Linux From Scratch

Version 7.3

Created by Gerard Beekmans

Edited by Matthew Burgess and Bruce Dubbs

Copyright © 1999-2013, Gerard Beekmans

All rights reserved.

This book is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Computer instructions may be extracted from the book under the MIT License.

Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.


Table of Contents

Preface

Foreword

My journey to learn and better understand Linux began over a decade ago, back in 1998. I had just installed my first Linux distribution and had quickly become intrigued with the whole concept and philosophy behind Linux.

There are always many ways to accomplish a single task. The same can be said about Linux distributions. A great many have existed over the years. Some still exist, some have morphed into something else, yet others have been relegated to our memories. They all do things differently to suit the needs of their target audience. Because so many different ways to accomplish the same end goal exist, I began to realize I no longer had to be limited by any one implementation. Prior to discovering Linux, we simply put up with issues in other Operating Systems as you had no choice. It was what it was, whether you liked it or not. With Linux, the concept of choice began to emerge. If you didn't like something, you were free, even encouraged, to change it.

I tried a number of distributions and could not decide on any one. They were great systems in their own right. It wasn't a matter of right and wrong anymore. It had become a matter of personal taste. With all that choice available, it became apparent that there would not be a single system that would be perfect for me. So I set out to create my own Linux system that would fully conform to my personal preferences.

To truly make it my own system, I resolved to compile everything from source code instead of using pre-compiled binary packages. This “perfect” Linux system would have the strengths of various systems without their perceived weaknesses. At first, the idea was rather daunting. I remained committed to the idea that such a system could be built.

After sorting through issues such as circular dependencies and compile-time errors, I finally built a custom-built Linux system. It was fully operational and perfectly usable like any of the other Linux systems out there at the time. But it was my own creation. It was very satisfying to have put together such a system myself. The only thing better would have been to create each piece of software myself. This was the next best thing.

As I shared my goals and experiences with other members of the Linux community, it became apparent that there was a sustained interest in these ideas. It quickly became plain that such custom-built Linux systems serve not only to meet user specific requirements, but also serve as an ideal learning opportunity for programmers and system administrators to enhance their (existing) Linux skills. Out of this broadened interest, the Linux From Scratch Project was born.

This Linux From Scratch book is the central core around that project. It provides the background and instructions necessary for you to design and build your own system. While this book provides a template that will result in a correctly working system, you are free to alter the instructions to suit yourself, which is, in part, an important part of this project. You remain in control; we just lend a helping hand to get you started on your own journey.

I sincerely hope you will have a great time working on your own Linux From Scratch system and enjoy the numerous benefits of having a system that is truly your own.

--
Gerard Beekmans
gerard AT linuxfromscratch D0T org

Audience

There are many reasons why you would want to read this book. One of the questions many people raise is, “why go through all the hassle of manually building a Linux system from scratch when you can just download and install an existing one?

One important reason for this project's existence is to help you learn how a Linux system works from the inside out. Building an LFS system helps demonstrate what makes Linux tick, and how things work together and depend on each other. One of the best things that this learning experience can provide is the ability to customize a Linux system to suit your own unique needs.

Another key benefit of LFS is that it allows you to have more control over the system without relying on someone else's Linux implementation. With LFS, you are in the driver's seat and dictate every aspect of the system.

LFS allows you to create very compact Linux systems. When installing regular distributions, you are often forced to install a great many programs which are probably never used or understood. These programs waste resources. You may argue that with today's hard drive and CPUs, such resources are no longer a consideration. Sometimes, however, you are still constrained by size considerations if nothing else. Think about bootable CDs, USB sticks, and embedded systems. Those are areas where LFS can be beneficial.

Another advantage of a custom built Linux system is security. By compiling the entire system from source code, you are empowered to audit everything and apply all the security patches desired. It is no longer necessary to wait for somebody else to compile binary packages that fix a security hole. Unless you examine the patch and implement it yourself, you have no guarantee that the new binary package was built correctly and adequately fixes the problem.

The goal of Linux From Scratch is to build a complete and usable foundation-level system. If you do not wish to build your own Linux system from scratch, you may not entirely benefit from the information in this book.

There are too many other good reasons to build your own LFS system to list them all here. In the end, education is by far the most powerful of reasons. As you continue in your LFS experience, you will discover the power that information and knowledge truly bring.

LFS Target Architectures

The primary target architectures of LFS are the AMD/Intel x86 (32-bit) and x86_64 (64-bit) CPUs. On the other hand, the instructions in this book are also known to work, with some modifications, with the Power PC CPU. To build a system that utilizes one of these CPUs, the main prerequisite, in addition to those on the next few pages, is an existing Linux system such as an earlier LFS installation, Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, SuSE, or other distribution that targets the architecture that you have. Also note that a 32-bit distribution can be installed and used as a host system on a 64-bit AMD/Intel computer.

Some other facts about 64-bit systems need to be added here. When compared to a 32-bit system, the sizes of executable programs are slightly larger and the execution speeds are only slightly faster. For example, in a test build of LFS-6.5 on a Core2Duo CPU based system, the following statistics were measured:

Architecture Build Time     Build Size
32-bit       198.5 minutes  648 MB
64-bit       190.6 minutes  709 MB

As you can see, the 64-bit build is only 4% faster and is 9% larger than the 32-bit build. The gain from going to a 64-bit system is relatively minimal. Of course, if you have more than 4GB of RAM or want to manipulate data that exceeds 4GB, the advantages of a 64-bit system are substantial.

The default 64-bit build that results from LFS is considered a "pure" 64-bit system. That is, it supports 64-bit executables only. Building a "multi-lib" system requires compiling many applications twice, once for a 32-bit system and once for a 64-bit system. This is not directly supported in LFS because it would interfere with the educational objective of providing the instructions needed for a straightforward base Linux system. You can refer to the Cross Linux From Scratch project for this advanced topic.

There is one last comment about 64-bit systems. There are some older packages that cannot currently be built in a "pure" 64-bit system or require specialized build instructions. Generally, these packages have some embedded 32-bit specific assembly language instructions that fail when building on a 64-bit system. This includes some Xorg drivers for some legacy video cards at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/individual/driver/. Many of these problems can be worked around, but may require some specialized procedures or patches.

LFS and Standards

The structure of LFS follows Linux standards as closely as possible. The primary standards are:

  • POSIX.1-2008.

  • Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

  • Linux Standard Base (LSB) Specifications

    The LSB has five separate standards: Core, C++, Desktop, Runtime Languages, and Printing. In addition to generic requirements there are also architecture specific requirements. LFS attempts to conform to the architectures discussed in the previous section.

    Note

    Many people do not agree with the requirements of the LSB. The main purpose of defining it is to ensure that proprietary software will be able to be installed and run properly on a compliant system. Since LFS is source based, the user has complete control over what packages are desired and many choose not to install some packages that are specified by the LSB.

Creating a complete LFS system capable of passing the LSB certifications tests is possible, but not without many additional packages that are beyond the scope of LFS. These additional packages have installation instructions in BLFS.

Packages supplied by LFS needed to satisfy the LSB Requirements

LSB Core:

Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, File, Findutils, Gawk, Grep, Gzip, M4, Man-DB, Ncurses, Procps, Psmisc, Sed, Shadow, Tar, Util-linux, Zlib

LSB C++:

Gcc

LSB Desktop:

None

LSB Runtime Languages:

Perl

LSB Printing:

None

LSB Multimeda:

None

Packages supplied by BLFS needed to satisfy the LSB Requirements

LSB Core:

At, Batch (a part of At), Bc, Cpio, Ed, Fcrontab, Initd-tools, Lsb_release, PAM, Sendmail (or Postfix or Exim)

LSB C++:

None

LSB Desktop:

ATK, Cairo, Desktop-file-utils, Freetype, Fontconfig, Glib2, GTK+2, Icon-naming-utils, Libjpeg, Libpng, Libxml2, MesaLib, Pango, Qt3, Qt4, Xorg

LSB Runtime Languages:

Python

LSB Printing:

CUPS

LSB Multimeda:

Alsa Libraries, NSPR, NSS, OpenSSL, Java, Xdg-utils

Packages not supplied by LFS or BLFS needed to satisfy the LSB Requirements

LSB Core:

None

LSB C++:

None

LSB Desktop:

None

LSB Runtime Languages:

None

LSB Printing:

None

LSB Multimeda:

None

Rationale for Packages in the Book

As stated earlier, the goal of LFS is to build a complete and usable foundation-level system. This includes all packages needed to replicate itself while providing a relatively minimal base from which to customize a more complete system based on the choices of the user. This does not mean that LFS is the smallest system possible. Several important packages are included that are not strictly required. The lists below document the rationale for each package in the book.

  • Autoconf

    This package contains programs for producing shell scripts that can automatically configure source code from a developer's template. It is often needed to rebuild a package after updates to the build procedures.

  • Automake

    This package contains programs for generating Make files from a template. It is often needed to rebuild a package after updates to the build procedures.

  • Bash

    This package satisfies an LSB core requirement to provide a Bourne Shell interface to the system. It was chosen over other shell packages because of its common usage and extensive capabilities beyond basic shell functions.

  • Binutils

    This package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files. The programs in this package are needed to compile most of the packages in an LFS system and beyond.

  • Bison

    This package contains the GNU version of yacc (Yet Another Compiler Compiler) needed to build several other LFS programs.

  • Bzip2

    This package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. It is required to decompress many LFS packages.

  • Check

    This package contains a test harness for other programs. It is only installed in the temporary toolchain.

  • Coreutils

    This package contains a number of essential programs for viewing and manipulating files and directories. These programs are needed for command line file management, and are necessary for the installation procedures of every package in LFS.

  • DejaGNU

    This package contains a framework for testing other programs. It is only installed in the temporary toolchain.

  • Diffutils

    This package contains programs that show the differences between files or directories. These programs can be used to create patches, and are also used in many packages' build procedures.

  • E2fsprogs

    This package contains the utilities for handling the ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems. These are the most common and thoroughly tested file systems that Linux supports.

  • Expect

    This package contains a program for carrying out scripted dialogues with other interactive programs. It is commonly used for testing other packages. It is only installed in the temporary toolchain.

  • File

    This package contains a utility for determining the type of a given file or files. A few packages need it to build.

  • Findutils

    This package contains programs to find files in a file system. It is used in many packages' build scripts.

  • Flex

    This package contains a utility for generating programs that recognize patterns in text. It is the GNU version of the lex (lexical analyzer) program. It is required to build several LFS packages.

  • Gawk

    This package contains programs for manipulating text files. It is the GNU version of awk (Aho-Weinberg-Kernighan). It is used in many other packages' build scripts.

  • Gcc

    This package is the Gnu Compiler Collection. It contains the C and C++ compilers as well as several others not built by LFS.

  • GDBM

    This package contains the GNU Database Manager library. It is used by one other LFS package, Man-DB.

  • Gettext

    This package contains utilities and libraries for internationalization and localization of numerous packages.

  • Glibc

    This package contains the main C library. Linux programs would not run without it.

  • GMP

    This package contains math libraries that provide useful functions for arbitrary precision arithmetic. It is required to build Gcc.

  • Grep

    This package contains programs for searching through files. These programs are used by most packages' build scripts.

  • Groff

    This package contains programs for processing and formatting text. One important function of these programs is to format man pages.

  • GRUB

    This package is the Grand Unified Boot Loader. It is one of several boot loaders available, but is the most flexible.

  • Gzip

    This package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. It is needed to decompress many packages in LFS and beyond.

  • Iana-etc

    This package provides data for network services and protocols. It is needed to enable proper networking capabilities.

  • Inetutils

    This package contains programs for basic network administration.

  • IProute2

    This package contains programs for basic and advanced IPv4 and IPv6 networking. It was chosen over the other common network tools package (net-tools) for its IPv6 capabilities.

  • Kbd

    This package contains key-table files, keyboard utilities for non-US keyboards, and a number of console fonts.

  • Kmod

    This package contains programs needed to administer Linux kernel modules.

  • Less

    This package contains a very nice text file viewer that allows scrolling up or down when viewing a file. It is also used by Man-DB for viewing manpages.

  • Libpipeline

    The Libpipeline package contains a library for manipulating pipelines of subprocesses in a flexible and convenient way. It is required by the Man-DB package.

  • Libtool

    This package contains the GNU generic library support script. It wraps the complexity of using shared libraries in a consistent, portable interface. It is needed by the test suites in other LFS packages.

  • Linux Kernel

    This package is the Operating System. It is the Linux in the GNU/Linux environment.

  • M4

    This package contains a general text macro processor useful as a build tool for other programs.

  • Make

    This package contains a program for directing the building of packages. It is required by almost every package in LFS.

  • Man-DB

    This package contains programs for finding and viewing man pages. It was chosen instead of the man package due to superior internationalization capabilities. It supplies the man program.

  • Man-pages

    This package contains the actual contents of the basic Linux man pages.

  • MPC

    This package contains functions for the arithmetic of complex numbers. It is required by Gcc.

  • MPFR

    This package contains functions for multiple precision arithmetic. It is required by Gcc.

  • Ncurses

    This package contains libraries for terminal-independent handling of character screens. It is often used to provide cursor control for a menuing system. It is needed by a number of packages in LFS.

  • Patch

    This package contains a program for modifying or creating files by applying a patch file typically created by the diff program. It is needed by the build procedure for several LFS packages.

  • Perl

    This package is an interpreter for the runtime language PERL. It is needed for the installation and test suites of several LFS packages.

  • Pkg-config

    This package provides a program to return meta-data about an installed library or package.

  • Procps-NG

    This package contains programs for monitoring processes. These programs are useful for system administration, and are also used by the LFS Bootscripts.

  • Psmisc

    This package contains programs for displaying information about running processes. These programs are useful for system administration.

  • Readline

    This package is a set of libraries that offers command-line editing and history capabilities. It is used by Bash.

  • Sed

    This package allows editing of text without opening it in a text editor. It is also needed by most LFS packages' configure scripts.

  • Shadow

    This package contains programs for handling passwords in a secure way.

  • Sysklogd

    This package contains programs for logging system messages, such as those given by the kernel or daemon processes when unusual events occur.

  • Sysvinit

    This package provides the init program, which is the parent of all other processes on the Linux system.

  • Tar

    This package provides archiving and extraction capabilities of virtually all packages used in LFS.

  • Tcl

    This package contains the Tool Command Language used in many test suites in LFS packages. It is only installed in the temporary toolchain.

  • Texinfo

    This package contains programs for reading, writing, and converting info pages. It is used in the installation procedures of many LFS packages.

  • Udev

    This package contains programs for dynamic creation of device nodes. It is an alternative to creating thousands of static devices in the /dev directory.

  • Util-linux

    This package contains miscellaneous utility programs. Among them are utilities for handling file systems, consoles, partitions, and messages.

  • Vim

    This package contains an editor. It was chosen because of its compatibility with the classic vi editor and its huge number of powerful capabilities. An editor is a very personal choice for many users and any other editor could be substituted if desired.

  • XZ Utils

    This package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. It provides the highest compression generally available and is useful for decompressing packages XZ or LZMA format.

  • Zlib

    This package contains compression and decompression routines used by some programs.

Prerequisites

Building an LFS system is not a simple task. It requires a certain level of existing knowledge of Unix system administration in order to resolve problems and correctly execute the commands listed. In particular, as an absolute minimum, you should already have the ability to use the command line (shell) to copy or move files and directories, list directory and file contents, and change the current directory. It is also expected that you have a reasonable knowledge of using and installing Linux software.

Because the LFS book assumes at least this basic level of skill, the various LFS support forums are unlikely to be able to provide you with much assistance in these areas. You will find that your questions regarding such basic knowledge will likely go unanswered or you will simply be referred to the LFS essential pre-reading list.

Before building an LFS system, we recommend reading the following HOWTOs:

Host System Requirements

Your host system should have the following software with the minimum versions indicated. This should not be an issue for most modern Linux distributions. Also note that many distributions will place software headers into separate packages, often in the form of “<package-name>-devel” or “<package-name>-dev”. Be sure to install those if your distribution provides them.

Earlier versions of the listed software packages may work, but has not been tested.

  • Bash-3.2 (/bin/sh should be a symbolic or hard link to bash)

  • Binutils-2.17 (Versions greater than 2.23.1 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Bison-2.3 (/usr/bin/yacc should be a link to bison or small script that executes bison)

  • Bzip2-1.0.4

  • Coreutils-6.9

  • Diffutils-2.8.1

  • Findutils-4.2.31

  • Gawk-3.1.5 (/usr/bin/awk should be a link to gawk)

  • Gcc-4.1.2 (Versions greater than 4.7.2 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Glibc-2.5.1 (Versions greater than 2.17 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Grep-2.5.1a

  • Gzip-1.3.12

  • Linux Kernel-2.6.25 (having been compiled with GCC-4.1.2 or greater)

    The reason for the kernel version requirement is that we specify that version when building glibc in Chapter 6 at the recommendation of the developers. It is also required by udev.

    If the host kernel is either earlier than 2.6.25, or it was not compiled using a GCC-4.1.2 (or later) compiler, you will need to replace the kernel with one adhering to the specifications. There are two ways you can go about this. First, see if your Linux vendor provides a 2.6.25 or later kernel package. If so, you may wish to install it. If your vendor doesn't offer an acceptable kernel package, or you would prefer not to install it, you can compile a kernel yourself. Instructions for compiling the kernel and configuring the boot loader (assuming the host uses GRUB) are located in Chapter 8.

  • M4-1.4.10

  • Make-3.81

  • Patch-2.5.4

  • Perl-5.8.8

  • Sed-4.1.5

  • Tar-1.18

  • Texinfo-4.9

  • Xz-5.0.0

Note that the symlinks mentioned above are required to build an LFS system using the instructions contained within this book. Symlinks that point to other software (such as dash, mawk, etc.) may work, but are not tested or supported by the LFS development team, and may require either deviation from the instructions or additional patches to some packages.

To see whether your host system has all the appropriate versions, and the ability to compile programs, run the following:

cat > version-check.sh << "EOF"
#!/bin/bash
# Simple script to list version numbers of critical development tools

export LC_ALL=C
bash --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f2-4
echo "/bin/sh -> `readlink -f /bin/sh`"
echo -n "Binutils: "; ld --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f3-
bison --version | head -n1
if [ -e /usr/bin/yacc ];
  then echo "/usr/bin/yacc -> `readlink -f /usr/bin/yacc`";
  else echo "yacc not found"; fi

bzip2 --version 2>&1 < /dev/null | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f1,6-
echo -n "Coreutils: "; chown --version | head -n1 | cut -d")" -f2
diff --version | head -n1
find --version | head -n1
gawk --version | head -n1
if [ -e /usr/bin/awk ];
  then echo "/usr/bin/awk -> `readlink -f /usr/bin/awk`";
  else echo "awk not found"; fi

gcc --version | head -n1
ldd --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f2-  # glibc version
grep --version | head -n1
gzip --version | head -n1
cat /proc/version
m4 --version | head -n1
make --version | head -n1
patch --version | head -n1
echo Perl `perl -V:version`
sed --version | head -n1
tar --version | head -n1
echo "Texinfo: `makeinfo --version | head -n1`"
xz --version | head -n1

echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c && gcc -o dummy dummy.c
if [ -x dummy ]
  then echo "gcc compilation OK";
  else echo "gcc compilation failed"; fi
rm -f dummy.c dummy
EOF

bash version-check.sh

Typography

To make things easier to follow, there are a few typographical conventions used throughout this book. This section contains some examples of the typographical format found throughout Linux From Scratch.

./configure --prefix=/usr

This form of text is designed to be typed exactly as seen unless otherwise noted in the surrounding text. It is also used in the explanation sections to identify which of the commands is being referenced.

In some cases, a logical line is extended to two or more physical lines with a backslash at the end of the line.

CC="gcc -B/usr/bin/" ../binutils-2.18/configure \
  --prefix=/tools --disable-nls --disable-werror

Note that the backslash must be followed by an immediate return. Other whitespace characters like spaces or tab characters will create incorrect results.

install-info: unknown option '--dir-file=/mnt/lfs/usr/info/dir'

This form of text (fixed-width text) shows screen output, usually as the result of commands issued. This format is also used to show filenames, such as /etc/ld.so.conf.

Emphasis

This form of text is used for several purposes in the book. Its main purpose is to emphasize important points or items.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

This format is used for hyperlinks both within the LFS community and to external pages. It includes HOWTOs, download locations, and websites.

cat > $LFS/etc/group << "EOF"
root:x:0:
bin:x:1:
......
EOF

This format is used when creating configuration files. The first command tells the system to create the file $LFS/etc/group from whatever is typed on the following lines until the sequence End Of File (EOF) is encountered. Therefore, this entire section is generally typed as seen.

<REPLACED TEXT>

This format is used to encapsulate text that is not to be typed as seen or for copy-and-paste operations.

[OPTIONAL TEXT]

This format is used to encapsulate text that is optional.

passwd(5)

This format is used to refer to a specific manual (man) page. The number inside parentheses indicates a specific section inside the manuals. For example, passwd has two man pages. Per LFS installation instructions, those two man pages will be located at /usr/share/man/man1/passwd.1 and /usr/share/man/man5/passwd.5. When the book uses passwd(5) it is specifically referring to /usr/share/man/man5/passwd.5. man passwd will print the first man page it finds that matches “passwd”, which will be /usr/share/man/man1/passwd.1. For this example, you will need to run man 5 passwd in order to read the specific page being referred to. It should be noted that most man pages do not have duplicate page names in different sections. Therefore, man <program name> is generally sufficient.

Structure

This book is divided into the following parts.

Part I - Introduction

Part I explains a few important notes on how to proceed with the LFS installation. This section also provides meta-information about the book.

Part II - Preparing for the Build

Part II describes how to prepare for the building process—making a partition, downloading the packages, and compiling temporary tools.

Part III - Building the LFS System

Part III guides the reader through the building of the LFS system—compiling and installing all the packages one by one, setting up the boot scripts, and installing the kernel. The resulting Linux system is the foundation on which other software can be built to expand the system as desired. At the end of this book, there is an easy to use reference listing all of the programs, libraries, and important files that have been installed.

Errata

The software used to create an LFS system is constantly being updated and enhanced. Security warnings and bug fixes may become available after the LFS book has been released. To check whether the package versions or instructions in this release of LFS need any modifications to accommodate security vulnerabilities or other bug fixes, please visit http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/errata/7.3/ before proceeding with your build. You should note any changes shown and apply them to the relevant section of the book as you progress with building the LFS system.

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. How to Build an LFS System

The LFS system will be built by using an already installed Linux distribution (such as Debian, Mandriva, Red Hat, or SUSE). This existing Linux system (the host) will be used as a starting point to provide necessary programs, including a compiler, linker, and shell, to build the new system. Select the “development” option during the distribution installation to be able to access these tools.

As an alternative to installing a separate distribution onto your machine, you may wish to use a LiveCD from a commercial distribution.

Chapter 2 of this book describes how to create a new Linux native partition and file system. This is the place where the new LFS system will be compiled and installed. Chapter 3 explains which packages and patches need to be downloaded to build an LFS system and how to store them on the new file system. Chapter 4 discusses the setup of an appropriate working environment. Please read Chapter 4 carefully as it explains several important issues you need be aware of before beginning to work your way through Chapter 5 and beyond.

Chapter 5 explains the installation of a number of packages that will form the basic development suite (or toolchain) which is used to build the actual system in Chapter 6. Some of these packages are needed to resolve circular dependencies—for example, to compile a compiler, you need a compiler.

Chapter 5 also shows you how to build a first pass of the toolchain, including Binutils and GCC (first pass basically means these two core packages will be reinstalled). The next step is to build Glibc, the C library. Glibc will be compiled by the toolchain programs built in the first pass. Then, a second pass of the toolchain will be built. This time, the toolchain will be dynamically linked against the newly built Glibc. The remaining Chapter 5 packages are built using this second pass toolchain. When this is done, the LFS installation process will no longer depend on the host distribution, with the exception of the running kernel.

This effort to isolate the new system from the host distribution may seem excessive. A full technical explanation as to why this is done is provided in Section 5.2, “Toolchain Technical Notes”.

In Chapter 6, the full LFS system is built. The chroot (change root) program is used to enter a virtual environment and start a new shell whose root directory will be set to the LFS partition. This is very similar to rebooting and instructing the kernel to mount the LFS partition as the root partition. The system does not actually reboot, but instead chroot's because creating a bootable system requires additional work which is not necessary just yet. The major advantage is that “chrooting” allows you to continue using the host system while LFS is being built. While waiting for package compilations to complete, you can continue using your computer as normal.

To finish the installation, the LFS-Bootscripts are set up in Chapter 7, and the kernel and boot loader are set up in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 contains information on continuing the LFS experience beyond this book. After the steps in this book have been implemented, the computer will be ready to reboot into the new LFS system.

