[Clfs-dev] Glibc / libc.so.6 - Host Requirements?

[Andrew Bradford]

I've found that x86_64 Fedora 13 systems store libc.so.6 in the /lib64
directory and /lib is not a link to /lib64.  This is different than
expected, as on most other x86_64 distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL,
etc) usually /lib is either the real deal (with 32 bit libs inside) or
a link to /lib64 where 32 bit libraries live in /lib32.  Fedora 13
seems odd in this way but may not be the only distro to do this.

Because Fedora 13 x86_64 does this, the version-check.sh script won't
find libc.so.6 and will look as though glibc isn't installed.  This is
confusing and misleading.

This then got me thinking about the Host Requirements version-check.sh
script.  It checks for glibc by running /lib/libc.so.6 and the
requirement says to use Glibc no greater than 2.12 (2.5 for embedded,
which is wrong but easy to fix) but no less than 2.2.5.  There are
three issues / questions I see with this:

1. /lib/libc.so.6 isn't always going to be in /lib even though libc is
correctly installed. It might be in /lib64/libc.so.6 (as on Fedora 13
x86_64).

2. Does the presence of libc.so.6 really mean that all the correct
glibc development libraries are actually installed?  I don't think it
does mainly because Fedora 13 offers not only a package called "glibc"
but also "glibc-devel" and "glibc-static".  I think all of these are
needed based on an IRC chat with jipe this past weekend.  If I'm
right, how can a better check be created to ensure all the correct
libs are installed?

3. Some distributions are moving to EGLIBC instead of regular glibc.
Although EGLIBC is supposed to be compatible with regular glibc, it's
not really called out as allowed by the Host Requirements section.
Should the Host Requirements be updated to allow EGLIBC?

Thanks,
Andrew