a>
We recommend installing the following GNU tools before attempting to
build the GNU C library:

     <ul>
<li>GNU <code>make</code> 3.79 or newer

     <p>You need the latest version of GNU <code>make</code>.  Modifying the GNU C
Library to work with other <code>make</code> programs would be so difficult that
we recommend you port GNU <code>make</code> instead.  <strong>Really.</strong>  We
recommend GNU <code>make</code> version 3.79.  All earlier versions have severe
bugs or lack features.

     <li>GCC 3.4 or newer, GCC 4.1 recommended

     <p>For the 2.4 release or later, GCC 3.4 or higher is required; as of this
writing, GCC 4.4 is the compiler we advise to use for current versions. 
On certain machines including <code>powerpc64</code>, compilers prior to GCC
4.0 have bugs that prevent them compiling the C library code in the
2.4 release.  On other machines, GCC 4.1 is required to build the C
library with support for the correct <code>long double</code> type format;
these include <code>powerpc</code> (32 bit), <code>s390</code> and <code>s390x</code>.  For
other architectures special compiler-provided headers are needed
(like <samp><span class="file">cpuid.h</span></samp> on x86) which only come with later compiler versions.

     <p>You can use whatever compiler you like to compile programs that use GNU
libc, but be aware that both GCC 2.7 and 2.8 have bugs in their
floating-point support that may be triggered by the math library.

     <p>Check the FAQ for any special compiler issues on particular platforms.

     <li>GNU <code>binutils</code> 2.15 or later

     <p>You must use GNU <code>binutils</code> (as and ld) to build the GNU C library. 
No other assembler or linker has the necessary functionality at the
moment.

     <li>GNU <code>texinfo</code> 3.12f

     <p>To correctly translate and install the Texinfo documentation you need
this version of the <code>texinfo</code> package.  Earlier versions do not
understand all the tags used in the document, and the installation
mechanism for the info files is not present or works differently.

     <li>GNU <code>awk</code> 3.0, or higher

     <p><code>Awk</code> is used in several places to generate files. 
<code>gawk</code> 3.0 is known to work.

     <li>Perl 5

     <p>Perl is not required, but it is used if present to test the
installation.  We may decide to use it elsewhere in the future.

     <li>GNU <code>sed</code> 3.02 or newer

     <p><code>Sed</code> is used in several places to generate files.  Most scripts work
with any version of <code>sed</code>.  The known exception is the script
<code>po2test.sed</code> in the <code>intl</code> subdirectory which is used to
generate <code>msgs.h</code> for the test suite.  This script works correctly
only with GNU <code>sed</code> 3.02.  If you like to run the test suite, you
should definitely upgrade <code>sed</code>.

   </ul>

<p class="noindent">If you change any of the <samp><span class="file">configure.in</span></samp> files you will also need

     <ul>
<li>GNU <code>autoconf</code> 2.53 or higher
</ul>

<p class="noindent">and if you change any of the message translation files you will need

     <ul>
<li>GNU <code>gettext</code> 0.10.36 or later
</ul>

<p class="noindent">You may also need these packages if you upgrade your source tree using
patches, although we try to avoid this.

   </body></html>