This is the process in a nutshell. Detailed information on each step is discussed in the following chapters and package descriptions. Items that may seem complicated will be clarified, and everything will fall into place as you embark on the LFS adventure.

1.2. What's new since the last release

Below is a list of package updates made since the previous release of the book.

Upgraded to:

  • Automake 1.13.1

  • Binutils 2.23.1

  • Bison 2.7

  • Check 0.9.9

  • Coreutils 8.21

  • E2fsprogs 1.42.7

  • Gawk 4.0.2

  • GCC 4.7.2

  • Gettext 0.18.2

  • Glibc 2.17

  • GMP 5.1.1

  • Groff 1.22.2

  • IPRoute2 3.8.0

  • Kbd 1.15.5

  • Kmod 12

  • Less 451

  • Libpipeline 1.2.2

  • Linux 3.8.1

  • Man-DB 2.6.3

  • Man-pages 3.47

  • MPC 1.0.1

  • Patch 2.7.1

  • Pkg-config 0.28

  • Procps-ng 3.3.6

  • Psmisc 22.20

  • Sed 4.2.2

  • TCL 8.6.0

  • Texinfo 5.0

  • Tzdata 2012j

  • Udev 197 (extracted from systemd-197)

  • Util-Linux 2.22.2

Added:

  • bash-4.2-fixes-11.patch

  • binutils-2.23.1-testsuite_fix-1.patch

  • coreutils-8.21-i18n-1.patch

  • kbd-1.15.5-backspace-1.patch

  • make-3.82-upstream_fixes-3.patch

Removed:

  • bash-4.2-fixes-8.patch

  • binutils-2.22-build_fix-1.patch

  • coreutils-8.19-i18n-1.patch

  • gcc-4.7.1-startfiles_fix-1.patch

  • glibc-2.16.0-fix_test_installation-1.patch

  • glibc-2.16.0-res_query_fix-1.patch

  • kbd-1.15.3-backspace-1.patch

  • kbd-1.15.3-upstream_fixes-1.patch

  • kmod-9-testsuite-1.patch

  • make-3.82-upstream_fixes-2.patch

  • patch-2.6.1-test_fix-1.patch

  • procps-3.2.8-fix_HZ_errors-1.patch

  • procps-3.2.8-watch_unicode-1.patch

  • sed-4.2.1-testsuite_fixes-1.patch

1.3. Changelog

This is version 7.3 of the Linux From Scratch book, dated March 1, 2013. If this book is more than six months old, a newer and better version is probably already available. To find out, please check one of the mirrors via http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/mirrors.html.

Below is a list of changes made since the previous release of the book.

Changelog Entries:

  • 2013-03-01

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Linux-3.8.1. Fixes #3295.

  • 2013-02-27

    • [bdubbs] - Fix a potential test error in procps-ng. Thanks to Pierre Labastie for the patch. Fixes #3293.

  • 2013-02-26

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to File-5.13. Fixes #3292.

  • 2013-02-26

    • [ken] - Remove the obsolete resizecons program from kbd, again.

  • 2013-02-24

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to IPRoute2-3.8.0. Fixes #3291.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.8. Fixes #3290.

  • 2013-02-19

    • [bdubbs] - Update file name for adjusting CD-ROM rules mode in section 7.5.1.

  • 2013-02-18

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Coreutils-8.21. Fixes #3286.

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Texinfo-5.0. Fixes #3284.

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.9. Fixes #3281.

  • 2013-02-13

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages-3.47. Fixes #3284.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to GMP-5.1.1. Fixes #3283.

    • [matthew] - Use latest Coreutils-i18n patch from Fedora. Fixes #3282.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.7. Fixes #3281.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Groff-1.22.2. Fixes #3280.

  • 2013-01-30

    • [bdubbs] - Change ncurses instructions to create and install .pc files.

  • 2013-01-29

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-Pages-3.46. Fixes #3278.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.5. Fixes #3277.

  • 2013-01-27

    • [bdubbs] - Update to pkg-config-0.28. Fixes #3276

  • 2013-01-25

    • [bdubbs] - Revise procps-ng install instructions to place files in the proper locations.

  • 2013-01-24

    • [bdubbs] - Remove bashisms from init-functions file in the boot scripts.

  • 2013-01-24

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to e2fsprogs-1.42.7. Fixes #3274.

  • 2013-01-22

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.4. Fixes #3273.

  • 2013-01-21

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Procps-ng-3.3.6. Fixes #3095.

  • 2013-01-20

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.3. Fixes #3272.

  • 2013-01-11

    • [bdubbs] - Revised explanation for /etc/modprobe.conf. Fixes #3270.

    • [bdubbs] - Update udev-lfs init-net-rules.sh script for "en*" devices introduced in systemd-197.

  • 2013-01-09

    • [bdubbs] - Reformat 'Rebooting the System' recommendations.

    • [bdubbs] - Update udev-lfs scripts. Update to systemd-197.

  • 2013-01-02

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bash-4.2.42. Fixes #3268.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Groff-1.22.1. Fixes #3266.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Automake-1.13.1. Fixes #3265.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Coreutils-8.20. Fixes #3215.

  • 2012-12-31

    • [bdubbs] - Add patch to fix binutils test suite. All binutils tests now pass, so remove the "-k" flag from test invocation. Thanks to Pierre Labastie for the patch.

  • 2012-12-30

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Kbd-1.15.5. Fixes #3239.

    • [matthew] - All E2fsprogs tests pass now, so remove the "-k" flag from its invocation.

  • 2012-12-28

    • [bdubbs] - Put traceroute in /bin for consistency. Fixes #3264.

    • [bdubbs] - Fix the location for mounting /dev/shm inside chroot. Fixes #3258.

    • [matthew] - Move the build of Procps to before E2fsprogs as the latter requires ps to be available during its testsuite run.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Gettext-0.18.2. Fixes #3263.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Gawk-4.0.2. Fixes #3262.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Glibc-2.17. Fixes #3261.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Sed-4.2.2. Fixes #3260.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to GMP-5.1.0. Fixes #3259.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Tcl-8.6.0. Fixes #3257.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-Pages-3.45. Fixes #3256.

  • 2012-12-18

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Automake-1.12.6. Fixes #3253.

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7.1. Fixes #3254.

  • 2012-12-16

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Util-Linux-2.22.2. Fixes #3250.

    • [matthew] - Remove a few entries from the acronym list as they are no longer referenced in the book. Fixes #3249. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bison-2.7. Fixes #3247.

  • 2012-12-12

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to IPRoute2-3.7.0. Fixes #3246.

    • [matthew] - Update Check's list of installed programs. Fixes #3245. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

    • [matthew] - All of Flex's tests pass, so remove the "-k" option to its testsuite invocation. Fixes #3244.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to E2fsprogs-1.42.6. Fixes #3243.

    • [matthew] - Remove redundant --enable-addons parameter to Glibc's configure script. Fixes #3241.

    • [matthew] - Update IRC server information. Fixes #3240. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Kmod-12. Fixes #3238.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.7. Fixes #3237.

  • 2012-12-03

    • [bdubbs] - Fix build issues in makefile for systemd-196/udev-lfs-196.

  • 2012-11-28

    • [bdubbs] - Update makefile and instructions for systemd-196/udev-lfs-196.

  • 2012-11-27

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.6.8. Fixes #3234.

  • 2012-11-26

    • [bdubbs] - Re-emphasize host system requirements in Chapter 5 General Compilation Instructions.

  • 2012-11-22

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to systemd-196/udev-lfs-196. Fixes #3233.

  • 2012-11-18

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.6.7. Fixes #3232.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Automake-1.12.5. Fixes #3231.

  • 2012-11-14

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Tzdata-2012j. Fixes #3227.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Binutils-2.23.1. Fixes #3226.

  • 2012-11-13

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Tcl-8.5.13. Fixes #3224.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Kmod-11. Fixes #3223.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-Pages-3.44. Fixes #3222.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bison-2.6.5. Fixes #3221.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Tzdata-2012i. Fixes #3220.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.6.6. Fixes #3219.

  • 2012-11-03

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Perl-5.16.2. Fixes #3218.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bash-4.2.39. Fixes #3217.

  • 2012-11-02

    • [matthew] - Change Freshmeat.net references to Freecode. Thanks to Chris Staub for the report and patch. Fixes #3216.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Check-0.9.9. Fixes #3214.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bison-2.6.4. Fixes #3212.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.6.5. Fixes #3211.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Tzdata-2012h. Fixes #3209.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-Pages-3.43. Fixes #3208.

    • [matthew] - Clean up a couple of instructions for Flex, made possible by the upgrade to Flex-2.5.37. Fixes 3206 and 3210.

  • 2012-11-01

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to systemd/lfs-udev-195. Fixes #3197.

  • 2012-10-15

    • [bdubbs] - Add notes to the gcc and binutils sections in Chapter 6 about "link time optimization" and the extra files built by gcc. Fixes #3200.

    • [bdubbs] - Upgrade to tzdata-2012f. Fixes #3205.

    • [bdubbs] - Update installed program description for several packages. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch. Fixes #3203.

  • 2012-10-14

    • [bdubbs] - Remove utmpdump from sysvinit because it is now installed by util-linux. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch. Fixes #3202.

    • [bdubbs] - Change procps to not install the kill program that is now installed by util-linux. Fixes #3201.

    • [bdubbs] - Update to util-linux-2.22.1. Fixes #3199.

    • [bdubbs] - Update to linux-3.6.2. Fixes #3198.

    • [bdubbs] - Add boot/shutdown script customization instructions.

  • 2012-10-02

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to IPRoute2-3.6.0. Fixes #3196.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.6. Fixes #3195.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Psmisc-22.20. Fixes #3194.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Patch-2.7.1. Fixes #3193.

    • [matthew] - Add a patch to allow Kmod's testsuite to pass on 32-bit systems. Fixes #3191.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to GCC-4.7.2. Fixes #3190.

    • [matthew] - Use latest upstream fixes patch for Make, which enables WebKitGtk to build with parallel builds. Fixes #3188.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-DB-2.6.3. Fixes #3187.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Libpipeline-1.2.2. Fixes #3186.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Automake-1.12.4. Fixes #3185.

    • [matthew] - Fix Flex instructions; the directory creation for its documentation is performed by the Makefile since r9999.

  • 2012-09-27

    • [bdubbs] - Update to systemd/udev-lfs-193. Fixes #3192.

  • 2012-09-27

    • [bdubbs] - Update to systemd/udev-lfs-192. Fixes #3189.

  • 2012-09-16

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Patch-2.7. Fixes #3182.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to MPC-1.0.1. Fixes #3181.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Kmod-10. Fixes #3180.

    • [matthew] - Fix link to Linux User's Guide. Fixes #3179.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Less-451. Fixes #3178.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bash-4.2.37. Fixes #3177.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Pkg-Config-0.27.1. Fixes #3174.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-3.5.4. Fixes #3173.

  • 2012-09-05

    • [bdubbs] - Add udevadm trigger --action=change line to udev script to support initramfs better.

  • 2012-09-04

    • [bdubbs] - Update grub packages and naming conventions example.

    • [bdubbs] - Update to util-linux-2.22. Fixes #3145.

  • 2012-09-02

    • [bdubbs] - Add a patch to Chapter 6 glibc to fix the test-installation.pl script instead of just preventing it from running. Fixes #3175.

    • [bdubbs] - Update to systemd-189. Fixes #3167.

  • 2012-09-01

    • [bdubbs] - LFS-7.2 released.

1.4. Resources

1.4.1. FAQ

If during the building of the LFS system you encounter any errors, have any questions, or think there is a typo in the book, please start by consulting the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that is located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/.

1.4.2. Mailing Lists

The linuxfromscratch.org server hosts a number of mailing lists used for the development of the LFS project. These lists include the main development and support lists, among others. If the FAQ does not solve the problem you are having, the next step would be to search the mailing lists at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/search.html.

For information on the different lists, how to subscribe, archive locations, and additional information, visit http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/mail.html.

1.4.3. IRC

Several members of the LFS community offer assistance on Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Before using this support, please make sure that your question is not already answered in the LFS FAQ or the mailing list archives. You can find the IRC network at irc.freenode.net. The support channel is named #LFS-support.

1.4.4. Mirror Sites

The LFS project has a number of world-wide mirrors to make accessing the website and downloading the required packages more convenient. Please visit the LFS website at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/mirrors.html for a list of current mirrors.

1.4.5. Contact Information

Please direct all your questions and comments to one of the LFS mailing lists (see above).

1.5. Help

If an issue or a question is encountered while working through this book, please check the FAQ page at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/#generalfaq. Questions are often already answered there. If your question is not answered on this page, try to find the source of the problem. The following hint will give you some guidance for troubleshooting: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/errors.txt.

If you cannot find your problem listed in the FAQ, search the mailing lists at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/search.html.

We also have a wonderful LFS community that is willing to offer assistance through the mailing lists and IRC (see the Section 1.4, “Resources” section of this book). However, we get several support questions every day and many of them can be easily answered by going to the FAQ and by searching the mailing lists first. So, for us to offer the best assistance possible, you need to do some research on your own first. That allows us to focus on the more unusual support needs. If your searches do not produce a solution, please include all relevant information (mentioned below) in your request for help.

1.5.1. Things to Mention

Apart from a brief explanation of the problem being experienced, the essential things to include in any request for help are:

  • The version of the book being used (in this case 7.3)

  • The host distribution and version being used to create LFS

  • The output from the Section vii, “Host System Requirements”

  • The package or section the problem was encountered in

  • The exact error message or symptom being received

  • Note whether you have deviated from the book at all

Note

Deviating from this book does not mean that we will not help you. After all, LFS is about personal preference. Being upfront about any changes to the established procedure helps us evaluate and determine possible causes of your problem.

1.5.2. Configure Script Problems

If something goes wrong while running the configure script, review the config.log file. This file may contain errors encountered during configure which were not printed to the screen. Include the relevant lines if you need to ask for help.

1.5.3. Compilation Problems

Both the screen output and the contents of various files are useful in determining the cause of compilation problems. The screen output from the configure script and the make run can be helpful. It is not necessary to include the entire output, but do include enough of the relevant information. Below is an example of the type of information to include from the screen output from make:

gcc -DALIASPATH=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale:.\"
-DLOCALEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/share/locale\"
-DLIBDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/lib\"
-DINCLUDEDIR=\"/mnt/lfs/usr/include\" -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.
-g -O2 -c getopt1.c
gcc -g -O2 -static -o make ar.o arscan.o commands.o dir.o
expand.o file.o function.o getopt.o implicit.o job.o main.o
misc.o read.o remake.o rule.o signame.o variable.o vpath.o
default.o remote-stub.o version.o opt1.o
-lutil job.o: In function `load_too_high':
/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1/job.c:1565: undefined reference
to `getloadavg'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [make] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/lfs/tmp/make-3.79.1'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2

In this case, many people would just include the bottom section:

make [2]: *** [make] Error 1

This is not enough information to properly diagnose the problem because it only notes that something went wrong, not what went wrong. The entire section, as in the example above, is what should be saved because it includes the command that was executed and the associated error message(s).

An excellent article about asking for help on the Internet is available online at http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html. Read and follow the hints in this document to increase the likelihood of getting the help you need.

Part II. Preparing for the Build

Chapter 2. Preparing a New Partition

2.1. Introduction

In this chapter, the partition which will host the LFS system is prepared. We will create the partition itself, create a file system on it, and mount it.

2.2. Creating a New Partition

Like most other operating systems, LFS is usually installed on a dedicated partition. The recommended approach to building an LFS system is to use an available empty partition or, if you have enough unpartitioned space, to create one.

A minimal system requires a partition of around 2.8 gigabytes (GB). This is enough to store all the source tarballs and compile the packages. However, if the LFS system is intended to be the primary Linux system, additional software will probably be installed which will require additional space. A 10 GB partition is a reasonable size to provide for growth. The LFS system itself will not take up this much room. A large portion of this requirement is to provide sufficient free temporary storage. Compiling packages can require a lot of disk space which will be reclaimed after the package is installed.

Because there is not always enough Random Access Memory (RAM) available for compilation processes, it is a good idea to use a small disk partition as swap space. This is used by the kernel to store seldom-used data and leave more memory available for active processes. The swap partition for an LFS system can be the same as the one used by the host system, in which case it is not necessary to create another one.

Start a disk partitioning program such as cfdisk or fdisk with a command line option naming the hard disk on which the new partition will be created—for example /dev/hda for the primary Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) disk. Create a Linux native partition and a swap partition, if needed. Please refer to cfdisk(8) or fdisk(8) if you do not yet know how to use the programs.

Note

For experienced users, other partitioning schemes are possible. The new LFS system can be on a software RAID array or an LVM logical volume. However, some of these options require an initramfs, which is an advanced topic. These partitioning methodologies are not recommended for first time LFS users.

Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g., hda5). This book will refer to this as the LFS partition. Also remember the designation of the swap partition. These names will be needed later for the /etc/fstab file.

2.2.1. Other Partition Issues

Requests for advice on system partitioning are often posted on the LFS mailing lists. This is a highly subjective topic. The default for most distributions is to use the entire drive with the exception of one small swap partition. This is not optimal for LFS for several reasons. It reduces flexibility, makes sharing of data across multiple distributions or LFS builds more difficult, makes backups more time consuming, and can waste disk space through inefficient allocation of file system structures.

2.2.1.1. The Root Partition

A root LFS partition (not to be confused with the /root directory) of ten gigabytes is a good compromise for most systems. It provides enough space to build LFS and most of BLFS, but is small enough so that multiple partitions can be easily created for experimentation.

2.2.1.2. The Swap Partition

Most distributions automatically create a swap partition. Generally the recommended size of the swap partition is about twice the amount of physical RAM, however this is rarely needed. If disk space is limited, hold the swap partition to two gigabytes and monitor the amount of disk swapping.

Swapping is never good. Generally you can tell if a system is swapping by just listening to disk activity and observing how the system reacts to commands. The first reaction to swapping should be to check for an unreasonable command such as trying to edit a five gigabyte file. If swapping becomes a normal occurrence, the best solution is to purchase more RAM for your system.

2.2.1.3. Convenience Partitions

There are several other partitions that are not required, but should be considered when designing a disk layout. The following list is not comprehensive, but is meant as a guide.

  • /boot – Highly recommended. Use this partition to store kernels and other booting information. To minimize potential boot problems with larger disks, make this the first physical partition on your first disk drive. A partition size of 100 megabytes is quite adequate.

  • /home – Highly recommended. Share your home directory and user customization across multiple distributions or LFS builds. The size is generally fairly large and depends on available disk space.

  • /usr – A separate /usr partition is generally used if providing a server for a thin client or diskless workstation. It is normally not needed for LFS. A size of five gigabytes will handle most installations.

  • /opt – This directory is most useful for BLFS where multiple installations of large packages like Gnome or KDE can be installed without embedding the files in the /usr hierarchy. If used, 5 to 10 gigabytes is generally adequate.

  • /tmp – A separate /tmp directory is rare, but useful if configuring a thin client. This partition, if used, will usually not need to exceed a couple of gigabytes.

  • /usr/src – This partition is very useful for providing a location to store BLFS source files and share them across LFS builds. It can also be used as a location for building BLFS packages. A reasonably large partition of 30-50 gigabytes allows plenty of room.

Any separate partition that you want automatically mounted upon boot needs to be specified in the /etc/fstab. Details about how to specify partitions will be discussed in Section 8.2, “Creating the /etc/fstab File”.

2.3. Creating a File System on the Partition

Now that a blank partition has been set up, the file system can be created. The most widely-used system in the Linux world is the second extended file system (ext2), but with newer high-capacity hard disks, journaling file systems are becoming increasingly popular. The third extended filesystem (ext3) is a widely used enhancement to ext2, which adds journaling capabilities and is compatible with the E2fsprogs utilities. We will create an ext3 file system. Instructions for creating other file systems can be found at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/filesystems.html.

To create an ext3 file system on the LFS partition, run the following:

mke2fs -jv /dev/<xxx>

Replace <xxx> with the name of the LFS partition (hda5 in our previous example).

Note

Some host distributions use custom features in their filesystem creation tools (E2fsprogs). This can cause problems when booting into your new LFS in Chapter 9, as those features will not be supported by the LFS-installed E2fsprogs; you will get an error similar to “unsupported filesystem features, upgrade your e2fsprogs”. To check if your host system uses custom enhancements, run the following command:

debugfs -R feature /dev/<xxx>

If the output contains features other than has_journal, ext_attr, resize_inode, dir_index, filetype, sparse_super, large_file or needs_recovery, then your host system may have custom enhancements. In that case, to avoid later problems, you should compile the stock E2fsprogs package and use the resulting binaries to re-create the filesystem on your LFS partition:

cd /tmp
tar -xzvf /path/to/sources/e2fsprogs-1.42.7.tar.gz
cd e2fsprogs-1.42.7
mkdir -v build
cd build
../configure
make #note that we intentionally don't 'make install' here!
./misc/mke2fs -jv /dev/<xxx>
cd /tmp
rm -rfv e2fsprogs-1.42.7

If you are using an existing swap partition, there is no need to format it. If a new swap partition was created, it will need to be initialized with this command:

mkswap /dev/<yyy>

Replace <yyy> with the name of the swap partition.

2.4. Mounting the New Partition

Now that a file system has been created, the partition needs to be made accessible. In order to do this, the partition needs to be mounted at a chosen mount point. For the purposes of this book, it is assumed that the file system is mounted under /mnt/lfs, but the directory choice is up to you.

Choose a mount point and assign it to the LFS environment variable by running:

export LFS=/mnt/lfs

Next, create the mount point and mount the LFS file system by running:

mkdir -pv $LFS
mount -v -t ext3 /dev/<xxx> $LFS

Replace <xxx> with the designation of the LFS partition.

If using multiple partitions for LFS (e.g., one for / and another for /usr), mount them using:

mkdir -pv $LFS
mount -v -t ext3 /dev/<xxx> $LFS
mkdir -v $LFS/usr
mount -v -t ext3 /dev/<yyy> $LFS/usr

Replace <xxx> and <yyy> with the appropriate partition names.

Ensure that this new partition is not mounted with permissions that are too restrictive (such as the nosuid or nodev options). Run the mount command without any parameters to see what options are set for the mounted LFS partition. If nosuid, nodev, and/or noatime are set, the partition will need to be remounted.

If you are using a swap partition, ensure that it is enabled using the swapon command:

/sbin/swapon -v /dev/<zzz>

Replace <zzz> with the name of the swap partition.

Now that there is an established place to work, it is time to download the packages.

Chapter 3. Packages and Patches

3.1. Introduction

This chapter includes a list of packages that need to be downloaded in order to build a basic Linux system. The listed version numbers correspond to versions of the software that are known to work, and this book is based on their use. We highly recommend against using newer versions because the build commands for one version may not work with a newer version. The newest package versions may also have problems that require work-arounds. These work-arounds will be developed and stabilized in the development version of the book.

Download locations may not always be accessible. If a download location has changed since this book was published, Google (http://www.google.com/) provides a useful search engine for most packages. If this search is unsuccessful, try one of the alternative means of downloading discussed at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/packages.html#packages.

Downloaded packages and patches will need to be stored somewhere that is conveniently available throughout the entire build. A working directory is also required to unpack the sources and build them. $LFS/sources can be used both as the place to store the tarballs and patches and as a working directory. By using this directory, the required elements will be located on the LFS partition and will be available during all stages of the building process.

To create this directory, execute the following command, as user root, before starting the download session:

mkdir -v $LFS/sources

Make this directory writable and sticky. “Sticky” means that even if multiple users have write permission on a directory, only the owner of a file can delete the file within a sticky directory. The following command will enable the write and sticky modes:

chmod -v a+wt $LFS/sources

An easy way to download all of the packages and patches is by using wget-list as an input to wget. For example:

wget -i wget-list -P $LFS/sources

Additionally, starting with LFS-7.0, there is a separate file, md5sums, can be used to verify that all the correct packages are available before proceeding. Place that file in $LFS/sources and run:

pushd $LFS/sources
md5sum -c md5sums
popd

3.2. All Packages

Download or otherwise obtain the following packages:

Autoconf (2.69) - 1,186 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 50f97f4159805e374639a73e2636f22e

Automake (1.13.1) - 1,392 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/automake-1.13.1.tar.xz

MD5 sum: a60380ab11e1481376b7747d1b42ced2

Bash (4.2) - 6,845 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/bash-4.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 3fb927c7c33022f1c327f14a81c0d4b0

Binutils (2.23.1) - 20,953 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/binutils-2.23.1.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 33adb18c3048d057ac58d07a3f1adb38

Bison (2.7) - 1,735 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-2.7.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 234cdfac99257cf99ac4a03c898f37b9

Bzip2 (1.0.6) - 764 KB:

Home page: http://www.bzip.org/

Download: http://www.bzip.org/1.0.6/bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 00b516f4704d4a7cb50a1d97e6e8e15b

Check (0.9.9) - 589 KB:

Home page: http://check.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/check/files/check/0.9.9/check-0.9.9.tar.gz

MD5 sum: f3702f2fcfc19ce3f62dca66c241a168

Coreutils (8.21) - 5,248 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.21.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 065ba41828644eca5dd8163446de5d64

DejaGNU (1.5) - 563 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/dejagnu/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/dejagnu/dejagnu-1.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 3df1cbca885e751e22d3ebd1ac64dc3c

Diffutils (3.2) - 1,976 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/diffutils-3.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 22e4deef5d8949a727b159d6bc65c1cc

E2fsprogs (1.42.7) - 5,856 KB:

Home page: http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.42.7.tar.gz

MD5 sum: a1ec22ef003688dae9f76c74881b22b9

Expect (5.45) - 614 KB:

Home page: http://expect.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/expect/expect5.45.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 44e1a4f4c877e9ddc5a542dfa7ecc92b

File (5.13) - 627 KB:

Home page: http://www.darwinsys.com/file/

Download: ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/file/file-5.13.tar.gz

MD5 sum: d60c1364ba956eff7d21f8250808fc6d

Note

File (5.13) may no longer be available at the listed location. The site administrators of the master download location occasionally remove older versions when new ones are released. An alternative download location that may have the correct version available can also be found at: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/download.html#ftp.

Findutils (4.4.2) - 2,100 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils/findutils-4.4.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 351cc4adb07d54877fa15f75fb77d39f

Flex (2.5.37) - 1,280 KB:

Home page: http://flex.sourceforge.net

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/flex/flex-2.5.37.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: c75940e1fc25108f2a7b3ef42abdae06

Gawk (4.0.2) - 1,589 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-4.0.2.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 8a9b2f1170ac9dcd3eb13716b5ec4021

GCC (4.7.2) - 80,942 KB:

Home page: http://gcc.gnu.org/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-4.7.2/gcc-4.7.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: cc308a0891e778cfda7a151ab8a6e762

GDBM (1.10) - 640 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdbm/gdbm-1.10.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 88770493c2559dc80b561293e39d3570

Gettext (0.18.2) - 15,330 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/gettext-0.18.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 0c86e5af70c195ab8bd651d17d783928

Glibc (2.17) - 10,725 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.17.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 87bf675c8ee523ebda4803e8e1cec638

GMP (5.1.1) - 1,771 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/

Download: ftp://ftp.gmplib.org/pub/gmp-5.1.1/gmp-5.1.1.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 485b1296e6287fa381e6015b19767989

Grep (2.14) - 1,172 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep-2.14.tar.xz

MD5 sum: d4a3f03849d1e17ce56ab76aa5a24cab

Groff (1.22.2) - 3,926 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.22.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 9f4cd592a5efc7e36481d8d8d8af6d16

GRUB (2.00) - 5,016 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.00.tar.xz

MD5 sum: a1043102fbc7bcedbf53e7ee3d17ab91

Gzip (1.5) - 704 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/gzip-1.5.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 2a431e169b6f62f7332ef6d47cc53bae

Iana-Etc (2.30) - 201 KB:

Home page: http://freshmeat.net/projects/iana-etc/

Download: http://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/sources/LFS/lfs-packages/conglomeration//iana-etc/iana-etc-2.30.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 3ba3afb1d1b261383d247f46cb135ee8

Inetutils (1.9.1) - 1,941 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/inetutils/inetutils-1.9.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 944f7196a2b3dba2d400e9088576000c

IPRoute2 (3.8.0) - 398 KB:

Home page: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/iproute2-3.8.0.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 951622fd770428116dc165acba375414

Kbd (1.15.5) - 1,690 KB:

Home page: http://ftp.altlinux.org/pub/people/legion/kbd

Download: http://ftp.altlinux.org/pub/people/legion/kbd/kbd-1.15.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 34c71feead8ab9c01ec638acea8cd877

Kmod (12) - 1,245 KB:

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod-12.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 3d63b146c8ee5a04dfbef4be97f8226b

Less (451) - 303 KB:

Home page: http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/

Download: http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/less-451.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 765f082658002b2b46b86af4a0da1842

LFS-Bootscripts (20130123) - 33 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/7.3/lfs-bootscripts-20130123.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 2a53fcba68e9f5ed6770c47f05987959

Libpipeline (1.2.2) - 733 KB:

Home page: http://libpipeline.nongnu.org/

Download: http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/libpipeline/libpipeline-1.2.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 4367a3f598d171fd43dfa8620ed16d55

Libtool (2.4.2) - 2,571 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/libtool-2.4.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: d2f3b7d4627e69e13514a40e72a24d50

Linux (3.8.1) - 69,3292 KB:

Home page: http://www.kernel.org/

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.8.1.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 093b172f907d5455a6746418ad18f5bc

Note

The Linux kernel is updated relatively often, many times due to discoveries of security vulnerabilities. The latest available 3.8.x kernel version should be used, unless the errata page says otherwise.

For users with limited speed or expensive bandwidth who wish to update the Linux kernel, a baseline version of the package and patches can be downloaded separately. This may save some time or cost for a subsequent patch level upgrade within a minor release.

M4 (1.4.16) - 1,229 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.16.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 8a7cef47fecab6272eb86a6be6363b2f

Make (3.82) - 1,213 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/make/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.82.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 1a11100f3c63fcf5753818e59d63088f

Man-DB (2.6.3) - 1,356 KB:

Home page: http://www.nongnu.org/man-db/

Download: http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/man-db/man-db-2.6.3.tar.xz

MD5 sum: a593a095599ae97bcacf8d038659a146

Man-pages (3.47) - 1,108 KB:

Home page: http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/man-pages-3.47.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 2046259794d3003f4dc4dbe4b688ba2f

MPC (1.0.1) - 610 KB:

Home page: http://www.multiprecision.org/

Download: http://www.multiprecision.org/mpc/download/mpc-1.0.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: b32a2e1a3daa392372fbd586d1ed3679

MPFR (3.1.1) - 1,047 KB:

Home page: http://www.mpfr.org/

Download: http://www.mpfr.org/mpfr-3.1.1/mpfr-3.1.1.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 91d51c41fcf2799e4ee7a7126fc95c17

Ncurses (5.9) - 2,760 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/

Download: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.9.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 8cb9c412e5f2d96bc6f459aa8c6282a1

Patch (2.7.1) - 660 KB:

Home page: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/patch/patch-2.7.1.tar.xz

MD5 sum: e9ae5393426d3ad783a300a338c09b72

Perl (5.16.2) - 13,403 KB:

Home page: http://www.perl.org/

Download: http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.16.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 2818ab01672f005a4e552a713aa27b08

Pkg-config (0.28) - 1,892 KB:

Home page: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config

Download: http://pkgconfig.freedesktop.org/releases/pkg-config-0.28.tar.gz

MD5 sum: aa3c86e67551adc3ac865160e34a2a0d

Procps (3.3.6) - 528 KB:

Home page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/procps-ng

Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/procps-ng/files/Production/procps-ng-3.3.6.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 0a050d9be531921db3cd38f1371e73e3

Psmisc (22.20) - 422 KB:

Home page: http://psmisc.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/psmisc/psmisc-22.20.tar.gz

MD5 sum: a25fc99a6dc7fa7ae6e4549be80b401f

Readline (6.2) - 2,225 KB:

Home page: http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-6.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 67948acb2ca081f23359d0256e9a271c

Sed (4.2.2) - 1,035 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/sed/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 7ffe1c7cdc3233e1e0c4b502df253974

Shadow (4.1.5.1) - 2,142 KB:

Home page: http://pkg-shadow.alioth.debian.org/

Download: http://pkg-shadow.alioth.debian.org/releases/shadow-4.1.5.1.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: a00449aa439c69287b6d472191dc2247

Sysklogd (1.5) - 85 KB:

Home page: http://www.infodrom.org/projects/sysklogd/

Download: http://www.infodrom.org/projects/sysklogd/download/sysklogd-1.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: e053094e8103165f98ddafe828f6ae4b

Sysvinit (2.88dsf) - 108 KB:

Home page: http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/sysvinit

Download: http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/sysvinit/sysvinit-2.88dsf.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 6eda8a97b86e0a6f59dabbf25202aa6f

Tar (1.26) - 2,285 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.26.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 2cee42a2ff4f1cd4f9298eeeb2264519

Tcl (8.6.0) - 8,435 KB:

Home page: http://tcl.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl8.6.0-src.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 573aa5fe678e9185ef2b3c56b24658d3

Time Zone Data (2012j) - 209 KB:

Home page: http://www.iana.org/time-zones

Download: http://www.iana.org//time-zones/repository/releases/tzdata2012j.tar.gz

MD5 sum: ba2f92ae7ad099090e8f86cff2f2d799

Texinfo (5.0) - 3,000 KB:

Home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-5.0.tar.xz

MD5 sum: ef2fad34c71ddc95b20c7d6a08c0d7a6

Systemd (197) - 2,012 KB:

Home page: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/

Download: http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/systemd-197.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 56a860dceadfafe59f40141eb5223743

Udev-lfs Tarball (197) - 17 KB:

Download: http://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/sources/other/udev-lfs-197-2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: f4272c121514caf0c2a6245fbffeb047

Util-linux (2.22.2) - 3,028 KB:

Home page: http://userweb.kernel.org/~kzak/util-linux/

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/v2.22/util-linux-2.22.2.tar.xz

MD5 sum: eeacbfdd2556acd899a2d0ffdb446185

Vim (7.3) - 8,675 KB:

Home page: http://www.vim.org

Download: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unix/vim-7.3.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 5b9510a17074e2b37d8bb38ae09edbf2

Xz Utils (5.0.4) - 894 KB:

Home page: http://tukaani.org/xz

Download: http://tukaani.org/xz/xz-5.0.4.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 161015c4a65b1f293d31810e1df93090

Zlib (1.2.7) - 493 KB:

Home page: http://www.zlib.net/

Download: http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.7.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 2ab442d169156f34c379c968f3f482dd

Total size of these packages: about 915 MB

3.3. Needed Patches

In addition to the packages, several patches are also required. These patches correct any mistakes in the packages that should be fixed by the maintainer. The patches also make small modifications to make the packages easier to work with. The following patches will be needed to build an LFS system:

Bash Upstream Fixes Patch - 55 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/bash-4.2-fixes-11.patch

MD5 sum: 366672f68e7cf214bdbef2ef14b13c23

Binutils Test Suite Patch - 2.0 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/binutils-2.23.1-testsuite_fix-1.patch

MD5 sum: cb47fae1bc572d45f4b0cff8ae8ecba8

Bzip2 Documentation Patch - 1.6 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/bzip2-1.0.6-install_docs-1.patch

MD5 sum: 6a5ac7e89b791aae556de0f745916f7f

Coreutils Internationalization Fixes Patch - 132 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/coreutils-8.21-i18n-1.patch

MD5 sum: ada0ea6e1c00c4b7e0d634f49827943e

Flex Regression Tests Patch - 2.8 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/flex-2.5.37-bison-2.6.1-1.patch

MD5 sum: d5b001ef9bdbbe32e2f27576d97d8ff0

Kbd Backspace/Delete Fix Patch - 12 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/kbd-1.15.5-backspace-1.patch

MD5 sum: f75cca16a38da6caa7d52151f7136895

Make Upstream Fixes Patch - 10 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/make-3.82-upstream_fixes-3.patch

MD5 sum: 95027ab5b53d01699845d9b7e1dc878d

Perl Libc Patch - 1.6 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/perl-5.16.2-libc-1.patch

MD5 sum: daf5c64fd7311e924966842680535f8f

Readline Upstream Fixes Patch - 1.3 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/7.3/readline-6.2-fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 3c185f7b76001d3d0af614f6f2cd5dfa

Total size of these patches: about 218.3 KB

In addition to the above required patches, there exist a number of optional patches created by the LFS community. These optional patches solve minor problems or enable functionality that is not enabled by default. Feel free to peruse the patches database located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/downloads/ and acquire any additional patches to suit your system needs.

Chapter 4. Final Preparations

4.1. About $LFS

Throughout this book, the environment variable LFS will be used. It is paramount that this variable is always defined. It should be set to the mount point chosen for the LFS partition. Check that the LFS variable is set up properly with:

echo $LFS

Make sure the output shows the path to the LFS partition's mount point, which is /mnt/lfs if the provided example was followed. If the output is incorrect, the variable can be set with:

export LFS=/mnt/lfs

Having this variable set is beneficial in that commands such as mkdir $LFS/tools can be typed literally. The shell will automatically replace “$LFS” with “/mnt/lfs” (or whatever the variable was set to) when it processes the command line.

Do not forget to check that $LFS is set whenever you leave and reenter the current working environment (as when doing a su to root or another user).

4.2. Creating the $LFS/tools Directory

All programs compiled in Chapter 5 will be installed under $LFS/tools to keep them separate from the programs compiled in Chapter 6. The programs compiled here are temporary tools and will not be a part of the final LFS system. By keeping these programs in a separate directory, they can easily be discarded later after their use. This also prevents these programs from ending up in the host production directories (easy to do by accident in Chapter 5).

Create the required directory by running the following as root:

mkdir -v $LFS/tools

The next step is to create a /tools symlink on the host system. This will point to the newly-created directory on the LFS partition. Run this command as root as well:

ln -sv $LFS/tools /

Note

The above command is correct. The ln command has a few syntactic variations, so be sure to check info coreutils ln and ln(1) before reporting what you may think is an error.

The created symlink enables the toolchain to be compiled so that it always refers to /tools, meaning that the compiler, assembler, and linker will work both in Chapter 5 (when we are still using some tools from the host) and in the next (when we are “chrooted” to the LFS partition).

4.3. Adding the LFS User

When logged in as user root, making a single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore, we recommend building the packages in this chapter as an unprivileged user. You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set up a clean working environment, create a new user called lfs as a member of a new group (also named lfs) and use this user during the installation process. As root, issue the following commands to add the new user:

groupadd lfs
useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs

The meaning of the command line options:

-s /bin/bash

This makes bash the default shell for user lfs.

-g lfs

This option adds user lfs to group lfs.

-m

This creates a home directory for lfs.

-k /dev/null

This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a skeleton directory (default is /etc/skel) by changing the input location to the special null device.

lfs

This is the actual name for the created group and user.

To log in as lfs (as opposed to switching to user lfs when logged in as root, which does not require the lfs user to have a password), give lfs a password:

passwd lfs

Grant lfs full access to $LFS/tools by making lfs the directory owner:

chown -v lfs $LFS/tools

If a separate working directory was created as suggested, give user lfs ownership of this directory:

chown -v lfs $LFS/sources

Next, login as user lfs. This can be done via a virtual console, through a display manager, or with the following substitute user command:

su - lfs

The “-” instructs su to start a login shell as opposed to a non-login shell. The difference between these two types of shells can be found in detail in bash(1) and info bash.

4.4. Setting Up the Environment

Set up a good working environment by creating two new startup files for the bash shell. While logged in as user lfs, issue the following command to create a new .bash_profile:

cat > ~/.bash_profile << "EOF"
exec env -i HOME=$HOME TERM=$TERM PS1='\u:\w\$ ' /bin/bash
EOF

When logged on as user lfs, the initial shell is usually a login shell which reads the /etc/profile of the host (probably containing some settings and environment variables) and then .bash_profile. The exec env -i.../bin/bash command in the .bash_profile file replaces the running shell with a new one with a completely empty environment, except for the HOME, TERM, and PS1 variables. This ensures that no unwanted and potentially hazardous environment variables from the host system leak into the build environment. The technique used here achieves the goal of ensuring a clean environment.

The new instance of the shell is a non-login shell, which does not read the /etc/profile or .bash_profile files, but rather reads the .bashrc file instead. Create the .bashrc file now:

cat > ~/.bashrc << "EOF"
set +h
umask 022
LFS=/mnt/lfs
LC_ALL=POSIX
LFS_TGT=$(uname -m)-lfs-linux-gnu
PATH=/tools/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
export LFS LC_ALL LFS_TGT PATH
EOF

The set +h command turns off bash's hash function. Hashing is ordinarily a useful feature—bash uses a hash table to remember the full path of executable files to avoid searching the PATH time and again to find the same executable. However, the new tools should be used as soon as they are installed. By switching off the hash function, the shell will always search the PATH when a program is to be run. As such, the shell will find the newly compiled tools in $LFS/tools as soon as they are available without remembering a previous version of the same program in a different location.

Setting the user file-creation mask (umask) to 022 ensures that newly created files and directories are only writable by their owner, but are readable and executable by anyone (assuming default modes are used by the open(2) system call, new files will end up with permission mode 644 and directories with mode 755).

The LFS variable should be set to the chosen mount point.

The LC_ALL variable controls the localization of certain programs, making their messages follow the conventions of a specified country. If the host system uses a version of Glibc older than 2.2.4, having LC_ALL set to something other than “POSIX” or “C” (during this chapter) may cause issues if you exit the chroot environment and wish to return later. Setting LC_ALL to “POSIX” or “C” (the two are equivalent) ensures that everything will work as expected in the chroot environment.

The LFS_TGT variable sets a non-default, but compatible machine description for use when building our cross compiler and linker and when cross compiling our temporary toolchain. More information is contained in Section 5.2, “Toolchain Technical Notes”.

By putting /tools/bin ahead of the standard PATH, all the programs installed in Chapter 5 are picked up by the shell immediately after their installation. This, combined with turning off hashing, limits the risk that old programs are used from the host when the same programs are available in the chapter 5 environment.

Finally, to have the environment fully prepared for building the temporary tools, source the just-created user profile:

source ~/.bash_profile

4.5. About SBUs

Many people would like to know beforehand approximately how long it takes to compile and install each package. Because Linux From Scratch can be built on many different systems, it is impossible to provide accurate time estimates. The biggest package (Glibc) will take approximately 20 minutes on the fastest systems, but could take up to three days on slower systems! Instead of providing actual times, the Standard Build Unit (SBU) measure will be used instead.

The SBU measure works as follows. The first package to be compiled from this book is Binutils in Chapter 5. The time it takes to compile this package is what will be referred to as the Standard Build Unit or SBU. All other compile times will be expressed relative to this time.

For example, consider a package whose compilation time is 4.5 SBUs. This means that if a system took 10 minutes to compile and install the first pass of Binutils, it will take approximately 45 minutes to build this example package. Fortunately, most build times are shorter than the one for Binutils.

In general, SBUs are not entirely accurate because they depend on many factors, including the host system's version of GCC. They are provided here to give an estimate of how long it might take to install a package, but the numbers can vary by as much as dozens of minutes in some cases.

To view actual timings for a number of specific machines, we recommend The LinuxFromScratch SBU Home Page at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/~sbu/.

Note

For many modern systems with multiple processors (or cores) the compilation time for a package can be reduced by performing a "parallel make" by either setting an environment variable or telling the make program how many processors are available. For instance, a Core2Duo can support two simultaneous processes with:

export MAKEFLAGS='-j 2'

or just building with:

make -j2

When multiple processors are used in this way, the SBU units in the book will vary even more than they normally would. Analyzing the output of the build process will also be more difficult because the lines of different processes will be interleaved. If you run into a problem with a build step, revert back to a single processor build to properly analyze the error messages.

4.6. About the Test Suites

Most packages provide a test suite. Running the test suite for a newly built package is a good idea because it can provide a “sanity check” indicating that everything compiled correctly. A test suite that passes its set of checks usually proves that the package is functioning as the developer intended. It does not, however, guarantee that the package is totally bug free.

Some test suites are more important than others. For example, the test suites for the core toolchain packages—GCC, Binutils, and Glibc—are of the utmost importance due to their central role in a properly functioning system. The test suites for GCC and Glibc can take a very long time to complete, especially on slower hardware, but are strongly recommended.

Note

Experience has shown that there is little to be gained from running the test suites in Chapter 5. There can be no escaping the fact that the host system always exerts some influence on the tests in that chapter, often causing inexplicable failures. Because the tools built in Chapter 5 are temporary and eventually discarded, we do not recommend running the test suites in Chapter 5 for the average reader. The instructions for running those test suites are provided for the benefit of testers and developers, but they are strictly optional.

A common issue with running the test suites for Binutils and GCC is running out of pseudo terminals (PTYs). This can result in a high number of failing tests. This may happen for several reasons, but the most likely cause is that the host system does not have the devpts file system set up correctly. This issue is discussed in greater detail at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org//lfs/faq.html#no-ptys.

Sometimes package test suites will fail, but for reasons which the developers are aware of and have deemed non-critical. Consult the logs located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/build-logs/7.3/ to verify whether or not these failures are expected. This site is valid for all tests throughout this book.

Chapter 5. Constructing a Temporary System

5.1. Introduction

This chapter shows how to build a minimal Linux system. This system will contain just enough tools to start constructing the final LFS system in Chapter 6 and allow a working environment with more user convenience than a minimum environment would.

There are two steps in building this minimal system. The first step is to build a new and host-independent toolchain (compiler, assembler, linker, libraries, and a few useful utilities). The second step uses this toolchain to build the other essential tools.

The files compiled in this chapter will be installed under the $LFS/tools directory to keep them separate from the files installed in the next chapter and the host production directories. Since the packages compiled here are temporary, we do not want them to pollute the soon-to-be LFS system.

5.2. Toolchain Technical Notes

This section explains some of the rationale and technical details behind the overall build method. It is not essential to immediately understand everything in this section. Most of this information will be clearer after performing an actual build. This section can be referred to at any time during the process.

The overall goal of Chapter 5 is to produce a temporary area that contains a known-good set of tools that can be isolated from the host system. By using chroot, the commands in the remaining chapters will be contained within that environment, ensuring a clean, trouble-free build of the target LFS system. The build process has been designed to minimize the risks for new readers and to provide the most educational value at the same time.

Note

Before continuing, be aware of the name of the working platform, often referred to as the target triplet. A simple way to determine the name of the target triplet is to run the config.guess script that comes with the source for many packages. Unpack the Binutils sources and run the script: ./config.guess and note the output. For example, for a modern 32-bit Intel processor the output will likely be i686-pc-linux-gnu.

Also be aware of the name of the platform's dynamic linker, often referred to as the dynamic loader (not to be confused with the standard linker ld that is part of Binutils). The dynamic linker provided by Glibc finds and loads the shared libraries needed by a program, prepares the program to run, and then runs it. The name of the dynamic linker for a 32-bit Intel machine will be ld-linux.so.2. A sure-fire way to determine the name of the dynamic linker is to inspect a random binary from the host system by running: readelf -l <name of binary> | grep interpreter and noting the output. The authoritative reference covering all platforms is in the shlib-versions file in the root of the Glibc source tree.

Some key technical points of how the Chapter 5 build method works:

  • Slightly adjusting the name of the working platform, by changing the "vendor" field target triplet by way of the LFS_TGT variable, ensures that the first build of Binutils and GCC produces a compatible cross-linker and cross-compiler. Instead of producing binaries for another architecture, the cross-linker and cross-compiler will produce binaries compatible with the current hardware.

  • The temporary libraries are cross-compiled. Because a cross-compiler by its nature cannot rely on anything from its host system, this method removes potential contamination of the target system by lessening the chance of headers or libraries from the host being incorporated into the new tools. Cross-compilation also allows for the possibility of building both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries on 64-bit capable hardware.

  • Careful manipulation of the GCC source tells the compiler which target dynamic linker will be used.

Binutils is installed first because the configure runs of both GCC and Glibc perform various feature tests on the assembler and linker to determine which software features to enable or disable. This is more important than one might first realize. An incorrectly configured GCC or Glibc can result in a subtly broken toolchain, where the impact of such breakage might not show up until near the end of the build of an entire distribution. A test suite failure will usually highlight this error before too much additional work is performed.

Binutils installs its assembler and linker in two locations, /tools/bin and /tools/$LFS_TGT/bin. The tools in one location are hard linked to the other. An important facet of the linker is its library search order. Detailed information can be obtained from ld by passing it the --verbose flag. For example, an ld --verbose | grep SEARCH will illustrate the current search paths and their order. It shows which files are linked by ld by compiling a dummy program and passing the --verbose switch to the linker. For example, gcc dummy.c -Wl,--verbose 2>&1 | grep succeeded will show all the files successfully opened during the linking.

The next package installed is GCC. An example of what can be seen during its run of configure is:

checking what assembler to use... /tools/i686-lfs-linux-gnu/bin/as
checking what linker to use... /tools/i686-lfs-linux-gnu/bin/ld

This is important for the reasons mentioned above. It also demonstrates that GCC's configure script does not search the PATH directories to find which tools to use. However, during the actual operation of gcc itself, the same search paths are not necessarily used. To find out which standard linker gcc will use, run: gcc -print-prog-name=ld.

Detailed information can be obtained from gcc by passing it the -v command line option while compiling a dummy program. For example, gcc -v dummy.c will show detailed information about the preprocessor, compilation, and assembly stages, including gcc's included search paths and their order.

Next installed are sanitized Linux API headers. These allow the standard C library (Glibc) to interface with features that the Linux kernel will provide.

The next package installed is Glibc. The most important considerations for building Glibc are the compiler, binary tools, and kernel headers. The compiler is generally not an issue since Glibc will always use the compiler relating to the --host parameter passed to its configure script, e.g. in our case, i686-lfs-linux-gnu-gcc. The binary tools and kernel headers can be a bit more complicated. Therefore, take no risks and use the available configure switches to enforce the correct selections. After the run of configure, check the contents of the config.make file in the glibc-build directory for all important details. Note the use of CC="i686-lfs-gnu-gcc" to control which binary tools are used and the use of the -nostdinc and -isystem flags to control the compiler's include search path. These items highlight an important aspect of the Glibc package—it is very self-sufficient in terms of its build machinery and generally does not rely on toolchain defaults.

During the second pass of Binutils, we are able to utilize the --with-lib-path configure switch to control ld's library search path.

For the second pass of GCC, its sources also need to be modified to tell GCC to use the new dynamic linker. Failure to do so will result in the GCC programs themselves having the name of the dynamic linker from the host system's /lib directory embedded into them, which would defeat the goal of getting away from the host. From this point onwards, the core toolchain is self-contained and self-hosted. The remainder of the Chapter 5 packages all build against the new Glibc in /tools.

Upon entering the chroot environment in Chapter 6, the first major package to be installed is Glibc, due to its self-sufficient nature mentioned above. Once this Glibc is installed into /usr, we will perform a quick changeover of the toolchain defaults, and then proceed in building the rest of the target LFS system.

5.3. General Compilation Instructions

When building packages there are several assumptions made within the instructions:

  • Several of the packages are patched before compilation, but only when the patch is needed to circumvent a problem. A patch is often needed in both this and the next chapter, but sometimes in only one or the other. Therefore, do not be concerned if instructions for a downloaded patch seem to be missing. Warning messages about offset or fuzz may also be encountered when applying a patch. Do not worry about these warnings, as the patch was still successfully applied.

  • During the compilation of most packages, there will be several warnings that scroll by on the screen. These are normal and can safely be ignored. These warnings are as they appear—warnings about deprecated, but not invalid, use of the C or C++ syntax. C standards change fairly often, and some packages still use the older standard. This is not a problem, but does prompt the warning.

  • Check one last time that the LFS environment variable is set up properly:

    echo $LFS
    

    Make sure the output shows the path to the LFS partition's mount point, which is /mnt/lfs, using our example.

  • Finally, two last important items must be emphasized:

    Important

    The build instructions assume that the Host System Requirements, including symbolic links, have been set properly:

    • bash is the shell in use.

    • sh is a symbolic link to bash.

    • /usr/bin/awk is a symbolic link to gawk.

    • /usr/bin/yacc is a symbolic link to bison or a small script that executes bison.

    Important

    To re-emphasize the build process:

    1. Place all the sources and patches in a directory that will be accessible from the chroot environment such as /mnt/lfs/sources/. Do not put sources in /mnt/lfs/tools/.

    2. Change to the sources directory.

    3. For each package:

      1. Using the tar program, extract the package to be built. In Chapter 5, ensure you are the lfs user when extracting the package.

      2. Change to the directory created when the package was extracted.

      3. Follow the book's instructions for building the package.

      4. Change back to the sources directory.

      5. Delete the extracted source directory and any <package>-build directories that were created in the build process unless instructed otherwise.

5.4. Binutils-2.23.1 - Pass 1

The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files.

Approximate build time: 1 SBU
Required disk space: 391 MB

5.4.1. Installation of Cross Binutils

Note

Go back and re-read the notes in the previous section. Understanding the notes labeled important will save you a lot of problems later.

It is important that Binutils be the first package compiled because both Glibc and GCC perform various tests on the available linker and assembler to determine which of their own features to enable.

The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build

Note

In order for the SBU values listed in the rest of the book to be of any use, measure the time it takes to build this package from the configuration, up to and including the first install. To achieve this easily, wrap the commands in a time command like this: time { ./configure ... && ... && make install; }.

Note

The approximate build SBU values and required disk space in Chapter 5 does not include test suite data.

Now prepare Binutils for compilation:

../binutils-2.23.1/configure     \
    --prefix=/tools            \
    --with-sysroot=$LFS        \
    --with-lib-path=/tools/lib \
    --target=$LFS_TGT          \
    --disable-nls              \
    --disable-werror

The meaning of the configure options:

--prefix=/tools

This tells the configure script to prepare to install the Binutils programs in the /tools directory.

--with-sysroot=$LFS

For cross compilation, this tells the build system to look in $LFS for the target system libraries as needed.

--with-lib-path=/tools/lib

This specifies which library path the linker should be configured to use.

--target=$LFS_TGT

Because the machine description in the LFS_TGT variable is slightly different than the value returned by the config.guess script, this switch will tell the configure script to adjust Binutil's build system for building a cross linker.

--disable-nls

This disables internationalization as i18n is not needed for the temporary tools.

--disable-werror

This prevents the build from stopping in the event that there are warnings from the host's compiler.

Continue with compiling the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. Ordinarily we would now run the test suite, but at this early stage the test suite framework (Tcl, Expect, and DejaGNU) is not yet in place. The benefits of running the tests at this point are minimal since the programs from this first pass will soon be replaced by those from the second.

If building on x86_64, create a symlink to ensure the sanity of the toolchain:

case $(uname -m) in
  x86_64) mkdir -v /tools/lib && ln -sv lib /tools/lib64 ;;
esac

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.13.2, “Contents of Binutils.”

5.5. GCC-4.7.2 - Pass 1

The GCC package contains the GNU compiler collection, which includes the C and C++ compilers.

Approximate build time: 5.5 SBU
Required disk space: 1.4 GB

5.5.1. Installation of Cross GCC

GCC now requires the GMP, MPFR and MPC packages. As these packages may not be included in your host distribution, they will be built with GCC. Unpack each package into the GCC source directory and rename the resulting directories so the GCC build procedures will automatically use them:

Note

There are frequent misunderstandings about this chapter. The procedures are the same as every other chapter as explained earlier (Package build instructions). First extract the gcc tarball from the sources directory and then change to the directory created. Only then should you proceed with the instructions below.

tar -Jxf ../mpfr-3.1.1.tar.xz
mv -v mpfr-3.1.1 mpfr
tar -Jxf ../gmp-5.1.1.tar.xz
mv -v gmp-5.1.1 gmp
tar -zxf ../mpc-1.0.1.tar.gz
mv -v mpc-1.0.1 mpc

The following command will change the location of GCC's default dynamic linker to use the one installed in /tools. It also removes /usr/include from GCC's include search path. Issue:

for file in \
 $(find gcc/config -name linux64.h -o -name linux.h -o -name sysv4.h)
do
  cp -uv $file{,.orig}
  sed -e 's@/lib\(64\)\?\(32\)\?/ld@/tools&@g' \
      -e 's@/usr@/tools@g' $file.orig > $file
  echo '
#undef STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_1
#undef STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_2
#define STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_1 "/tools/lib/"
#define STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_2 ""' >> $file
  touch $file.orig
done

In case the above seems hard to follow, let's break it down a bit. First we find all the files under the gcc/config directory that are named either linux.h, linux64.h or sysv4.h. For each file found, we copy it to a file of the same name but with an added suffix of “.orig”. Then the first sed expression prepends “/tools” to every instance of “/lib/ld”, “/lib64/ld” or “/lib32/ld”, while the second one replaces hard-coded instances of “/usr”. Next, we add our define statements which alter the default startfile prefix to the end of the file. Note that the trailing “/” in “/tools/lib/” is required. Finally, we use touch to update the timestamp on the copied files. When used in conjunction with cp -u, this prevents unexpected changes to the original files in case the commands are inadvertently run twice.

GCC doesn't detect stack protection correctly, which causes problems for the build of Glibc-2.17, so fix that by issuing the following command:

sed -i '/k prot/agcc_cv_libc_provides_ssp=yes' gcc/configure

Do not build the .info files. They are not needed here and are broken with the current version of makeinfo.

sed -i 's/BUILD_INFO=info/BUILD_INFO=/' gcc/configure

The GCC documentation recommends building GCC outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../gcc-build
cd ../gcc-build

Prepare GCC for compilation:

../gcc-4.7.2/configure         \
    --target=$LFS_TGT          \
    --prefix=/tools            \
    --with-sysroot=$LFS        \
    --with-newlib              \
    --without-headers          \
    --with-local-prefix=/tools \
    --with-native-system-header-dir=/tools/include \
    --disable-nls              \
    --disable-shared           \
    --disable-multilib         \
    --disable-decimal-float    \
    --disable-threads          \
    --disable-libmudflap       \
    --disable-libssp           \
    --disable-libgomp          \
    --disable-libquadmath      \
    --enable-languages=c       \
    --with-mpfr-include=$(pwd)/../gcc-4.7.2/mpfr/src \
    --with-mpfr-lib=$(pwd)/mpfr/src/.libs

The meaning of the configure options:

--with-newlib

Since a working C library is not yet available, this ensures that the inhibit_libc constant is defined when building libgcc. This prevents the compiling of any code that requires libc support.

--without-headers

When creating a complete cross-compiler, GCC requires standard headers compatible with the target system. For our purposes these headers will not be needed. This switch prevents GCC from looking for them.

--with-local-prefix=/tools

The local prefix is the location in the system that GCC will search for locally installed include files. The default is /usr/local. Setting this to /tools helps keep the host location of /usr/local out of this GCC's search path.

--with-native-system-header-dir=/tools/include

By default GCC searches /usr/include for system headers. In conjunction with the sysroot switch, this would translate normally to $LFS/usr/include. However the headers that will be installed in the next two sections will go to $LFS/tools/include. This switch ensures that gcc will find them correctly. In the second pass of GCC, this same switch will ensure that no headers from the host system are found.

--disable-shared

This switch forces GCC to link its internal libraries statically. We do this to avoid possible issues with the host system.

--disable-decimal-float, --disable-threads, --disable-libmudflap, --disable-libssp, --disable-libgomp, --disable-libquadmath

These switches disable support for the decimal floating point extension, threading, libmudflap, libssp and libgomp and libquadmath respectively. These features will fail to compile when building a cross-compiler and are not necessary for the task of cross-compiling the temporary libc.

--disable-multilib

On x86_64, LFS does not yet support a multilib configuration. This switch is harmless for x86.

--enable-languages=c

This option ensures that only the C compiler is built. This is the only language needed now.

Compile GCC by running:

make

Compilation is now complete. At this point, the test suite would normally be run, but, as mentioned before, the test suite framework is not in place yet. The benefits of running the tests at this point are minimal since the programs from this first pass will soon be replaced.

Install the package:

make install

Using --disable-shared means that the libgcc_eh.a file isn't created and installed. The Glibc package depends on this library as it uses -lgcc_eh within its build system. This dependency can be satisfied by creating a symlink to libgcc.a, since that file will end up containing the objects normally contained in libgcc_eh.a:

ln -sv libgcc.a `$LFS_TGT-gcc -print-libgcc-file-name | sed 's/libgcc/&_eh/'`

Details on this package are located in Section 6.17.2, “Contents of GCC.”

5.6. Linux-3.8.1 API Headers

The Linux API Headers (in linux-3.8.1.tar.xz) expose the kernel's API for use by Glibc.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 511 MB

5.6.1. Installation of Linux API Headers

The Linux kernel needs to expose an Application Programming Interface (API) for the system's C library (Glibc in LFS) to use. This is done by way of sanitizing various C header files that are shipped in the Linux kernel source tarball.

Make sure there are no stale files and dependencies lying around from previous activity:

make mrproper

Now test and extract the user-visible kernel headers from the source. They are placed in an intermediate local directory and copied to the needed location because the extraction process removes any existing files in the target directory.

make headers_check
make INSTALL_HDR_PATH=dest headers_install
cp -rv dest/include/* /tools/include

Details on this package are located in Section 6.7.2, “Contents of Linux API Headers.”

5.7. Glibc-2.17

The Glibc package contains the main C library. This library provides the basic routines for allocating memory, searching directories, opening and closing files, reading and writing files, string handling, pattern matching, arithmetic, and so on.

Approximate build time: 5.4 SBU
Required disk space: 554 MB

5.7.1. Installation of Glibc

In some cases, particularly LFS 7.1, the rpc headers were not installed properly. Test to see if they are installed in the host system and install if they are not:

if [ ! -r /usr/include/rpc/types.h ]; then
  su -c 'mkdir -p /usr/include/rpc'
  su -c 'cp -v sunrpc/rpc/*.h /usr/include/rpc'
fi

The Glibc documentation recommends building Glibc outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../glibc-build
cd ../glibc-build

Next, prepare Glibc for compilation:

../glibc-2.17/configure                             \
      --prefix=/tools                                 \
      --host=$LFS_TGT                                 \
      --build=$(../glibc-2.17/scripts/config.guess) \
      --disable-profile                               \
      --enable-kernel=2.6.25                          \
      --with-headers=/tools/include                   \
      libc_cv_forced_unwind=yes                       \
      libc_cv_ctors_header=yes                        \
      libc_cv_c_cleanup=yes

The meaning of the configure options:

--host=$LFS_TGT, --build=$(../glibc-2.17/scripts/config.guess)

The combined effect of these switches is that Glibc's build system configures itself to cross-compile, using the cross-linker and cross-compiler in /tools.

--disable-profile

This builds the libraries without profiling information. Omit this option if profiling on the temporary tools is necessary.

--enable-kernel=2.6.25

This tells Glibc to compile the library with support for 2.6.25 and later Linux kernels. Workarounds for older kernels are not enabled.

--with-headers=/tools/include

This tells Glibc to compile itself against the headers recently installed to the tools directory, so that it knows exactly what features the kernel has and can optimize itself accordingly.

libc_cv_forced_unwind=yes

The linker installed during Section 5.4, “Binutils-2.23.1 - Pass 1” was cross-compiled and as such cannot be used until Glibc has been installed. This means that the configure test for force-unwind support will fail, as it relies on a working linker. The libc_cv_forced_unwind=yes variable is passed in order to inform configure that force-unwind support is available without it having to run the test.

libc_cv_c_cleanup=yes

Simlarly, we pass libc_cv_c_cleanup=yes through to the configure script so that the test is skipped and C cleanup handling support is configured.

libc_cv_ctors_header=yes

Simlarly, we pass libc_cv_ctors_header=yes through to the configure script so that the test is skipped and gcc constructor support is configured.

During this stage the following warning might appear:

configure: WARNING:
*** These auxiliary programs are missing or
*** incompatible versions: msgfmt
*** some features will be disabled.
*** Check the INSTALL file for required versions.

The missing or incompatible msgfmt program is generally harmless. This msgfmt program is part of the Gettext package which the host distribution should provide.

Compile the package:

make

This package does come with a test suite, however, it cannot be run at this time because we do not have a C++ compiler yet.

Note

The test suite also requires locale data to be installed in order to run successfully. Locale data provides information to the system regarding such things as the date, time, and currency formats accepted and output by system utilities. If the test suites are not being run in this chapter (as per the recommendation), there is no need to install the locales now. The appropriate locales will be installed in the next chapter. To install the Glibc locales anyway, use instructions from Section 6.9, “Glibc-2.17.”

Install the package:

make install

Caution

At this point, it is imperative to stop and ensure that the basic functions (compiling and linking) of the new toolchain are working as expected. To perform a sanity check, run the following commands:

echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c
$LFS_TGT-gcc dummy.c
readelf -l a.out | grep ': /tools'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be of the form:

[Requesting program interpreter: /tools/lib/ld-linux.so.2]

Note that /tools/lib, or /tools/lib64 for 64-bit machines appears as the prefix of the dynamic linker.

If the output is not shown as above or there was no output at all, then something is wrong. Investigate and retrace the steps to find out where the problem is and correct it. This issue must be resolved before continuing on.

Once all is well, clean up the test files:

rm -v dummy.c a.out

Note

Building Binutils in the next section will serve as an additional check that the toolchain has been built properly. If Binutils fails to build, it is an indication that something has gone wrong with the previous Binutils, GCC, or Glibc installations.

Details on this package are located in Section 6.9.4, “Contents of Glibc.”

5.8. Binutils-2.23.1 - Pass 2

The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files.

Approximate build time: 1.1 SBU
Required disk space: 407 MB

5.8.1. Installation of Binutils

Create a separate build directory again:

mkdir -v ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build

Prepare Binutils for compilation:

CC=$LFS_TGT-gcc            \
AR=$LFS_TGT-ar             \
RANLIB=$LFS_TGT-ranlib     \
../binutils-2.23.1/configure \
    --prefix=/tools        \
    --disable-nls          \
    --with-lib-path=/tools/lib

The meaning of the new configure options:

CC=$LFS_TGT-gcc AR=$LFS_TGT-ar RANLIB=$LFS_TGT-ranlib

Because this is really a native build of Binutils, setting these variables ensures that the build system uses the cross-compiler and associated tools instead of the ones on the host system.

--with-lib-path=/tools/lib

This tells the configure script to specify the library search path during the compilation of Binutils, resulting in /tools/lib being passed to the linker. This prevents the linker from searching through library directories on the host.

Compile the package:

make

Install the package:

make install

Now prepare the linker for the “Re-adjusting” phase in the next chapter:

make -C ld clean
make -C ld LIB_PATH=/usr/lib:/lib
cp -v ld/ld-new /tools/bin

The meaning of the make parameters:

-C ld clean

This tells the make program to remove all compiled files in the ld subdirectory.

-C ld LIB_PATH=/usr/lib:/lib

This option rebuilds everything in the ld subdirectory. Specifying the LIB_PATH Makefile variable on the command line allows us to override the default value of the temporary tools and point it to the proper final path. The value of this variable specifies the linker's default library search path. This preparation is used in the next chapter.

Details on this package are located in Section 6.13.2, “Contents of Binutils.”

5.9. GCC-4.7.2 - Pass 2

The GCC package contains the GNU compiler collection, which includes the C and C++ compilers.

Approximate build time: 7.1 SBU
Required disk space: 1.8 GB

5.9.1. Installation of GCC

Our first build of GCC has installed a couple of internal system headers. Normally one of them, limits.h will in turn include the corresponding system limits.h header, in this case, /tools/include/limits.h. However, at the time of the first build of gcc /tools/include/limits.h did not exist, so the internal header that GCC installed is a partial, self-contained file and does not include the extended features of the system header. This was adequate for building the temporary libc, but this build of GCC now requires the full internal header. Create a full version of the internal header using a command that is identical to what the GCC build system does in normal circumstances:

cat gcc/limitx.h gcc/glimits.h gcc/limity.h > \
  `dirname $($LFS_TGT-gcc -print-libgcc-file-name)`/include-fixed/limits.h

For x86 machines, a bootstrap build of GCC uses the -fomit-frame-pointer compiler flag. Non-bootstrap builds omit this flag by default, and the goal should be to produce a compiler that is exactly the same as if it were bootstrapped. Apply the following sed command to force the build to use the flag:

cp -v gcc/Makefile.in{,.tmp}
sed 's/^T_CFLAGS =$/& -fomit-frame-pointer/' gcc/Makefile.in.tmp \
  > gcc/Makefile.in

Once again, change the location of GCC's default dynamic linker to use the one installed in /tools.

for file in \
 $(find gcc/config -name linux64.h -o -name linux.h -o -name sysv4.h)
do
  cp -uv $file{,.orig}
  sed -e 's@/lib\(64\)\?\(32\)\?/ld@/tools&@g' \
  -e 's@/usr@/tools@g' $file.orig > $file
  echo '
#undef STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_1
#undef STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_2
#define STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_1 "/tools/lib/"
#define STANDARD_STARTFILE_PREFIX_2 ""' >> $file
  touch $file.orig
done

As in the first build of GCC it requires the GMP, MPFR and MPC packages. Unpack the tarballs and move them into the required directory names:

tar -Jxf ../mpfr-3.1.1.tar.xz
mv -v mpfr-3.1.1 mpfr
tar -Jxf ../gmp-5.1.1.tar.xz
mv -v gmp-5.1.1 gmp
tar -zxf ../mpc-1.0.1.tar.gz
mv -v mpc-1.0.1 mpc

Again, do not build the .info files. They are not needed here and are broken with the current version of makeinfo.

sed -i 's/BUILD_INFO=info/BUILD_INFO=/' gcc/configure

Create a separate build directory again:

mkdir -v ../gcc-build
cd ../gcc-build

Before starting to build GCC, remember to unset any environment variables that override the default optimization flags.

Now prepare GCC for compilation:

CC=$LFS_TGT-gcc \
AR=$LFS_TGT-ar                  \
RANLIB=$LFS_TGT-ranlib          \
../gcc-4.7.2/configure          \
    --prefix=/tools             \
    --with-local-prefix=/tools  \
    --with-native-system-header-dir=/tools/include \
    --enable-clocale=gnu        \
    --enable-shared             \
    --enable-threads=posix      \
    --enable-__cxa_atexit       \
    --enable-languages=c,c++    \
    --disable-libstdcxx-pch     \
    --disable-multilib          \
    --disable-bootstrap         \
    --disable-libgomp           \
    --with-mpfr-include=$(pwd)/../gcc-4.7.2/mpfr/src \
    --with-mpfr-lib=$(pwd)/mpfr/src/.libs

The meaning of the new configure options:

--enable-clocale=gnu

This option ensures the correct locale model is selected for the C++ libraries under all circumstances. If the configure script finds the de_DE locale installed, it will select the correct gnu locale model. However, if the de_DE locale is not installed, there is the risk of building Application Binary Interface (ABI)-incompatible C++ libraries because the incorrect generic locale model may be selected.

--enable-threads=posix

This enables C++ exception handling for multi-threaded code.

--enable-__cxa_atexit

This option allows use of __cxa_atexit, rather than atexit, to register C++ destructors for local statics and global objects. This option is essential for fully standards-compliant handling of destructors. It also affects the C++ ABI, and therefore results in C++ shared libraries and C++ programs that are interoperable with other Linux distributions.

--enable-languages=c,c++

This option ensures that both the C and C++ compilers are built.

--disable-libstdcxx-pch

Do not build the pre-compiled header (PCH) for libstdc++. It takes up a lot of space, and we have no use for it.

--disable-bootstrap

For native builds of GCC, the default is to do a "bootstrap" build. This does not just compile GCC, but compiles it several times. It uses the programs compiled in a first round to compile itself a second time, and then again a third time. The second and third iterations are compared to make sure it can reproduce itself flawlessly. This also implies that it was compiled correctly. However, the LFS build method should provide a solid compiler without the need to bootstrap each time.

Compile the package:

make

Install the package:

make install

As a finishing touch, create a symlink. Many programs and scripts run cc instead of gcc, which is used to keep programs generic and therefore usable on all kinds of UNIX systems where the GNU C compiler is not always installed. Running cc leaves the system administrator free to decide which C compiler to install:

ln -sv gcc /tools/bin/cc

Caution

At this point, it is imperative to stop and ensure that the basic functions (compiling and linking) of the new toolchain are working as expected. To perform a sanity check, run the following commands:

echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c
cc dummy.c
readelf -l a.out | grep ': /tools'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be of the form:

[Requesting program interpreter: /tools/lib/ld-linux.so.2]

Note that /tools/lib, or /tools/lib64 for 64-bit machines appears as the prefix of the dynamic linker.

If the output is not shown as above or there was no output at all, then something is wrong. Investigate and retrace the steps to find out where the problem is and correct it. This issue must be resolved before continuing on. First, perform the sanity check again, using gcc instead of cc. If this works, then the /tools/bin/cc symlink is missing. Install the symlink as per above. Next, ensure that the PATH is correct. This can be checked by running echo $PATH and verifying that /tools/bin is at the head of the list. If the PATH is wrong it could mean that you are not logged in as user lfs or that something went wrong back in Section 4.4, “Setting Up the Environment.”

Once all is well, clean up the test files:

rm -v dummy.c a.out

Details on this package are located in Section 6.17.2, “Contents of GCC.”

5.10. Tcl-8.6.0

The Tcl package contains the Tool Command Language.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 33 MB

5.10.1. Installation of Tcl

This package and the next three (Expect, DejaGNU, and Check) are installed to support running the test suites for GCC and Binutils and other packages. Installing four packages for testing purposes may seem excessive, but it is very reassuring, if not essential, to know that the most important tools are working properly. Even if the test suites are not run in this chapter (they are not mandatory), these packages are required to run the test suites in Chapter 6.

Prepare Tcl for compilation:

cd unix
./configure --prefix=/tools

Build the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Tcl test suite anyway, issue the following command:

TZ=UTC make test

The Tcl test suite may experience failures under certain host conditions that are not fully understood. Therefore, test suite failures here are not surprising, and are not considered critical. The TZ=UTC parameter sets the time zone to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but only for the duration of the test suite run. This ensures that the clock tests are exercised correctly. Details on the TZ environment variable are provided in Chapter 7.

Install the package:

make install

Make the installed library writable so debugging symbols can be removed later:

chmod -v u+w /tools/lib/libtcl8.6.so

Install Tcl's headers. The next package, Expect, requires them to build.

make install-private-headers

Now make a necessary symbolic link:

ln -sv tclsh8.6 /tools/bin/tclsh

5.10.2. Contents of Tcl

Installed programs: tclsh (link to tclsh8.6) and tclsh8.6
Installed library: libtcl8.6.so, libtclstub8.6.a

Short Descriptions

tclsh8.6

The Tcl command shell

tclsh

A link to tclsh8.6

libtcl8.6.so

The Tcl library

libtclstub8.6.a

The Tcl Stub library

5.11. Expect-5.45

The Expect package contains a program for carrying out scripted dialogues with other interactive programs.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 4.4 MB

5.11.1. Installation of Expect

First, force Expect's configure script to use /bin/stty instead of a /usr/local/bin/stty it may find on the host system. This will ensure that our test suite tools remain sane for the final builds of our toolchain:

cp -v configure{,.orig}
sed 's:/usr/local/bin:/bin:' configure.orig > configure

Now prepare Expect for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools --with-tcl=/tools/lib \
  --with-tclinclude=/tools/include

The meaning of the configure options:

--with-tcl=/tools/lib

This ensures that the configure script finds the Tcl installation in the temporary tools location instead of possibly locating an existing one on the host system.

--with-tclinclude=/tools/include

This explicitly tells Expect where to find Tcl's internal headers. Using this option avoids conditions where configure fails because it cannot automatically discover the location of Tcl's headers.

Build the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Expect test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make test

Note that the Expect test suite is known to experience failures under certain host conditions that are not within our control. Therefore, test suite failures here are not surprising and are not considered critical.

Install the package:

make SCRIPTS="" install

The meaning of the make parameter:

SCRIPTS=""

This prevents installation of the supplementary Expect scripts, which are not needed.

5.11.2. Contents of Expect

Installed program: expect
Installed library: libexpect-5.45.a

Short Descriptions

expect

Communicates with other interactive programs according to a script

libexpect-5.45.a

Contains functions that allow Expect to be used as a Tcl extension or to be used directly from C or C++ (without Tcl)

5.12. DejaGNU-1.5

The DejaGNU package contains a framework for testing other programs.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 4.1 MB

5.12.1. Installation of DejaGNU

Prepare DejaGNU for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Build and install the package:

make install

To test the results, issue:

make check

5.12.2. Contents of DejaGNU

Installed program: runtest

Short Descriptions

runtest

A wrapper script that locates the proper expect shell and then runs DejaGNU

5.13. Check-0.9.9

Check is a unit testing framework for C.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.9 MB

5.13.1. Installation of Check

Prepare Check for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Build the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Check test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Note that the Check test suite may take a relatively long (up to 4 SBU) time.

Install the package:

make install

5.13.2. Contents of Check

Installed program: checkmk
Installed library: libcheck.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

checkmk

Awk script for generating C unit tests for use with the Check unit testing framework

libcheck.{a,so}

Contains functions that allow Check to be called from a test program

5.14. Ncurses-5.9

The Ncurses package contains libraries for terminal-independent handling of character screens.

Approximate build time: 0.5 SBU
Required disk space: 35 MB

5.14.1. Installation of Ncurses

Prepare Ncurses for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools --with-shared \
    --without-debug --without-ada --enable-overwrite

The meaning of the configure options:

--without-ada

This ensures that Ncurses does not build support for the Ada compiler which may be present on the host but will not be available once we enter the chroot environment.

--enable-overwrite

This tells Ncurses to install its header files into /tools/include, instead of /tools/include/ncurses, to ensure that other packages can find the Ncurses headers successfully.

Compile the package:

make

This package has a test suite, but it can only be run after the package has been installed. The tests reside in the test/ directory. See the README file in that directory for further details.

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.21.2, “Contents of Ncurses.”

5.15. Bash-4.2

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again SHell.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 48 MB

5.15.1. Installation of Bash

First, apply the following patch to fix various bugs that have been addressed upstream:

patch -Np1 -i ../bash-4.2-fixes-11.patch

Prepare Bash for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools --without-bash-malloc

The meaning of the configure options:

--without-bash-malloc

This option turns off the use of Bash's memory allocation (malloc) function which is known to cause segmentation faults. By turning this option off, Bash will use the malloc functions from Glibc which are more stable.

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Bash test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make tests

Install the package:

make install

Make a link for the programs that use sh for a shell:

ln -sv bash /tools/bin/sh

Details on this package are located in Section 6.33.2, “Contents of Bash.”

5.16. Bzip2-1.0.6

The Bzip2 package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. Compressing text files with bzip2 yields a much better compression percentage than with the traditional gzip.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 5.7 MB

5.16.1. Installation of Bzip2

The Bzip2 package does not contain a configure script. Compile and test it with:

make

Install the package:

make PREFIX=/tools install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.19.2, “Contents of Bzip2.”

5.17. Coreutils-8.21

The Coreutils package contains utilities for showing and setting the basic system characteristics.

Approximate build time: 0.8 SBU
Required disk space: 133 MB

5.17.1. Installation of Coreutils

Prepare Coreutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools --enable-install-program=hostname

The meaning of the configure options:

--enable-install-program=hostname

This enables the hostname binary to be built and installed – it is disabled by default but is required by the Perl test suite.

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Coreutils test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make RUN_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes check

The RUN_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes parameter tells the test suite to run several additional tests that are considered relatively expensive (in terms of CPU power and memory usage) on some platforms, but generally are not a problem on Linux.

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.27.2, “Contents of Coreutils.”

5.18. Diffutils-3.2

The Diffutils package contains programs that show the differences between files or directories.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 8.5 MB

5.18.1. Installation of Diffutils

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17:

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' lib/stdio.in.h

Prepare Diffutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Diffutils test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.40.2, “Contents of Diffutils.”

5.19. File-5.13

The File package contains a utility for determining the type of a given file or files.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 12.4 MB

5.19.1. Installation of File

Prepare File for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the File test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.12.2, “Contents of File.”

5.20. Findutils-4.4.2

The Findutils package contains programs to find files. These programs are provided to recursively search through a directory tree and to create, maintain, and search a database (often faster than the recursive find, but unreliable if the database has not been recently updated).

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 27 MB

5.20.1. Installation of Findutils

Prepare Findutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Findutils test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.42.2, “Contents of Findutils.”

5.21. Gawk-4.0.2

The Gawk package contains programs for manipulating text files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 30 MB

5.21.1. Installation of Gawk

Prepare Gawk for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Gawk test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.41.2, “Contents of Gawk.”

5.22. Gettext-0.18.2

The Gettext package contains utilities for internationalization and localization. These allow programs to be compiled with NLS (Native Language Support), enabling them to output messages in the user's native language.

Approximate build time: 0.6 SBU
Required disk space: 101 MB

5.22.1. Installation of Gettext

For our temporary set of tools, we only need to build and install one binary from Gettext.

Prepare Gettext for compilation:

cd gettext-tools
EMACS="no" ./configure --prefix=/tools --disable-shared

The meaning of the configure option:

EMACS="no"

This prevents the configure script from determining where to install Emacs Lisp files as the test is known to hang on some hosts.

--disable-shared

We do not need to install any of the shared Gettext libraries at this time, therefore there is no need to build them.

Compile the package:

make -C gnulib-lib
make -C src msgfmt

As only one binary has been compiled, it is not possible to run the test suite without compiling additional support libraries from the Gettext package. It is therefore not recommended to attempt to run the test suite at this stage.

Install the msgfmt binary:

cp -v src/msgfmt /tools/bin

Details on this package are located in Section 6.44.2, “Contents of Gettext.”

5.23. Grep-2.14

The Grep package contains programs for searching through files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 21 MB

5.23.1. Installation of Grep

Prepare Grep for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Grep test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.31.2, “Contents of Grep.”

5.24. Gzip-1.5

The Gzip package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 10 MB

5.24.1. Installation of Gzip

Prepare Gzip for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Gzip test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.49.2, “Contents of Gzip.”

5.25. M4-1.4.16

The M4 package contains a macro processor.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 16.6 MB

5.25.1. Installation of M4

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17:

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' lib/stdio.in.h

Prepare M4 for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the M4 test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.29.2, “Contents of M4.”

5.26. Make-3.82

The Make package contains a program for compiling packages.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 11.2 MB

5.26.1. Installation of Make

Prepare Make for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Make test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.54.2, “Contents of Make.”

5.27. Patch-2.7.1

The Patch package contains a program for modifying or creating files by applying a “patch” file typically created by the diff program.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 3.4 MB

5.27.1. Installation of Patch

Prepare Patch for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Patch test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.56.2, “Contents of Patch.”

5.28. Perl-5.16.2

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

Approximate build time: 1.8 SBU
Required disk space: 237 MB

5.28.1. Installation of Perl

First apply the following patch to adapt some hard-wired paths to the C library:

patch -Np1 -i ../perl-5.16.2-libc-1.patch

Prepare Perl for compilation:

sh Configure -des -Dprefix=/tools

Build the package:

make

Although Perl comes with a test suite, it would be better to wait until it is installed in the next chapter.

Only a few of the utilities and libraries, need to be installed at this time:

cp -v perl cpan/podlators/pod2man /tools/bin
mkdir -pv /tools/lib/perl5/5.16.2
cp -Rv lib/* /tools/lib/perl5/5.16.2

Details on this package are located in Section 6.37.2, “Contents of Perl.”

5.29. Sed-4.2.2

The Sed package contains a stream editor.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 10.5 MB

5.29.1. Installation of Sed

Prepare Sed for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Sed test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.18.2, “Contents of Sed.”

5.30. Tar-1.26

The Tar package contains an archiving program.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 20.6 MB

5.30.1. Installation of Tar

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17:

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' gnu/stdio.in.h

Prepare Tar for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Tar test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.59.2, “Contents of Tar.”

5.31. Texinfo-5.0

The Texinfo package contains programs for reading, writing, and converting info pages.

Approximate build time: 0.3 SBU
Required disk space: 94 MB

5.31.1. Installation of Texinfo

Prepare Texinfo for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Texinfo test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.60.2, “Contents of Texinfo.”

5.32. Xz-5.0.4

The Xz package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. It provides capabilities for the lzma and the newer xz compression formats. Compressing text files with xz yields a better compression percentage than with the traditional gzip or bzip2 commands.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 16.3 MB

5.32.1. Installation of Xz-Utils

Prepare Xz for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package:

make

Compilation is now complete. As discussed earlier, running the test suite is not mandatory for the temporary tools here in this chapter. To run the Xz test suite anyway, issue the following command:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.46.2, “Contents of Xz.”

5.33. Stripping

The steps in this section are optional, but if the LFS partition is rather small, it is beneficial to learn that unnecessary items can be removed. The executables and libraries built so far contain about 70 MB of unneeded debugging symbols. Remove those symbols with:

strip --strip-debug /tools/lib/*
strip --strip-unneeded /tools/{,s}bin/*

These commands will skip a number of files, reporting that it does not recognize their file format. Most of these are scripts instead of binaries.

Take care not to use --strip-unneeded on the libraries. The static ones would be destroyed and the toolchain packages would need to be built all over again.

To save more, remove the documentation:

rm -rf /tools/{,share}/{info,man,doc}

At this point, you should have at least 850 MB of free space in $LFS that can be used to build and install Glibc in the next phase. If you can build and install Glibc, you can build and install the rest too.

5.34. Changing Ownership

Note

The commands in the remainder of this book must be performed while logged in as user root and no longer as user lfs. Also, double check that $LFS is set in root's environment.

Currently, the $LFS/tools directory is owned by the user lfs, a user that exists only on the host system. If the $LFS/tools directory is kept as is, the files are owned by a user ID without a corresponding account. This is dangerous because a user account created later could get this same user ID and would own the $LFS/tools directory and all the files therein, thus exposing these files to possible malicious manipulation.

To avoid this issue, you could add the lfs user to the new LFS system later when creating the /etc/passwd file, taking care to assign it the same user and group IDs as on the host system. Better yet, change the ownership of the $LFS/tools directory to user root by running the following command:

chown -R root:root $LFS/tools

Although the $LFS/tools directory can be deleted once the LFS system has been finished, it can be retained to build additional LFS systems of the same book version. How best to backup $LFS/tools is a matter of personal preference.

Caution

If you intend to keep the temporary tools for use in building future LFS systems, now is the time to back them up. Subsequent commands in chapter 6 will alter the tools currently in place, rendering them useless for future builds.

Part III. Building the LFS System

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.1. Introduction

In this chapter, we enter the building site and start constructing the LFS system in earnest. That is, we chroot into the temporary mini Linux system, make a few final preparations, and then begin installing the packages.

The installation of this software is straightforward. Although in many cases the installation instructions could be made shorter and more generic, we have opted to provide the full instructions for every package to minimize the possibilities for mistakes. The key to learning what makes a Linux system work is to know what each package is used for and why you (or the system) may need it.

We do not recommend using optimizations. They can make a program run slightly faster, but they may also cause compilation difficulties and problems when running the program. If a package refuses to compile when using optimization, try to compile it without optimization and see if that fixes the problem. Even if the package does compile when using optimization, there is the risk it may have been compiled incorrectly because of the complex interactions between the code and build tools. Also note that the -march and -mtune options using values not specified in the book have not been tested. This may cause problems with the toolchain packages (Binutils, GCC and Glibc). The small potential gains achieved in using compiler optimizations are often outweighed by the risks. First-time builders of LFS are encouraged to build without custom optimizations. The subsequent system will still run very fast and be stable at the same time.

The order that packages are installed in this chapter needs to be strictly followed to ensure that no program accidentally acquires a path referring to /tools hard-wired into it. For the same reason, do not compile separate packages in parallel. Compiling in parallel may save time (especially on dual-CPU machines), but it could result in a program containing a hard-wired path to /tools, which will cause the program to stop working when that directory is removed.

Before the installation instructions, each installation page provides information about the package, including a concise description of what it contains, approximately how long it will take to build, and how much disk space is required during this building process. Following the installation instructions, there is a list of programs and libraries (along with brief descriptions of these) that the package installs.

Note

The SBU values and required disk space includes test suite data for all applicable packages in Chapter 6.

6.2. Preparing Virtual Kernel File Systems

Various file systems exported by the kernel are used to communicate to and from the kernel itself. These file systems are virtual in that no disk space is used for them. The content of the file systems resides in memory.

Begin by creating directories onto which the file systems will be mounted:

mkdir -v $LFS/{dev,proc,sys}

6.2.1. Creating Initial Device Nodes

When the kernel boots the system, it requires the presence of a few device nodes, in particular the console and null devices. The device nodes must be created on the hard disk so that they are available before udevd has been started, and additionally when Linux is started with init=/bin/bash. Create the devices by running the following commands:

mknod -m 600 $LFS/dev/console c 5 1
mknod -m 666 $LFS/dev/null c 1 3

6.2.2. Mounting and Populating /dev

The recommended method of populating the /dev directory with devices is to mount a virtual filesystem (such as tmpfs) on the /dev directory, and allow the devices to be created dynamically on that virtual filesystem as they are detected or accessed. Device creation is generally done during the boot process by Udev. Since this new system does not yet have Udev and has not yet been booted, it is necessary to mount and populate /dev manually. This is accomplished by bind mounting the host system's /dev directory. A bind mount is a special type of mount that allows you to create a mirror of a directory or mount point to some other location. Use the following command to achieve this:

mount -v --bind /dev $LFS/dev

6.2.3. Mounting Virtual Kernel File Systems

Now mount the remaining virtual kernel filesystems:

mount -vt devpts devpts $LFS/dev/pts
mount -vt proc proc $LFS/proc
mount -vt sysfs sysfs $LFS/sys

In some host systems, /dev/shm is a symbolic link to /run/shm. Inside a chroot environment, this temporary file system needs to be mounted separate from the host file system:

if [ -h $LFS/dev/shm ]; then
  link=$(readlink $LFS/dev/shm)
  mkdir -p $LFS/$link
  mount -vt tmpfs shm $LFS/$link
  unset link
else
  mount -vt tmpfs shm $LFS/dev/shm
fi

6.3. Package Management

Package Management is an often requested addition to the LFS Book. A Package Manager allows tracking the installation of files making it easy to remove and upgrade packages. As well as the binary and library files, a package manager will handle the installation of configuration files. Before you begin to wonder, NO—this section will not talk about nor recommend any particular package manager. What it provides is a roundup of the more popular techniques and how they work. The perfect package manager for you may be among these techniques or may be a combination of two or more of these techniques. This section briefly mentions issues that may arise when upgrading packages.

Some reasons why no package manager is mentioned in LFS or BLFS include:

  • Dealing with package management takes the focus away from the goals of these books—teaching how a Linux system is built.

  • There are multiple solutions for package management, each having its strengths and drawbacks. Including one that satisfies all audiences is difficult.

There are some hints written on the topic of package management. Visit the Hints Project and see if one of them fits your need.

6.3.1. Upgrade Issues

A Package Manager makes it easy to upgrade to newer versions when they are released. Generally the instructions in the LFS and BLFS Book can be used to upgrade to the newer versions. Here are some points that you should be aware of when upgrading packages, especially on a running system.

  • If one of the toolchain packages (Glibc, GCC or Binutils) needs to be upgraded to a newer minor version, it is safer to rebuild LFS. Though you may be able to get by rebuilding all the packages in their dependency order, we do not recommend it. For example, if glibc-2.2.x needs to be updated to glibc-2.3.x, it is safer to rebuild. For micro version updates, a simple reinstallation usually works, but is not guaranteed. For example, upgrading from glibc-2.3.4 to glibc-2.3.5 will not usually cause any problems.

  • If a package containing a shared library is updated, and if the name of the library changes, then all the packages dynamically linked to the library need to be recompiled to link against the newer library. (Note that there is no correlation between the package version and the name of the library.) For example, consider a package foo-1.2.3 that installs a shared library with name libfoo.so.1. Say you upgrade the package to a newer version foo-1.2.4 that installs a shared library with name libfoo.so.2. In this case, all packages that are dynamically linked to libfoo.so.1 need to be recompiled to link against libfoo.so.2. Note that you should not remove the previous libraries until the dependent packages are recompiled.

6.3.2. Package Management Techniques

The following are some common package management techniques. Before making a decision on a package manager, do some research on the various techniques, particularly the drawbacks of the particular scheme.

6.3.2.1. It is All in My Head!

Yes, this is a package management technique. Some folks do not find the need for a package manager because they know the packages intimately and know what files are installed by each package. Some users also do not need any package management because they plan on rebuilding the entire system when a package is changed.

6.3.2.2. Install in Separate Directories

This is a simplistic package management that does not need any extra package to manage the installations. Each package is installed in a separate directory. For example, package foo-1.1 is installed in /usr/pkg/foo-1.1 and a symlink is made from /usr/pkg/foo to /usr/pkg/foo-1.1. When installing a new version foo-1.2, it is installed in /usr/pkg/foo-1.2 and the previous symlink is replaced by a symlink to the new version.

Environment variables such as PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, MANPATH, INFOPATH and CPPFLAGS need to be expanded to include /usr/pkg/foo. For more than a few packages, this scheme becomes unmanageable.

6.3.2.3. Symlink Style Package Management

This is a variation of the previous package management technique. Each package is installed similar to the previous scheme. But instead of making the symlink, each file is symlinked into the /usr hierarchy. This removes the need to expand the environment variables. Though the symlinks can be created by the user to automate the creation, many package managers have been written using this approach. A few of the popular ones include Stow, Epkg, Graft, and Depot.

The installation needs to be faked, so that the package thinks that it is installed in /usr though in reality it is installed in the /usr/pkg hierarchy. Installing in this manner is not usually a trivial task. For example, consider that you are installing a package libfoo-1.1. The following instructions may not install the package properly:

./configure --prefix=/usr/pkg/libfoo/1.1
make
make install

The installation will work, but the dependent packages may not link to libfoo as you would expect. If you compile a package that links against libfoo, you may notice that it is linked to /usr/pkg/libfoo/1.1/lib/libfoo.so.1 instead of /usr/lib/libfoo.so.1 as you would expect. The correct approach is to use the DESTDIR strategy to fake installation of the package. This approach works as follows:

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make DESTDIR=/usr/pkg/libfoo/1.1 install

Most packages support this approach, but there are some which do not. For the non-compliant packages, you may either need to manually install the package, or you may find that it is easier to install some problematic packages into /opt.

6.3.2.4. Timestamp Based

In this technique, a file is timestamped before the installation of the package. After the installation, a simple use of the find command with the appropriate options can generate a log of all the files installed after the timestamp file was created. A package manager written with this approach is install-log.

Though this scheme has the advantage of being simple, it has two drawbacks. If, during installation, the files are installed with any timestamp other than the current time, those files will not be tracked by the package manager. Also, this scheme can only be used when one package is installed at a time. The logs are not reliable if two packages are being installed on two different consoles.

6.3.2.5. Tracing Installation Scripts

In this approach, the commands that the installation scripts perform are recorded. There are two techniques that one can use:

The LD_PRELOAD environment variable can be set to point to a library to be preloaded before installation. During installation, this library tracks the packages that are being installed by attaching itself to various executables such as cp, install, mv and tracking the system calls that modify the filesystem. For this approach to work, all the executables need to be dynamically linked without the suid or sgid bit. Preloading the library may cause some unwanted side-effects during installation. Therefore, it is advised that one performs some tests to ensure that the package manager does not break anything and logs all the appropriate files.

The second technique is to use strace, which logs all system calls made during the execution of the installation scripts.

6.3.2.6. Creating Package Archives

In this scheme, the package installation is faked into a separate tree as described in the Symlink style package management. After the installation, a package archive is created using the installed files. This archive is then used to install the package either on the local machine or can even be used to install the package on other machines.

This approach is used by most of the package managers found in the commercial distributions. Examples of package managers that follow this approach are RPM (which, incidentally, is required by the Linux Standard Base Specification), pkg-utils, Debian's apt, and Gentoo's Portage system. A hint describing how to adopt this style of package management for LFS systems is located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/fakeroot.txt.

Creation of package files that include dependency information is complex and is beyond the scope of LFS.

Slackware uses a tar based system for package archives. This system purposely does not handle package dependencies as more complex package managers do. For details of Slackware package management, see http://www.slackbook.org/html/package-management.html.

6.3.2.7. User Based Management

This scheme, unique to LFS, was devised by Matthias Benkmann, and is available from the Hints Project. In this scheme, each package is installed as a separate user into the standard locations. Files belonging to a package are easily identified by checking the user ID. The features and shortcomings of this approach are too complex to describe in this section. For the details please see the hint at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/more_control_and_pkg_man.txt.

6.3.3. Deploying LFS on Multiple Systems

One of the advantages of an LFS system is that there are no files that depend on the position of files on a disk system. Cloning an LFS build to another computer with an architecture similar to the base system is as simple as using tar on the LFS partition that contains the root directory (about 250MB uncompressed for a base LFS build), copying that file via network transfer or CD-ROM to the new system and expanding it. From that point, a few configuration files will have to be changed. Configuration files that may need to be updated include: /etc/hosts, /etc/fstab, /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow, /etc/ld.so.conf, /etc/sysconfig/rc.site, /etc/sysconfig/network, and /etc/sysconfig/ifconfig.eth0.

A custom kernel may need to be built for the new system depending on differences in system hardware and the original kernel configuration.

Finally the new system has to be made bootable via Section 8.4, “Using GRUB to Set Up the Boot Process”.

6.4. Entering the Chroot Environment

It is time to enter the chroot environment to begin building and installing the final LFS system. As user root, run the following command to enter the realm that is, at the moment, populated with only the temporary tools:

chroot "$LFS" /tools/bin/env -i \
    HOME=/root                  \
    TERM="$TERM"                \
    PS1='\u:\w\$ '              \
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/tools/bin \
    /tools/bin/bash --login +h

The -i option given to the env command will clear all variables of the chroot environment. After that, only the HOME, TERM, PS1, and PATH variables are set again. The TERM=$TERM construct will set the TERM variable inside chroot to the same value as outside chroot. This variable is needed for programs like vim and less to operate properly. If other variables are needed, such as CFLAGS or CXXFLAGS, this is a good place to set them again.

From this point on, there is no need to use the LFS variable anymore, because all work will be restricted to the LFS file system. This is because the Bash shell is told that $LFS is now the root (/) directory.

Notice that /tools/bin comes last in the PATH. This means that a temporary tool will no longer be used once its final version is installed. This occurs when the shell does not “remember” the locations of executed binaries—for this reason, hashing is switched off by passing the +h option to bash.

Note that the bash prompt will say I have no name! This is normal because the /etc/passwd file has not been created yet.

Note

It is important that all the commands throughout the remainder of this chapter and the following chapters are run from within the chroot environment. If you leave this environment for any reason (rebooting for example), ensure that the virtual kernel filesystems are mounted as explained in Section 6.2.2, “Mounting and Populating /dev” and Section 6.2.3, “Mounting Virtual Kernel File Systems” and enter chroot again before continuing with the installation.

6.5. Creating Directories

It is time to create some structure in the LFS file system. Create a standard directory tree by issuing the following commands:

mkdir -pv /{bin,boot,etc/{opt,sysconfig},home,lib,mnt,opt,run}
mkdir -pv /{media/{floppy,cdrom},sbin,srv,var}
install -dv -m 0750 /root
install -dv -m 1777 /tmp /var/tmp
mkdir -pv /usr/{,local/}{bin,include,lib,sbin,src}
mkdir -pv /usr/{,local/}share/{doc,info,locale,man}
mkdir -v  /usr/{,local/}share/{misc,terminfo,zoneinfo}
mkdir -pv /usr/{,local/}share/man/man{1..8}
for dir in /usr /usr/local; do
  ln -sv share/{man,doc,info} $dir
done
case $(uname -m) in
 x86_64) ln -sv lib /lib64 && ln -sv lib /usr/lib64 ;;
esac
mkdir -v /var/{log,mail,spool}
ln -sv /run /var/run
ln -sv /run/lock /var/lock
mkdir -pv /var/{opt,cache,lib/{misc,locate},local}

Directories are, by default, created with permission mode 755, but this is not desirable for all directories. In the commands above, two changes are made—one to the home directory of user root, and another to the directories for temporary files.

The first mode change ensures that not just anybody can enter the /root directory—the same as a normal user would do with his or her home directory. The second mode change makes sure that any user can write to the /tmp and /var/tmp directories, but cannot remove another user's files from them. The latter is prohibited by the so-called “sticky bit,” the highest bit (1) in the 1777 bit mask.

6.5.1. FHS Compliance Note

The directory tree is based on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) (available at http://www.pathname.com/fhs/). In addition to the FHS, we create compatibility symlinks for the man, doc, and info directories since many packages still try to install their documentation into /usr/<directory> or /usr/local/<directory> as opposed to /usr/share/<directory> or /usr/local/share/<directory>. The FHS also stipulates the existence of /usr/local/games and /usr/share/games. The FHS is not precise as to the structure of the /usr/local/share subdirectory, so we create only the directories that are needed. However, feel free to create these directories if you prefer to conform more strictly to the FHS.

6.6. Creating Essential Files and Symlinks

Some programs use hard-wired paths to programs which do not exist yet. In order to satisfy these programs, create a number of symbolic links which will be replaced by real files throughout the course of this chapter after the software has been installed:

ln -sv /tools/bin/{bash,cat,echo,pwd,stty} /bin
ln -sv /tools/bin/perl /usr/bin
ln -sv /tools/lib/libgcc_s.so{,.1} /usr/lib
ln -sv /tools/lib/libstdc++.so{,.6} /usr/lib
sed 's/tools/usr/' /tools/lib/libstdc++.la > /usr/lib/libstdc++.la
ln -sv bash /bin/sh

A proper Linux system maintains a list of the mounted file systems in the file /etc/mtab. Normally, this file would be created when we mount a new file system. Since we will not be mounting any file systems inside our chroot environment, create an empty file for utilities that expect the presence of /etc/mtab:

touch /etc/mtab

In order for user root to be able to login and for the name “root” to be recognized, there must be relevant entries in the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files.

Create the /etc/passwd file by running the following command:

cat > /etc/passwd << "EOF"
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/dev/null:/bin/false
nobody:x:99:99:Unprivileged User:/dev/null:/bin/false
EOF

The actual password for root (the “x” used here is just a placeholder) will be set later.

Create the /etc/group file by running the following command:

cat > /etc/group << "EOF"
root:x:0:
bin:x:1:
sys:x:2:
kmem:x:3:
tape:x:4:
tty:x:5:
daemon:x:6:
floppy:x:7:
disk:x:8:
lp:x:9:
dialout:x:10:
audio:x:11:
video:x:12:
utmp:x:13:
usb:x:14:
cdrom:x:15:
mail:x:34:
nogroup:x:99:
EOF

The created groups are not part of any standard—they are groups decided on in part by the requirements of the Udev configuration in this chapter, and in part by common convention employed by a number of existing Linux distributions. The Linux Standard Base (LSB, available at http://www.linuxbase.org) recommends only that, besides the group root with a Group ID (GID) of 0, a group bin with a GID of 1 be present. All other group names and GIDs can be chosen freely by the system administrator since well-written programs do not depend on GID numbers, but rather use the group's name.

To remove the “I have no name!” prompt, start a new shell. Since a full Glibc was installed in Chapter 5 and the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files have been created, user name and group name resolution will now work:

exec /tools/bin/bash --login +h

Note the use of the +h directive. This tells bash not to use its internal path hashing. Without this directive, bash would remember the paths to binaries it has executed. To ensure the use of the newly compiled binaries as soon as they are installed, the +h directive will be used for the duration of this chapter.

The login, agetty, and init programs (and others) use a number of log files to record information such as who was logged into the system and when. However, these programs will not write to the log files if they do not already exist. Initialize the log files and give them proper permissions:

touch /var/log/{btmp,lastlog,wtmp}
chgrp -v utmp /var/log/lastlog
chmod -v 664  /var/log/lastlog
chmod -v 600  /var/log/btmp

The /var/log/wtmp file records all logins and logouts. The /var/log/lastlog file records when each user last logged in. The /var/log/btmp file records the bad login attempts.

Note

The /run/utmp file records the users that are currently logged in. This file is created dynamically in the boot scripts.

6.7. Linux-3.8.1 API Headers

The Linux API Headers (in linux-3.8.1.tar.xz) expose the kernel's API for use by Glibc.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 515 MB

6.7.1. Installation of Linux API Headers

The Linux kernel needs to expose an Application Programming Interface (API) for the system's C library (Glibc in LFS) to use. This is done by way of sanitizing various C header files that are shipped in the Linux kernel source tarball.

Make sure there are no stale files and dependencies lying around from previous activity:

make mrproper

Now test and extract the user-visible kernel headers from the source. They are placed in an intermediate local directory and copied to the needed location because the extraction process removes any existing files in the target directory. There are also some hidden files used by the kernel developers and not needed by LFS that are removed from the intermediate directory.

make headers_check
make INSTALL_HDR_PATH=dest headers_install
find dest/include \( -name .install -o -name ..install.cmd \) -delete
cp -rv dest/include/* /usr/include

6.7.2. Contents of Linux API Headers

Installed headers: /usr/include/asm/*.h, /usr/include/asm-generic/*.h, /usr/include/drm/*.h, /usr/include/linux/*.h, /usr/include/mtd/*.h, /usr/include/rdma/*.h, /usr/include/scsi/*.h, /usr/include/sound/*.h, /usr/include/video/*.h, /usr/include/xen/*.h
Installed directories: /usr/include/asm, /usr/include/asm-generic, /usr/include/drm, /usr/include/linux, /usr/include/mtd, /usr/include/rdma, /usr/include/scsi, /usr/include/sound, /usr/include/video, /usr/include/xen

Short Descriptions

/usr/include/asm/*.h

The Linux API ASM Headers

/usr/include/asm-generic/*.h

The Linux API ASM Generic Headers

/usr/include/drm/*.h

The Linux API DRM Headers

/usr/include/linux/*.h

The Linux API Linux Headers

/usr/include/mtd/*.h

The Linux API MTD Headers

/usr/include/rdma/*.h

The Linux API RDMA Headers

/usr/include/scsi/*.h

The Linux API SCSI Headers

/usr/include/sound/*.h

The Linux API Sound Headers

/usr/include/video/*.h

The Linux API Video Headers

/usr/include/xen/*.h

The Linux API Xen Headers

6.8. Man-pages-3.47

The Man-pages package contains over 1,900 man pages.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 22 MB

6.8.1. Installation of Man-pages

Install Man-pages by running:

make install

6.8.2. Contents of Man-pages

Installed files: various man pages

Short Descriptions

man pages

Describe C programming language functions, important device files, and significant configuration files

6.9. Glibc-2.17

The Glibc package contains the main C library. This library provides the basic routines for allocating memory, searching directories, opening and closing files, reading and writing files, string handling, pattern matching, arithmetic, and so on.

Approximate build time: 17.6 SBU
Required disk space: 852 MB

6.9.1. Installation of Glibc

Note

Some packages outside of LFS suggest installing GNU libiconv in order to translate data from one encoding to another. The project's home page (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/) says “This library provides an iconv() implementation, for use on systems which don't have one, or whose implementation cannot convert from/to Unicode.” Glibc provides an iconv() implementation and can convert from/to Unicode, therefore libiconv is not required on an LFS system.

The Glibc build system is self-contained and will install perfectly, even though the compiler specs file and linker are still pointing at /tools. The specs and linker cannot be adjusted before the Glibc install because the Glibc autoconf tests would give false results and defeat the goal of achieving a clean build.

The Glibc documentation recommends building Glibc outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../glibc-build
cd ../glibc-build

Prepare Glibc for compilation:

../glibc-2.17/configure  \
    --prefix=/usr          \
    --disable-profile      \
    --enable-kernel=2.6.25 \
    --libexecdir=/usr/lib/glibc

The meaning of the new configure options:

--libexecdir=/usr/lib/glibc

This changes the location of the pt_chown program from its default of /usr/libexec to /usr/lib/glibc.

Compile the package:

make

Important

In this section, the test suite for Glibc is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstance.

Generally a few tests do not pass, but you can generally ignore any of the test failures listed below. Now test the build results:

make -k check 2>&1 | tee glibc-check-log
grep Error glibc-check-log

You will probably see an expected (ignored) failure in the posix/annexc and conform/run-conformtest tests. In addition the Glibc test suite is somewhat dependent on the host system. This is a list of the most common issues:

  • The nptl/tst-clock2, nptl/tst-attr3, tst/tst-cputimer1, and rt/tst-cpuclock2 tests have been known to fail. The reason is not completely understood, but indications are that minor timing issues can trigger these failures.

  • The math tests sometimes fail when running on systems where the CPU is not a relatively new genuine Intel or authentic AMD processor.

  • When running on older and slower hardware or on systems under load, some tests can fail because of test timeouts being exceeded. Modifying the make check command to set a TIMEOUTFACTOR is reported to help eliminate these errors (e.g. TIMEOUTFACTOR=16 make -k check).

  • Other tests known to fail on some architectures are posix/bug-regex32, misc/tst-writev, elf/check-textrel, nptl/tst-getpid2, and stdio-common/bug22.

Though it is a harmless message, the install stage of Glibc will complain about the absence of /etc/ld.so.conf. Prevent this warning with:

touch /etc/ld.so.conf

Install the package:

make install

Install NIS and RPC related headers that are not installed by default; these are required to rebuild glibc and by several BLFS packages:

cp -v ../glibc-2.17/sunrpc/rpc/*.h /usr/include/rpc
cp -v ../glibc-2.17/sunrpc/rpcsvc/*.h /usr/include/rpcsvc
cp -v ../glibc-2.17/nis/rpcsvc/*.h /usr/include/rpcsvc

The locales that can make the system respond in a different language were not installed by the above command. None of the locales are required, but if some of them are missing, test suites of the future packages would skip important testcases.

Individual locales can be installed using the localedef program. E.g., the first localedef command below combines the /usr/share/i18n/locales/cs_CZ charset-independent locale definition with the /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz charmap definition and appends the result to the /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive file. The following instructions will install the minimum set of locales necessary for the optimal coverage of tests:

mkdir -pv /usr/lib/locale
localedef -i cs_CZ -f UTF-8 cs_CZ.UTF-8
localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE
localedef -i de_DE@euro -f ISO-8859-15 de_DE@euro
localedef -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8
localedef -i en_GB -f UTF-8 en_GB.UTF-8
localedef -i en_HK -f ISO-8859-1 en_HK
localedef -i en_PH -f ISO-8859-1 en_PH
localedef -i en_US -f ISO-8859-1 en_US
localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
localedef -i es_MX -f ISO-8859-1 es_MX
localedef -i fa_IR -f UTF-8 fa_IR
localedef -i fr_FR -f ISO-8859-1 fr_FR
localedef -i fr_FR@euro -f ISO-8859-15 fr_FR@euro
localedef -i fr_FR -f UTF-8 fr_FR.UTF-8
localedef -i it_IT -f ISO-8859-1 it_IT
localedef -i it_IT -f UTF-8 it_IT.UTF-8
localedef -i ja_JP -f EUC-JP ja_JP
localedef -i ru_RU -f KOI8-R ru_RU.KOI8-R
localedef -i ru_RU -f UTF-8 ru_RU.UTF-8
localedef -i tr_TR -f UTF-8 tr_TR.UTF-8
localedef -i zh_CN -f GB18030 zh_CN.GB18030

In addition, install the locale for your own country, language and character set.

Alternatively, install all locales listed in the glibc-2.17/localedata/SUPPORTED file (it includes every locale listed above and many more) at once with the following time-consuming command:

make localedata/install-locales

Then use the localedef command to create and install locales not listed in the glibc-2.17/localedata/SUPPORTED file in the unlikely case you need them.

6.9.2. Configuring Glibc

The /etc/nsswitch.conf file needs to be created because, although Glibc provides defaults when this file is missing or corrupt, the Glibc defaults do not work well in a networked environment. The time zone also needs to be configured.

Create a new file /etc/nsswitch.conf by running the following:

cat > /etc/nsswitch.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files
group: files
shadow: files

hosts: files dns
networks: files

protocols: files
services: files
ethers: files
rpc: files

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf
EOF

Install timezone data:

tar -xf ../tzdata2012j.tar.gz

ZONEINFO=/usr/share/zoneinfo
mkdir -pv $ZONEINFO/{posix,right}

for tz in etcetera southamerica northamerica europe africa antarctica  \
          asia australasia backward pacificnew solar87 solar88 solar89 \
          systemv; do
    zic -L /dev/null   -d $ZONEINFO       -y "sh yearistype.sh" ${tz}
    zic -L /dev/null   -d $ZONEINFO/posix -y "sh yearistype.sh" ${tz}
    zic -L leapseconds -d $ZONEINFO/right -y "sh yearistype.sh" ${tz}
done

cp -v zone.tab iso3166.tab $ZONEINFO
zic -d $ZONEINFO -p America/New_York
unset ZONEINFO

The meaning of the zic commands:

zic -L /dev/null ...

This creates posix timezones, without any leap seconds. It is conventional to put these in both zoneinfo and zoneinfo/posix. It is necessary to put the POSIX timezones in zoneinfo, otherwise various test-suites will report errors. On an embedded system, where space is tight and you do not intend to ever update the timezones, you could save 1.9MB by not using the posix directory, but some applications or test-suites might give less good results

zic -L leapseconds ...

This creates right timezones, including leap seconds. On an embedded system, where space is tight and you do not intend to ever update the timezones, or care about the correct time, you could save 1.9MB by omitting the right directory.

zic ... -p ...

This creates the posixrules file. We use New York because POSIX requires the daylight savings time rules to be in accordance with US rules.

One way to determine the local time zone is to run the following script:

tzselect

After answering a few questions about the location, the script will output the name of the time zone (e.g., America/Edmonton). There are also some other possible timezones listed in /usr/share/zoneinfo such as Canada/Eastern or EST5EDT that are not identified by the script but can be used.

Then create the /etc/localtime file by running:

cp -v --remove-destination /usr/share/zoneinfo/<xxx> \
    /etc/localtime

Replace <xxx> with the name of the time zone selected (e.g., Canada/Eastern).

The meaning of the cp option:

--remove-destination

This is needed to force removal of the already existing symbolic link. The reason for copying the file instead of using a symlink is to cover the situation where /usr is on a separate partition. This could be important when booted into single user mode.

6.9.3. Configuring the Dynamic Loader

By default, the dynamic loader (/lib/ld-linux.so.2) searches through /lib and /usr/lib for dynamic libraries that are needed by programs as they are run. However, if there are libraries in directories other than /lib and /usr/lib, these need to be added to the /etc/ld.so.conf file in order for the dynamic loader to find them. Two directories that are commonly known to contain additional libraries are /usr/local/lib and /opt/lib, so add those directories to the dynamic loader's search path.

Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf by running the following:

cat > /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/local/lib
/opt/lib

EOF

If desired, the dynamic loader can also search a directory and include the contents of files found there. Generally the files in this include directory are one line specifying the desired library path. To add this capability run the following commands:

cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF"
# Add an include directory
include /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf

EOF
mkdir /etc/ld.so.conf.d

6.9.4. Contents of Glibc

Installed programs: catchsegv, gencat, getconf, getent, iconv, iconvconfig, ldconfig, ldd, lddlibc4, locale, localedef, makedb, mtrace, nscd, pcprofiledump, pldd, pt_chown, rpcgen, sln, sotruss, sprof, tzselect, xtrace, zdump, and zic
Installed libraries: ld.so, libBrokenLocale.{a,so}, libSegFault.so, libanl.{a,so}, libbsd-compat.a, libc.{a,so}, libc_nonshared.a, libcidn.so, libcrypt.{a,so}, libdl.{a,so}, libg.a, libieee.a, libm.{a,so}, libmcheck.a, libmemusage.so, libnsl.{a,so}, libnss_compat.so, libnss_dns.so, libnss_files.so, libnss_hesiod.so, libnss_nis.so, libnss_nisplus.so, libpcprofile.so, libpthread.{a,so}, libpthread_nonshared.a, libresolv.{a,so}, librpcsvc.a, librt.{a,so}, libthread_db.so, and libutil.{a,so}
Installed directories: /usr/include/arpa, /usr/include/bits, /usr/include/gnu, /usr/include/net, /usr/include/netash, /usr/include/netatalk, /usr/include/netax25, /usr/include/neteconet, /usr/include/netinet, /usr/include/netipx, /usr/include/netiucv, /usr/include/netpacket, /usr/include/netrom, /usr/include/netrose, /usr/include/nfs, /usr/include/protocols, /usr/include/rpc, /usr/include/rpcsvc, /usr/include/sys, /usr/lib/audit, /usr/lib/gconv, /usr/lib/glibc, /usr/lib/locale, /usr/share/i18n, /usr/share/zoneinfo, /var/db

Short Descriptions

catchsegv

Can be used to create a stack trace when a program terminates with a segmentation fault

gencat

Generates message catalogues

getconf

Displays the system configuration values for file system specific variables

getent

Gets entries from an administrative database

iconv

Performs character set conversion

iconvconfig

Creates fastloading iconv module configuration files

ldconfig

Configures the dynamic linker runtime bindings

ldd

Reports which shared libraries are required by each given program or shared library

lddlibc4

Assists ldd with object files

locale

Prints various information about the current locale

localedef

Compiles locale specifications

makedb

Creates a simple database from textual input

mtrace

Reads and interprets a memory trace file and displays a summary in human-readable format

nscd

A daemon that provides a cache for the most common name service requests

pcprofiledump

Dumps information generated by PC profiling

pldd

Lists dynamic shared objects used by running processes

pt_chown

A helper program for grantpt to set the owner, group and access permissions of a slave pseudo terminal

rpcgen

Generates C code to implement the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol

sln

A statically linked ln program

sotruss

Traces shared library procedure calls of a specified command

sprof

Reads and displays shared object profiling data

tzselect

Asks the user about the location of the system and reports the corresponding time zone description

xtrace

Traces the execution of a program by printing the currently executed function

zdump

The time zone dumper

zic

The time zone compiler

ld.so

The helper program for shared library executables

libBrokenLocale

Used internally by Glibc as a gross hack to get broken programs (e.g., some Motif applications) running. See comments in glibc-2.17/locale/broken_cur_max.c for more information

libSegFault

The segmentation fault signal handler, used by catchsegv

libanl

An asynchronous name lookup library

libbsd-compat

Provides the portability needed in order to run certain Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) programs under Linux

libc

The main C library

libcidn

Used internally by Glibc for handling internationalized domain names in the getaddrinfo() function

libcrypt

The cryptography library

libdl

The dynamic linking interface library

libg

Dummy library containing no functions. Previously was a runtime library for g++

libieee

Linking in this module forces error handling rules for math functions as defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The default is POSIX.1 error handling

libm

The mathematical library

libmcheck

Turns on memory allocation checking when linked to

libmemusage

Used by memusage to help collect information about the memory usage of a program

libnsl

The network services library

libnss

The Name Service Switch libraries, containing functions for resolving host names, user names, group names, aliases, services, protocols, etc.

libpcprofile

Contains profiling functions used to track the amount of CPU time spent in specific source code lines

libpthread

The POSIX threads library

libresolv

Contains functions for creating, sending, and interpreting packets to the Internet domain name servers

librpcsvc

Contains functions providing miscellaneous RPC services

librt

Contains functions providing most of the interfaces specified by the POSIX.1b Realtime Extension

libthread_db

Contains functions useful for building debuggers for multi-threaded programs

libutil

Contains code for “standard” functions used in many different Unix utilities

6.10. Adjusting the Toolchain

Now that the final C libraries have been installed, it is time to adjust the toolchain so that it will link any newly compiled program against these new libraries.

First, backup the /tools linker, and replace it with the adjusted linker we made in chapter 5. We'll also create a link to its counterpart in /tools/$(gcc -dumpmachine)/bin:

mv -v /tools/bin/{ld,ld-old}
mv -v /tools/$(gcc -dumpmachine)/bin/{ld,ld-old}
mv -v /tools/bin/{ld-new,ld}
ln -sv /tools/bin/ld /tools/$(gcc -dumpmachine)/bin/ld

Next, amend the GCC specs file so that it points to the new dynamic linker. Simply deleting all instances of “/tools” should leave us with the correct path to the dynamic linker. Also adjust the specs file so that GCC knows where to find the correct headers and Glibc start files. A sed command accomplishes this:

gcc -dumpspecs | sed -e 's@/tools@@g' \
    -e '/\*startfile_prefix_spec:/{n;s@.*@/usr/lib/ @}' \
    -e '/\*cpp:/{n;s@$@ -isystem /usr/include@}' > \
    `dirname $(gcc --print-libgcc-file-name)`/specs

It is a good idea to visually inspect the specs file to verify the intended change was actually made.

It is imperative at this point to ensure that the basic functions (compiling and linking) of the adjusted toolchain are working as expected. To do this, perform the following sanity checks:

echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c
cc dummy.c -v -Wl,--verbose &> dummy.log
readelf -l a.out | grep ': /lib'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be (allowing for platform-specific differences in dynamic linker name):

[Requesting program interpreter: /lib/ld-linux.so.2]

Note that /lib is now the prefix of our dynamic linker.

Now make sure that we're setup to use the correct startfiles:

grep -o '/usr/lib.*/crt[1in].*succeeded' dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be:

/usr/lib/crt1.o succeeded
/usr/lib/crti.o succeeded
/usr/lib/crtn.o succeeded

Verify that the compiler is searching for the correct header files:

grep -B1 '^ /usr/include' dummy.log

This command should return successfully with the following output:

#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/include

Next, verify that the new linker is being used with the correct search paths:

grep 'SEARCH.*/usr/lib' dummy.log |sed 's|; |\n|g'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command (allowing for platform-specific target triplets) will be:

SEARCH_DIR("/tools/i686-pc-linux-gnu/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/lib");

Next make sure that we're using the correct libc:

grep "/lib.*/libc.so.6 " dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command (allowing for a lib64 directory on 64-bit hosts) will be:

attempt to open /lib/libc.so.6 succeeded

Lastly, make sure GCC is using the correct dynamic linker:

grep found dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be (allowing for platform-specific differences in dynamic linker name and a lib64 directory on 64-bit hosts):

found ld-linux.so.2 at /lib/ld-linux.so.2

If the output does not appear as shown above or is not received at all, then something is seriously wrong. Investigate and retrace the steps to find out where the problem is and correct it. The most likely reason is that something went wrong with the specs file adjustment. Any issues will need to be resolved before continuing on with the process.

Once everything is working correctly, clean up the test files:

rm -v dummy.c a.out dummy.log

6.11. Zlib-1.2.7

The Zlib package contains compression and decompression routines used by some programs.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 3.9 MB

6.11.1. Installation of Zlib

Prepare Zlib for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

The shared library needs to be moved to /lib, and as a result the .so file in /usr/lib will need to be recreated:

mv -v /usr/lib/libz.so.* /lib
ln -sfv ../../lib/libz.so.1.2.7 /usr/lib/libz.so

6.11.2. Contents of Zlib

Installed libraries: libz.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

libz

Contains compression and decompression functions used by some programs

6.12. File-5.13

The File package contains a utility for determining the type of a given file or files.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 12.5 MB

6.12.1. Installation of File

Prepare File for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.12.2. Contents of File

Installed programs: file
Installed library: libmagic.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

file

Tries to classify each given file; it does this by performing several tests—file system tests, magic number tests, and language tests

libmagic

Contains routines for magic number recognition, used by the file program

6.13. Binutils-2.23.1

The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files.

Approximate build time: 1.9 SBU
Required disk space: 343 MB

6.13.1. Installation of Binutils

Verify that the PTYs are working properly inside the chroot environment by performing a simple test:

expect -c "spawn ls"

This command should output the following:

spawn ls

If, instead, the output includes the message below, then the environment is not set up for proper PTY operation. This issue needs to be resolved before running the test suites for Binutils and GCC:

The system has no more ptys.
Ask your system administrator to create more.

Suppress the installation of an outdated standards.info file as a newer one is installed later on in the Autoconf instructions:

rm -fv etc/standards.info
sed -i.bak '/^INFO/s/standards.info //' etc/Makefile.in

Fix some test suite scripts so all tests pass:

patch -Np1 -i ../binutils-2.23.1-testsuite_fix-1.patch

The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build

Prepare Binutils for compilation:

../binutils-2.23.1/configure --prefix=/usr --enable-shared

Note

There is an optional argument to configure, --enable-lto, that can be used to allow the ar, nm, and ranlib commands to accept a --plugin parameter. This is used to allow gcc to do "link time optimization" if specified. No packages in LFS or BLFS currently use this capability.

Compile the package:

make tooldir=/usr

The meaning of the make parameter:

tooldir=/usr

Normally, the tooldir (the directory where the executables will ultimately be located) is set to $(exec_prefix)/$(target_alias). For example, x86_64 machines would expand that to /usr/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu. Because this is a custom system, this target-specific directory in /usr is not required. $(exec_prefix)/$(target_alias) would be used if the system was used to cross-compile (for example, compiling a package on an Intel machine that generates code that can be executed on PowerPC machines).

Important

The test suite for Binutils in this section is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstances.

Test the results:

make check

Install the package:

make tooldir=/usr install

Install the libiberty header file that is needed by some packages:

cp -v ../binutils-2.23.1/include/libiberty.h /usr/include

6.13.2. Contents of Binutils

Installed programs: addr2line, ar, as, c++filt, elfedit, gprof, ld, ld.bfd, nm, objcopy, objdump, ranlib, readelf, size, strings, and strip
Installed libraries: libiberty.a, libbfd.{a,so}, and libopcodes.{a,so}
Installed directory: /usr/lib/ldscripts

Short Descriptions

addr2line

Translates program addresses to file names and line numbers; given an address and the name of an executable, it uses the debugging information in the executable to determine which source file and line number are associated with the address

ar

Creates, modifies, and extracts from archives

as

An assembler that assembles the output of gcc into object files

c++filt

Used by the linker to de-mangle C++ and Java symbols and to keep overloaded functions from clashing

elfedit

Updates the ELF header of ELF files

gprof

Displays call graph profile data

ld

A linker that combines a number of object and archive files into a single file, relocating their data and tying up symbol references

ld.bfd

Hard link to ld

nm

Lists the symbols occurring in a given object file

objcopy

Translates one type of object file into another

objdump

Displays information about the given object file, with options controlling the particular information to display; the information shown is useful to programmers who are working on the compilation tools

ranlib

Generates an index of the contents of an archive and stores it in the archive; the index lists all of the symbols defined by archive members that are relocatable object files

readelf

Displays information about ELF type binaries

size

Lists the section sizes and the total size for the given object files

strings

Outputs, for each given file, the sequences of printable characters that are of at least the specified length (defaulting to four); for object files, it prints, by default, only the strings from the initializing and loading sections while for other types of files, it scans the entire file

strip

Discards symbols from object files

libiberty

Contains routines used by various GNU programs, including getopt, obstack, strerror, strtol, and strtoul

libbfd

The Binary File Descriptor library

libopcodes

A library for dealing with opcodes—the “readable text” versions of instructions for the processor; it is used for building utilities like objdump.

6.14. GMP-5.1.1

The GMP package contains math libraries. These have useful functions for arbitrary precision arithmetic.

Approximate build time: 1.2 SBU
Required disk space: 50 MB

6.14.1. Installation of GMP

Note

If you are building for 32-bit x86, but you have a CPU which is capable of running 64-bit code and you have specified CFLAGS in the environment, the configure script will attempt to configure for 64-bits and fail. Avoid this by invoking the configure command below with

ABI=32 ./configure ...

Prepare GMP for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-cxx

The meaning of the new configure options:

--enable-cxx

This parameter enables C++ support

Compile the package:

make

Important

The test suite for GMP in this section is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstances.

Test the results:

make check 2>&1 | tee gmp-check-log

Ensure that all 184 tests in the test suite passed. Check the results by issuing the following command:

awk '/tests passed/{total+=$2} ; END{print total}' gmp-check-log

Install the package:

make install

If desired, install the documentation:

mkdir -v /usr/share/doc/gmp-5.1.1
cp    -v doc/{isa_abi_headache,configuration} doc/*.html \
         /usr/share/doc/gmp-5.1.1

6.14.2. Contents of GMP

Installed Libraries: libgmp.{a,so}, libgmpxx.{a,so}, and libmp.{a,so}
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/gmp-5.1.1

Short Descriptions

libgmp

Contains precision math functions.

libgmpxx

Contains C++ precision math functions.

libmp

Contains the Berkeley MP math functions.

6.15. MPFR-3.1.1

The MPFR package contains functions for multiple precision math.

Approximate build time: 0.8 SBU
Required disk space: 27 MB

6.15.1. Installation of MPFR

Prepare MPFR for compilation:

./configure  --prefix=/usr        \
             --enable-thread-safe \
             --docdir=/usr/share/doc/mpfr-3.1.1

Compile the package:

make

Important

The test suite for MPFR in this section is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstances.

Test the results and ensure that all tests passed:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Install the documentation:

make html
make install-html

6.15.2. Contents of MPFR

Installed Libraries: libmpfr.{a,so}
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/mpfr-3.1.1

Short Descriptions

libmpfr

Contains multiple-precision math functions.

6.16. MPC-1.0.1

The MPC package contains a library for the arithmetic of complex numbers with arbitrarily high precision and correct rounding of the result.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 10.2 MB

6.16.1. Installation of MPC

Prepare MPC for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.16.2. Contents of MPC

Installed Libraries: libmpc.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

libmpc

Contains complex math functions

6.17. GCC-4.7.2

The GCC package contains the GNU compiler collection, which includes the C and C++ compilers.

Approximate build time: 53.5 SBU
Required disk space: 2.0 GB

6.17.1. Installation of GCC

Apply a sed substitution that will suppress the installation of libiberty.a. The version of libiberty.a provided by Binutils will be used instead:

sed -i 's/install_to_$(INSTALL_DEST) //' libiberty/Makefile.in

Again, do not build the .info files. They are broken with the current version of makeinfo.

sed -i 's/BUILD_INFO=info/BUILD_INFO=/' gcc/configure

As in Section 5.9, “GCC-4.7.2 - Pass 2”, apply the following sed to force the build to use the -fomit-frame-pointer compiler flag in order to ensure consistent compiler builds:

case `uname -m` in
  i?86) sed -i 's/^T_CFLAGS =$/& -fomit-frame-pointer/' gcc/Makefile.in ;;
esac

Also fix an error in one of the check Makefiles:

sed -i -e /autogen/d -e /check.sh/d fixincludes/Makefile.in

The GCC documentation recommends building GCC outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir -v ../gcc-build
cd ../gcc-build

Prepare GCC for compilation:

../gcc-4.7.2/configure --prefix=/usr            \
                       --libexecdir=/usr/lib    \
                       --enable-shared          \
                       --enable-threads=posix   \
                       --enable-__cxa_atexit    \
                       --enable-clocale=gnu     \
                       --enable-languages=c,c++ \
                       --disable-multilib       \
                       --disable-bootstrap      \
                       --with-system-zlib

Note that for other languages, there are some prerequisites that are not available. See the BLFS Book for instructions on how to build all the GCC supported languages.

The meaning of the new configure option:

--with-system-zlib

This switch tells GCC to link to the system installed copy of the Zlib library, rather than its own internal copy.

Note

There is an optional argument to configure, --enable-lto, that can be used to allow gcc to do do "link time optimization" if specified. No packages in LFS or BLFS currently use this capability.

To use this feature, it must also be enabled in binutils.

Compile the package:

make

Important

In this section, the test suite for GCC is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstance.

One set of tests in the GCC test suite is known to exhaust the stack, so increase the stack size prior to running the tests:

ulimit -s 32768

Test the results, but do not stop at errors:

make -k check

To receive a summary of the test suite results, run:

../gcc-4.7.2/contrib/test_summary

For only the summaries, pipe the output through grep -A7 Summ.

Results can be compared with those located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/build-logs/7.3/ and http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-testresults/.

A few unexpected failures cannot always be avoided. The GCC developers are usually aware of these issues, but have not resolved them yet. In particular, the libmudflap tests are known to be particularly problematic as a result of a bug in GCC (http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20003). Unless the test results are vastly different from those at the above URL, it is safe to continue.

Install the package:

make install

Some packages expect the C preprocessor to be installed in the /lib directory. To support those packages, create this symlink:

ln -sv ../usr/bin/cpp /lib

Many packages use the name cc to call the C compiler. To satisfy those packages, create a symlink:

ln -sv gcc /usr/bin/cc

Now that our final toolchain is in place, it is important to again ensure that compiling and linking will work as expected. We do this by performing the same sanity checks as we did earlier in the chapter:

echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c
cc dummy.c -v -Wl,--verbose &> dummy.log
readelf -l a.out | grep ': /lib'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be (allowing for platform-specific differences in dynamic linker name):

[Requesting program interpreter: /lib/ld-linux.so.2]

Now make sure that we're setup to use the correct startfiles:

grep -o '/usr/lib.*/crt[1in].*succeeded' dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be:

/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.7.2/../../../crt1.o succeeded
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.7.2/../../../crti.o succeeded
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.7.2/../../../crtn.o succeeded

Depending on your machine architecture, the above may differ slightly, the difference usually being the name of the directory after /usr/lib/gcc. If your machine is a 64-bit system, you may also see a directory named lib64 towards the end of the string. The important thing to look for here is that gcc has found all three crt*.o files under the /usr/lib directory.

Verify that the compiler is searching for the correct header files:

grep -B4 '^ /usr/include' dummy.log

This command should return successfully with the following output:

#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.7.2/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.7.2/include-fixed
 /usr/include

Again, note that the directory named after your target triplet may be different than the above, depending on your architecture.

Note

As of version 4.3.0, GCC now unconditionally installs the limits.h file into the private include-fixed directory, and that directory is required to be in place.

Next, verify that the new linker is being used with the correct search paths:

grep 'SEARCH.*/usr/lib' dummy.log |sed 's|; |\n|g'

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command (allowing for platform-specific target triplets) will be:

SEARCH_DIR("/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/local/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/lib");

A 64-bit system may see a few more directories. For example, here is the output from an x86_64 machine:

SEARCH_DIR("/usr/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib64")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/local/lib64")
SEARCH_DIR("/lib64")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/lib64")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/local/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/lib")
SEARCH_DIR("/usr/lib");

Next make sure that we're using the correct libc:

grep "/lib.*/libc.so.6 " dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command (allowing for a lib64 directory on 64-bit hosts) will be:

attempt to open /lib/libc.so.6 succeeded

Lastly, make sure GCC is using the correct dynamic linker:

grep found dummy.log

If everything is working correctly, there should be no errors, and the output of the last command will be (allowing for platform-specific differences in dynamic linker name and a lib64 directory on 64-bit hosts):

found ld-linux.so.2 at /lib/ld-linux.so.2

If the output does not appear as shown above or is not received at all, then something is seriously wrong. Investigate and retrace the steps to find out where the problem is and correct it. The most likely reason is that something went wrong with the specs file adjustment. Any issues will need to be resolved before continuing on with the process.

Once everything is working correctly, clean up the test files:

rm -v dummy.c a.out dummy.log

Finally, move a misplaced file:

mkdir -pv /usr/share/gdb/auto-load/usr/lib
mv -v /usr/lib/*gdb.py /usr/share/gdb/auto-load/usr/lib

6.17.2. Contents of GCC

Installed programs: c++, cc (link to gcc), cpp, g++, gcc, gcc-ar, gcc-nm, gcc-ranlib, gccbug, and gcov
Installed libraries: libgcc.a, libgcc_eh.a, libgcc_s.so, libgcov.a, libgomp.{a,so}, liblto_plugin.so, libmudflap.{a,so}, libmudflapth.{a,so}, libquadmath.{a,so}, libssp.{a,so}, libssp_nonshared.a, libstdc++.{a,so} and libsupc++.a
Installed directories: /usr/include/c++, /usr/lib/gcc, /usr/share/gcc-4.7.2

Short Descriptions

c++

The C++ compiler

cc

The C compiler

cpp

The C preprocessor; it is used by the compiler to expand the #include, #define, and similar statements in the source files

g++

The C++ compiler

gcc

The C compiler

gcc-ar

A wrapper around ar that adds a plugin to the command line. This program is only used to add "link time optization" and is not useful with the default build options.

gcc-nm

A wrapper around nm that adds a plugin to the command line. This program is only used to add "link time optization" and is not useful with the default build options.

gcc-ranlib

A wrapper around ranlib that adds a plugin to the command line. This program is only used to add "link time optization" and is not useful with the default build options.

gccbug

A shell script used to help create useful bug reports

gcov

A coverage testing tool; it is used to analyze programs to determine where optimizations will have the most effect

libgcc

Contains run-time support for gcc

libgcov

This library is linked in to a program when GCC is instructed to enable profiling

libgomp

GNU implementation of the OpenMP API for multi-platform shared-memory parallel programming in C/C++ and Fortran

liblto_plugin

GCC's Link Time Optimization (LTO) plugin allows GCC to perform optimizations across compilation units.

libmudflap

Contains routines that support GCC's bounds checking functionality

libquadmath

GCC Quad Precision Math Library API

libssp

Contains routines supporting GCC's stack-smashing protection functionality

libstdc++

The standard C++ library

libsupc++

Provides supporting routines for the C++ programming language

6.18. Sed-4.2.2

The Sed package contains a stream editor.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 6.7 MB

6.18.1. Installation of Sed

Prepare Sed for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin --htmldir=/usr/share/doc/sed-4.2.2

The meaning of the new configure option:

--htmldir

This sets the directory where the HTML documentation will be installed to.

Compile the package:

make

Generate the HTML documentation:

make html

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Install the HTML documentation:

make -C doc install-html

6.18.2. Contents of Sed

Installed program: sed
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/sed-4.2.2

Short Descriptions

sed

Filters and transforms text files in a single pass

6.19. Bzip2-1.0.6

The Bzip2 package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files. Compressing text files with bzip2 yields a much better compression percentage than with the traditional gzip.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.9 MB

6.19.1. Installation of Bzip2

Apply a patch that will install the documentation for this package:

patch -Np1 -i ../bzip2-1.0.6-install_docs-1.patch

The following command ensures installation of symbolic links are relative:

sed -i 's@\(ln -s -f \)$(PREFIX)/bin/@\1@' Makefile

Ensure the man pages are installed into the correct location:

sed -i "s@(PREFIX)/man@(PREFIX)/share/man@g" Makefile

Prepare Bzip2 for compilation with:

make -f Makefile-libbz2_so
make clean

The meaning of the make parameter:

-f Makefile-libbz2_so

This will cause Bzip2 to be built using a different Makefile file, in this case the Makefile-libbz2_so file, which creates a dynamic libbz2.so library and links the Bzip2 utilities against it.

Compile and test the package:

make

Install the programs:

make PREFIX=/usr install

Install the shared bzip2 binary into the /bin directory, make some necessary symbolic links, and clean up:

cp -v bzip2-shared /bin/bzip2
cp -av libbz2.so* /lib
ln -sv ../../lib/libbz2.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libbz2.so
rm -v /usr/bin/{bunzip2,bzcat,bzip2}
ln -sv bzip2 /bin/bunzip2
ln -sv bzip2 /bin/bzcat

6.19.2. Contents of Bzip2

Installed programs: bunzip2 (link to bzip2), bzcat (link to bzip2), bzcmp (link to bzdiff), bzdiff, bzegrep (link to bzgrep), bzfgrep (link to bzgrep), bzgrep, bzip2, bzip2recover, bzless (link to bzmore), and bzmore
Installed libraries: libbz2.{a,so}
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/bzip2-1.0.6

Short Descriptions

bunzip2

Decompresses bzipped files

bzcat

Decompresses to standard output

bzcmp

Runs cmp on bzipped files

bzdiff

Runs diff on bzipped files

bzegrep

Runs egrep on bzipped files

bzfgrep

Runs fgrep on bzipped files

bzgrep

Runs grep on bzipped files

bzip2

Compresses files using the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text compression algorithm with Huffman coding; the compression rate is better than that achieved by more conventional compressors using “Lempel-Ziv” algorithms, like gzip

bzip2recover

Tries to recover data from damaged bzipped files

bzless

Runs less on bzipped files

bzmore

Runs more on bzipped files

libbz2*

The library implementing lossless, block-sorting data compression, using the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm

6.20. Pkg-config-0.28

The pkg-config package contains a tool for passing the include path and/or library paths to build tools during the configure and make file execution.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 31 MB

6.20.1. Installation of Pkg-config

Prepare Pkg-config for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr         \
            --with-internal-glib  \
            --disable-host-tool   \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/pkg-config-0.28

The meaning of the new configure options:

--with-internal-glib

This will allow pkg-config to use it's internal version of glib because an external version is not available in LFS.

--disable-host-tool

This option disables the creation of an undesired hard link to the pkg-config program.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.20.2. Contents of Pkg-config

Installed program: pkg-config
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/pkg-config-0.28

Short Descriptions

pkg-config

returns meta information for the specified library or package.

6.21. Ncurses-5.9

The Ncurses package contains libraries for terminal-independent handling of character screens.

Approximate build time: 0.6 SBU
Required disk space: 40 MB

6.21.1. Installation of Ncurses

Prepare Ncurses for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr           \
            --mandir=/usr/share/man \
            --with-shared           \
            --without-debug         \
            --enable-pc-files       \
            --enable-widec

The meaning of the configure option:

--enable-widec

This switch causes wide-character libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so.5.9) to be built instead of normal ones (e.g., libncurses.so.5.9). These wide-character libraries are usable in both multibyte and traditional 8-bit locales, while normal libraries work properly only in 8-bit locales. Wide-character and normal libraries are source-compatible, but not binary-compatible.

--enable-pc-files

This switch generates and installs .pc files for pkg-config.

Compile the package:

make

This package has a test suite, but it can only be run after the package has been installed. The tests reside in the test/ directory. See the README file in that directory for further details.

Install the package:

make install

Move the shared libraries to the /lib directory, where they are expected to reside:

mv -v /usr/lib/libncursesw.so.5* /lib

Because the libraries have been moved, one symlink points to a non-existent file. Recreate it:

ln -sfv ../../lib/libncursesw.so.5 /usr/lib/libncursesw.so

Many applications still expect the linker to be able to find non-wide-character Ncurses libraries. Trick such applications into linking with wide-character libraries by means of symlinks and linker scripts:

for lib in ncurses form panel menu ; do
    rm -vf                    /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so
    echo "INPUT(-l${lib}w)" > /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so
    ln -sfv lib${lib}w.a      /usr/lib/lib${lib}.a
    ln -sfv ${lib}w.pc        /usr/lib/pkgconfig/${lib}.pc
done

ln -sfv libncurses++w.a /usr/lib/libncurses++.a

Finally, make sure that old applications that look for -lcurses at build time are still buildable:

rm -vf                     /usr/lib/libcursesw.so
echo "INPUT(-lncursesw)" > /usr/lib/libcursesw.so
ln -sfv libncurses.so      /usr/lib/libcurses.so
ln -sfv libncursesw.a      /usr/lib/libcursesw.a
ln -sfv libncurses.a       /usr/lib/libcurses.a

If desired, install the Ncurses documentation:

mkdir -v       /usr/share/doc/ncurses-5.9
cp -v -R doc/* /usr/share/doc/ncurses-5.9

Note

The instructions above don't create non-wide-character Ncurses libraries since no package installed by compiling from sources would link against them at runtime. If you must have such libraries because of some binary-only application or to be compliant with LSB, build the package again with the following commands:

make distclean
./configure --prefix=/usr    \
            --with-shared    \
            --without-normal \
            --without-debug  \
            --without-cxx-binding
make sources libs
cp -av lib/lib*.so.5* /usr/lib

6.21.2. Contents of Ncurses

Installed programs: captoinfo (link to tic), clear, infocmp, infotocap (link to tic), ncursesw5-config, reset (link to tset), tabs, tic, toe, tput, and tset
Installed libraries: libcursesw.{a,so} (symlink and linker script to libncursesw.{a,so}), libformw.{a,so}, libmenuw.{a,so}, libncurses++w.a, libncursesw.{a,so}, libpanelw.{a,so} and their non-wide-character counterparts without "w" in the library names.
Installed directories: /usr/share/tabset, /usr/share/terminfo, /usr/share/doc/ncurses-5.9

Short Descriptions

captoinfo

Converts a termcap description into a terminfo description

clear

Clears the screen, if possible

infocmp

Compares or prints out terminfo descriptions

infotocap

Converts a terminfo description into a termcap description

ncursesw5-config

Provides configuration information for ncurses

reset

Reinitializes a terminal to its default values

tabs

Clears and sets tab stops on a terminal

tic

The terminfo entry-description compiler that translates a terminfo file from source format into the binary format needed for the ncurses library routines. A terminfo file contains information on the capabilities of a certain terminal

toe

Lists all available terminal types, giving the primary name and description for each

tput

Makes the values of terminal-dependent capabilities available to the shell; it can also be used to reset or initialize a terminal or report its long name

tset

Can be used to initialize terminals

libcurses

A link to libncurses

libncurses

Contains functions to display text in many complex ways on a terminal screen; a good example of the use of these functions is the menu displayed during the kernel's make menuconfig

libform

Contains functions to implement forms

libmenu

Contains functions to implement menus

libpanel

Contains functions to implement panels

6.22. Util-linux-2.22.2

The Util-linux package contains miscellaneous utility programs. Among them are utilities for handling file systems, consoles, partitions, and messages.

Approximate build time: 0.7 SBU
Required disk space: 83 MB

6.22.1. FHS compliance notes

The FHS recommends using the /var/lib/hwclock directory instead of the usual /etc directory as the location for the adjtime file. To make the hwclock program FHS-compliant, run the following:

sed -i -e 's@etc/adjtime@var/lib/hwclock/adjtime@g' \
     $(grep -rl '/etc/adjtime' .)

mkdir -pv /var/lib/hwclock

6.22.2. Installation of Util-linux

./configure --disable-su --disable-sulogin --disable-login

The meaning of the configure option:

--disable-*

These switches disable building su, sulogin, and login. They duplicate the same programs provided by Section 6.26, “Shadow-4.1.5.1” and Section 6.58, “Sysvinit-2.88dsf”. They also require Linux-PAM which is not available in LFS.

Compile the package:

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package:

make install

6.22.3. Contents of Util-linux

Installed programs: addpart, agetty, blkid, blockdev, cal, cfdisk, chcpu, chrt, col, colcrt, colrm, column, ctrlaltdel, cytune, delpart, dmesg, eject, fallocate, fdformat, fdisk, findfs, findmnt, flock, fsck, fsck.cramfs, fsck.minix, fsfreeze, fstrim, getopt, hexdump, hwclock, i386, ionice, ipcmk, ipcrm, ipcs, isosize, ldattach, linux32, linux64, logger, look, losetup, lsblk, lscpu, lslocks, mcookie, mkfs, mkfs.bfs, mkfs.cramfs, mkfs.minix, mkswap, more, mount, mountpoint, namei, partx, pg, pivot_root, prlimit, raw, readprofile, rename, renice, resizepart, rev, rtcwake, script, scriptreplay, setarch, setsid, setterm, sfdisk, swaplabel, swapoff (link to swapon), swapon, switch_root, tailf, taskset, tunelp, ul, umount, unshare, utmpdump, uuidd, uuidgen, wall, wdctl, whereis, wipefs, and x86_64
Installed libraries: libblkid.{a,so}, libmount.{a,so}, libuuid.{a,so}
Installed directories: /usr/include/blkid, /usr/include/libmount, /usr/include/uuid, /usr/share/getopt, /var/lib/hwclock

Short Descriptions

addpart

Informs the Linux kernel of new partitions

agetty

Opens a tty port, prompts for a login name, and then invokes the login program

blkid

A command line utility to locate and print block device attributes

blockdev

Allows users to call block device ioctls from the command line

cal

Displays a simple calendar

cfdisk

Manipulates the partition table of the given device

chcpu

Modifies the state of CPUs

chrt

Manipulates real-time attributes of a process

col

Filters out reverse line feeds

colcrt

Filters nroff output for terminals that lack some capabilities, such as overstriking and half-lines

colrm

Filters out the given columns

column

Formats a given file into multiple columns

ctrlaltdel

Sets the function of the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination to a hard or a soft reset

cytune

Tunes the parameters of the serial line drivers for Cyclades cards

delpart

Asks the Linux kernel to remove a partition

dmesg

Dumps the kernel boot messages

eject

Ejects removable media

fallocate

Preallocates space to a file

fdformat

Low-level formats a floppy disk

fdisk

Manipulates the paritition table of the given device

findfs

Finds a file system by label or Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)

findmnt

Is a command line interface to the libmount library for work with mountinfo, fstab and mtab files

flock

Acquires a file lock and then executes a command with the lock held

fsck

Is used to check, and optionally repair, file systems

fsck.cramfs

Performs a consistency check on the Cramfs file system on the given device

fsck.minix

Performs a consistency check on the Minix file system on the given device

fsfreeze

Is a very simple wrapper around FIFREEZE/FITHAW ioctl kernel driver operations

fstrim

Discards unused blocks on a mounted filesystem

getopt

Parses options in the given command line

hexdump

Dumps the given file in hexadecimal or in another given format

hwclock

Reads or sets the system's hardware clock, also called the Real-Time Clock (RTC) or Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) clock

i386

A symbolic link to setarch

ionice

Gets or sets the io scheduling class and priority for a program

ipcmk

Creates various IPC resources

ipcrm

Removes the given Inter-Process Communication (IPC) resource

ipcs

Provides IPC status information

isosize

Reports the size of an iso9660 file system

kill

Sends signals to processes

ldattach

Attaches a line discipline to a serial line

linux32

A symbolic link to setarch

linux64

A symbolic link to setarch

logger

Enters the given message into the system log

look

Displays lines that begin with the given string

losetup

Sets up and controls loop devices

lsblk

Lists information about all or selected block devices in a tree-like format.

lscpu

Prints CPU architecture information

lslocks

Lists local system locks

mcookie

Generates magic cookies (128-bit random hexadecimal numbers) for xauth

mkfs

Builds a file system on a device (usually a hard disk partition)

mkfs.bfs

Creates a Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) bfs file system

mkfs.cramfs

Creates a cramfs file system

mkfs.minix

Creates a Minix file system

mkswap

Initializes the given device or file to be used as a swap area

more

A filter for paging through text one screen at a time

mount

Attaches the file system on the given device to a specified directory in the file-system tree

mountpoint

Checks if the directory is a mountpoint

namei

Shows the symbolic links in the given pathnames

partx

Tells the kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions

pg

Displays a text file one screen full at a time

pivot_root

Makes the given file system the new root file system of the current process

prlimit

Get and set a process' resource limits

raw

Bind a Linux raw character device to a block device

readprofile

Reads kernel profiling information

rename

Renames the given files, replacing a given string with another

renice

Alters the priority of running processes

resizepart

Asks the Linux kernel to resize a partition

rev

Reverses the lines of a given file

rtcwake

Used to enter a system sleep state until specified wakeup time

script

Makes a typescript of a terminal session

scriptreplay

Plays back typescripts using timing information

setarch

Changes reported architecture in a new program environment and sets personality flags

setsid

Runs the given program in a new session

setterm

Sets terminal attributes

sfdisk

A disk partition table manipulator

swaplabel

Allows to change swaparea UUID and label

swapoff

Disables devices and files for paging and swapping

swapon

Enables devices and files for paging and swapping and lists the devices and files currently in use

switch_root

Switches to another filesystem as the root of the mount tree

tailf

Tracks the growth of a log file. Displays the last 10 lines of a log file, then continues displaying any new entries in the log file as they are created

taskset

Retrieves or sets a process' CPU affinity

tunelp

Tunes the parameters of the line printer

ul

A filter for translating underscores into escape sequences indicating underlining for the terminal in use

umount

Disconnects a file system from the system's file tree

unshare

Runs a program with some namespaces unshared from parent

utmpdump

Displays the content of the given login file in a more user-friendly format

uuidd

A daemon used by the UUID library to generate time-based UUIDs in a secure and guranteed-unique fashion.

uuidgen

Creates new UUIDs. Each new UUID can reasonably be considered unique among all UUIDs created, on the local system and on other systems, in the past and in the future

wall

Displays the contents of a file or, by default, its standard input, on the terminals of all currently logged in users

wdctl

Shows hardware watchdog status

whereis

Reports the location of the binary, source, and man page for the given command

wipefs

Wipes a filesystem signature from a device

x86_64

A symbolic link to setarch

libblkid

Contains routines for device identification and token extraction

libmount

Contains routines for block device mounting and unmounting

libuuid

Contains routines for generating unique identifiers for objects that may be accessible beyond the local system

6.23. Psmisc-22.20

The Psmisc package contains programs for displaying information about running processes.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 4.2 MB

6.23.1. Installation of Psmisc

Prepare Psmisc for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package:

make install

Finally, move the killall and fuser programs to the location specified by the FHS:

mv -v /usr/bin/fuser   /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/killall /bin

6.23.2. Contents of Psmisc

Installed programs: fuser, killall, peekfd, prtstat, pstree, and pstree.x11 (link to pstree)

Short Descriptions

fuser

Reports the Process IDs (PIDs) of processes that use the given files or file systems

killall

Kills processes by name; it sends a signal to all processes running any of the given commands

peekfd

Peek at file descriptors of a running process, given its PID

prtstat

Prints information about a process

pstree

Displays running processes as a tree

pstree.x11

Same as pstree, except that it waits for confirmation before exiting

6.24. Procps-ng-3.3.6

The Procps-ng package contains programs for monitoring processes.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 13 MB

6.24.1. Installation of Procps-ng

Now prepare procps-ng for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr                           \
            --exec-prefix=                          \
            --libdir=/usr/lib                       \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/procps-ng-3.3.6 \
            --disable-static                        \
            --disable-skill                         \
            --disable-kill

The meaning of the configure options:

--disable-skill

This switch disables the obsolete and unportable skill and snice commands.

--disable-kill

This switch disables building the kill command that was installed in the util-linux package.

Compile the package:

make

The test suite needs some custom modifications for LFS. The which command is not available, the pmap test does not match a newline character in two tests, and the slabtop test may return more than 999,999 objects. To run the test suite, run the following commands:

pushd testsuite
  sed -i -e 's|exec which sleep|exec echo /tools/bin/sleep|' \
         -e 's|999999|&9|'                       config/unix.exp
  sed -i -e 's|pmap_initname\\\$|pmap_initname|' pmap.test/pmap.exp
  make site.exp
  DEJAGNU=global-conf.exp runtest
popd

Install the package:

make install

Finally move the library to a location that can be found if /usr is not mounted.

mv -v /usr/lib/libprocps.so.* /lib
ln -sfv ../../lib/libprocps.so.1.1.0 /usr/lib/libprocps.so

6.24.2. Contents of Procps-ng

Installed programs: free, pgrep, pkill, pmap, ps, pwdx, slabtop, sysctl, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w, and, watch
Installed library: libprocps.so

Short Descriptions

free

Reports the amount of free and used memory (both physical and swap memory) in the system

pgrep

Looks up processes based on their name and other attributes

pkill

Signals processes based on their name and other attributes

pmap

Reports the memory map of the given process

ps

Lists the current running processes

pwdx

Reports the current working directory of a process

slabtop

Displays detailed kernel slap cache information in real time

sysctl

Modifies kernel parameters at run time

tload

Prints a graph of the current system load average

top

Displays a list of the most CPU intensive processes; it provides an ongoing look at processor activity in real time

uptime

Reports how long the system has been running, how many users are logged on, and the system load averages

vmstat

Reports virtual memory statistics, giving information about processes, memory, paging, block Input/Output (IO), traps, and CPU activity

w

Shows which users are currently logged on, where, and since when

watch

Runs a given command repeatedly, displaying the first screen-full of its output; this allows a user to watch the output change over time

libproc

Contains the functions used by most programs in this package

6.25. E2fsprogs-1.42.7

The E2fsprogs package contains the utilities for handling the ext2 file system. It also supports the ext3 and ext4 journaling file systems.

Approximate build time: 1.7 SBU
Required disk space: 64 MB

6.25.1. Installation of E2fsprogs

The E2fsprogs documentation recommends that the package be built in a subdirectory of the source tree:

mkdir -v build
cd build

Prepare E2fsprogs for compilation:

../configure --prefix=/usr         \
             --with-root-prefix="" \
             --enable-elf-shlibs   \
             --disable-libblkid    \
             --disable-libuuid     \
             --disable-uuidd       \
             --disable-fsck

The meaning of the configure options:

--with-root-prefix=""

Certain programs (such as the e2fsck program) are considered essential programs. When, for example, /usr is not mounted, these programs still need to be available. They belong in directories like /lib and /sbin. If this option is not passed to E2fsprogs' configure, the programs are installed into the /usr directory.

--enable-elf-shlibs

This creates the shared libraries which some programs in this package use.

--disable-*

This prevents E2fsprogs from building and installing the libuuid and libblkid libraries, the uuidd daemon, and the fsck wrapper, as Util-Linux installed all of them earlier.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

One of the E2fsprogs tests will attempt to allocate 256 MB of memory. If you do not have significantly more RAM than this, be sure to enable sufficient swap space for the test. See Section 2.3, “Creating a File System on the Partition” and Section 2.4, “Mounting the New Partition” for details on creating and enabling swap space.

Install the binaries, documentation, and shared libraries:

make install

Install the static libraries and headers:

make install-libs

Make the installed static libraries writable so debugging symbols can be removed later:

chmod -v u+w /usr/lib/{libcom_err,libe2p,libext2fs,libss}.a

This package installs a gzipped .info file but doesn't update the system-wide dir file. Unzip this file and then update the system dir file using the following commands.

gunzip -v /usr/share/info/libext2fs.info.gz
install-info --dir-file=/usr/share/info/dir /usr/share/info/libext2fs.info

If desired, create and install some additional documentation by issuing the following commands:

makeinfo -o      doc/com_err.info ../lib/et/com_err.texinfo
install -v -m644 doc/com_err.info /usr/share/info
install-info --dir-file=/usr/share/info/dir /usr/share/info/com_err.info

6.25.2. Contents of E2fsprogs

Installed programs: badblocks, chattr, compile_et, debugfs, dumpe2fs, e2freefrag, e2fsck, e2image, e2initrd_helper, e2label, e2undo, e4defrag, filefrag, fsck.ext2, fsck.ext3, fsck.ext4, fsck.ext4dev, logsave, lsattr, mk_cmds, mke2fs, mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mkfs.ext4, mkfs.ext4dev, mklost+found, resize2fs, and tune2fs
Installed libraries: libcom_err.{a,so}, libe2p.{a,so}, libext2fs.{a,so}, libquota.a and libss.{a,so}
Installed directory: /usr/include/e2p, /usr/include/et, /usr/include/ext2fs, /usr/include/quota, /usr/include/ss, /usr/share/et, /usr/share/ss

Short Descriptions

badblocks

Searches a device (usually a disk partition) for bad blocks

chattr

Changes the attributes of files on an ext2 file system; it also changes ext3 file systems, the journaling version of ext2 file systems

compile_et

An error table compiler; it converts a table of error-code names and messages into a C source file suitable for use with the com_err library

debugfs

A file system debugger; it can be used to examine and change the state of an ext2 file system

dumpe2fs

Prints the super block and blocks group information for the file system present on a given device

e2freefrag

Reports free space fragmentation information

e2fsck

Is used to check, and optionally repair ext2 file systems and ext3 file systems

e2image

Is used to save critical ext2 file system data to a file

e2initrd_helper

Prints the FS type of a given filesystem, given either a device name or label

e2label

Displays or changes the file system label on the ext2 file system present on a given device

e2undo

Replays the undo log undo_log for an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem found on a device. This can be used to undo a failed operation by an e2fsprogs program.

e4defrag

Online defragmenter for ext4 filesystems

filefrag

Reports on how badly fragmented a particular file might be

fsck.ext2

By default checks ext2 file systems. This is a hard link to e2fsck.

fsck.ext3

By default checks ext3 file systems. This is a hard link to e2fsck.

fsck.ext4

By default checks ext4 file systems. This is a hard link to e2fsck.

fsck.ext4dev

By default checks ext4 development file systems. This is a hard link to e2fsck.

logsave

Saves the output of a command in a log file

lsattr

Lists the attributes of files on a second extended file system

mk_cmds

Converts a table of command names and help messages into a C source file suitable for use with the libss subsystem library

mke2fs

Creates an ext2 or ext3 file system on the given device

mkfs.ext2

By default creates ext2 file systems. This is a hard link to mke2fs.

mkfs.ext3

By default creates ext3 file systems. This is a hard link to mke2fs.

mkfs.ext4

By default creates ext4 file systems. This is a hard link to mke2fs.

mkfs.ext4dev

By default creates ext4 development file systems. This is a hard link to mke2fs.

mklost+found

Used to create a lost+found directory on an ext2 file system; it pre-allocates disk blocks to this directory to lighten the task of e2fsck

resize2fs

Can be used to enlarge or shrink an ext2 file system

tune2fs

Adjusts tunable file system parameters on an ext2 file system

libcom_err

The common error display routine

libe2p

Used by dumpe2fs, chattr, and lsattr

libext2fs

Contains routines to enable user-level programs to manipulate an ext2 file system

libquota

Provides an interface for creating and updating quota files and ext4 superblock fields

libss

Used by debugfs

6.26. Shadow-4.1.5.1

The Shadow package contains programs for handling passwords in a secure way.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 42 MB

6.26.1. Installation of Shadow

Note

If you would like to enforce the use of strong passwords, refer to http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/cracklib.html for installing CrackLib prior to building Shadow. Then add --with-libcrack to the configure command below.

Disable the installation of the groups program and its man pages, as Coreutils provides a better version:

sed -i 's/groups$(EXEEXT) //' src/Makefile.in
find man -name Makefile.in -exec sed -i 's/groups\.1 / /' {} \;

Instead of using the default crypt method, use the more secure SHA-512 method of password encryption, which also allows passwords longer than 8 characters. It is also necessary to change the obsolete /var/spool/mail location for user mailboxes that Shadow uses by default to the /var/mail location used currently:

sed -i -e 's@#ENCRYPT_METHOD DES@ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512@' \
       -e 's@/var/spool/mail@/var/mail@' etc/login.defs

Note

If you chose to build Shadow with Cracklib support, run the following:

sed -i 's@DICTPATH.*@DICTPATH\t/lib/cracklib/pw_dict@' \
    etc/login.defs

Prepare Shadow for compilation:

./configure --sysconfdir=/etc

Compile the package:

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package:

make install

Move a misplaced program to its proper location:

mv -v /usr/bin/passwd /bin

6.26.2. Configuring Shadow

This package contains utilities to add, modify, and delete users and groups; set and change their passwords; and perform other administrative tasks. For a full explanation of what password shadowing means, see the doc/HOWTO file within the unpacked source tree. If using Shadow support, keep in mind that programs which need to verify passwords (display managers, FTP programs, pop3 daemons, etc.) must be Shadow-compliant. That is, they need to be able to work with shadowed passwords.

To enable shadowed passwords, run the following command:

pwconv

To enable shadowed group passwords, run:

grpconv

Shadow's stock configuration for the useradd utility has a few caveats that need some explanation. First, the default action for the useradd utility is to create the user and a group of the same name as the user. By default the user ID (UID) and group ID (GID) numbers will begin with 1000. This means if you don't pass parameters to useradd, each user will be a member of a unique group on the system. If this behaviour is undesirable, you'll need to pass the -g parameter to useradd. The default parameters are stored in the /etc/default/useradd file. You may need to modify two parameters in this file to suit your particular needs.

/etc/default/useradd Parameter Explanations

GROUP=1000

This parameter sets the beginning of the group numbers used in the /etc/group file. You can modify it to anything you desire. Note that useradd will never reuse a UID or GID. If the number identified in this parameter is used, it will use the next available number after this. Note also that if you don't have a group 1000 on your system the first time you use useradd without the -g parameter, you'll get a message displayed on the terminal that says: useradd: unknown GID 1000. You may disregard this message and group number 1000 will be used.

CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

This parameter causes useradd to create a mailbox file for the newly created user. useradd will make the group ownership of this file to the mail group with 0660 permissions. If you would prefer that these mailbox files are not created by useradd, issue the following command:

sed -i 's/yes/no/' /etc/default/useradd

6.26.3. Setting the root password

Choose a password for user root and set it by running:

passwd root

6.26.4. Contents of Shadow

Installed programs: chage, chfn, chgpasswd, chpasswd, chsh, expiry, faillog, gpasswd, groupadd, groupdel, groupmems, groupmod, grpck, grpconv, grpunconv, lastlog, login, logoutd, newgrp, newusers, nologin, passwd, pwck, pwconv, pwunconv, sg (link to newgrp), su, useradd, userdel, usermod, vigr (link to vipw), and vipw
Installed directory: /etc/default

Short Descriptions

chage

Used to change the maximum number of days between obligatory password changes

chfn

Used to change a user's full name and other information

chgpasswd

Used to update group passwords in batch mode

chpasswd

Used to update user passwords in batch mode

chsh

Used to change a user's default login shell

expiry

Checks and enforces the current password expiration policy

faillog

Is used to examine the log of login failures, to set a maximum number of failures before an account is blocked, or to reset the failure count

gpasswd

Is used to add and delete members and administrators to groups

groupadd

Creates a group with the given name

groupdel

Deletes the group with the given name

groupmems

Allows a user to administer his/her own group membership list without the requirement of super user privileges.

groupmod

Is used to modify the given group's name or GID

grpck

Verifies the integrity of the group files /etc/group and /etc/gshadow

grpconv

Creates or updates the shadow group file from the normal group file

grpunconv

Updates /etc/group from /etc/gshadow and then deletes the latter

lastlog

Reports the most recent login of all users or of a given user

login

Is used by the system to let users sign on

logoutd

Is a daemon used to enforce restrictions on log-on time and ports

newgrp

Is used to change the current GID during a login session

newusers

Is used to create or update an entire series of user accounts

nologin

Displays a message that an account is not available. Designed to be used as the default shell for accounts that have been disabled

passwd

Is used to change the password for a user or group account

pwck

Verifies the integrity of the password files /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow

pwconv

Creates or updates the shadow password file from the normal password file

pwunconv

Updates /etc/passwd from /etc/shadow and then deletes the latter

sg

Executes a given command while the user's GID is set to that of the given group

su

Runs a shell with substitute user and group IDs

useradd

Creates a new user with the given name, or updates the default new-user information

userdel

Deletes the given user account

usermod

Is used to modify the given user's login name, User Identification (UID), shell, initial group, home directory, etc.

vigr

Edits the /etc/group or /etc/gshadow files

vipw

Edits the /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow files

6.27. Coreutils-8.21

The Coreutils package contains utilities for showing and setting the basic system characteristics.

Approximate build time: 3.4 SBU
Required disk space: 116 MB

6.27.1. Installation of Coreutils

POSIX requires that programs from Coreutils recognize character boundaries correctly even in multibyte locales. The following patch fixes this non-compliance and other internationalization-related bugs:

patch -Np1 -i ../coreutils-8.21-i18n-1.patch

Note

In the past, many bugs were found in this patch. When reporting new bugs to Coreutils maintainers, please check first if they are reproducible without this patch.

Now prepare Coreutils for compilation:

FORCE_UNSAFE_CONFIGURE=1 ./configure \
            --prefix=/usr         \
            --libexecdir=/usr/lib \
            --enable-no-install-program=kill,uptime

The meaning of the configure options:

--enable-no-install-program=kill,uptime

The purpose of this switch is to prevent Coreutils from installing binaries that will be installed by other packages later.

Compile the package:

make

Skip down to “Install the package” if not running the test suite.

Now the test suite is ready to be run. First, run the tests that are meant to be run as user root:

make NON_ROOT_USERNAME=nobody check-root

We're going to run the remainder of the tests as the nobody user. Certain tests, however, require that the user be a member of more than one group. So that these tests are not skipped we'll add a temporary group and make the user nobody a part of it:

echo "dummy:x:1000:nobody" >> /etc/group

Fix some of the permissions so that the non-root user can compile and run the tests:

chown -Rv nobody . 

Now run the tests. Make sure the PATH in the su environment includes /tools/bin.

su nobody -s /bin/bash \
          -c "PATH=$PATH make RUN_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes check"

Remove the temporary group:

sed -i '/dummy/d' /etc/group

Install the package:

make install

Move programs to the locations specified by the FHS:

mv -v /usr/bin/{cat,chgrp,chmod,chown,cp,date,dd,df,echo} /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/{false,ln,ls,mkdir,mknod,mv,pwd,rm} /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/{rmdir,stty,sync,true,uname,test,[} /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/chroot /usr/sbin
mv -v /usr/share/man/man1/chroot.1 /usr/share/man/man8/chroot.8
sed -i s/\"1\"/\"8\"/1 /usr/share/man/man8/chroot.8

Some of the scripts in the LFS-Bootscripts package depend on head, sleep, and nice. As /usr may not be available during the early stages of booting, those binaries need to be on the root partition:

mv -v /usr/bin/{head,sleep,nice} /bin

6.27.2. Contents of Coreutils

Installed programs: [, base64, basename, cat, chcon, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, cksum, comm, cp, csplit, cut, date, dd, df, dir, dircolors, dirname, du, echo, env, expand, expr, factor, false, fmt, fold, groups, head, hostid, id, install, join, link, ln, logname, ls, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mktemp, mv, nice, nl, nohup, nproc, od, paste, pathchk, pinky, pr, printenv, printf, ptx, pwd, readlink, realpath, rm, rmdir, runcon, seq, sha1sum, sha224sum, sha256sum, sha384sum, sha512sum, shred, shuf, sleep, sort, split, stat, stdbuf, stty, sum, sync, tac, tail, tee, test, timeout, touch, tr, true, truncate, tsort, tty, uname, unexpand, uniq, unlink, users, vdir, wc, who, whoami, and yes
Installed library: libstdbuf.so
Installed directory: /usr/libexec/coreutils

Short Descriptions

base64

Encodes and decodes data according to the base64 (RFC 3548) specification

basename

Strips any path and a given suffix from a file name

cat

Concatenates files to standard output

chcon

Changes security context for files and directories

chgrp

Changes the group ownership of files and directories

chmod

Changes the permissions of each file to the given mode; the mode can be either a symbolic representation of the changes to make or an octal number representing the new permissions

chown

Changes the user and/or group ownership of files and directories

chroot

Runs a command with the specified directory as the / directory

cksum

Prints the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) checksum and the byte counts of each specified file

comm

Compares two sorted files, outputting in three columns the lines that are unique and the lines that are common

cp

Copies files

csplit

Splits a given file into several new files, separating them according to given patterns or line numbers and outputting the byte count of each new file

cut

Prints sections of lines, selecting the parts according to given fields or positions

date

Displays the current time in the given format, or sets the system date

dd

Copies a file using the given block size and count, while optionally performing conversions on it

df

Reports the amount of disk space available (and used) on all mounted file systems, or only on the file systems holding the selected files

dir

Lists the contents of each given directory (the same as the ls command)

dircolors

Outputs commands to set the LS_COLOR environment variable to change the color scheme used by ls

dirname

Strips the non-directory suffix from a file name

du

Reports the amount of disk space used by the current directory, by each of the given directories (including all subdirectories) or by each of the given files

echo

Displays the given strings

env

Runs a command in a modified environment

expand

Converts tabs to spaces

expr

Evaluates expressions

factor

Prints the prime factors of all specified integer numbers

false

Does nothing, unsuccessfully; it always exits with a status code indicating failure

fmt

Reformats the paragraphs in the given files

fold

Wraps the lines in the given files

groups

Reports a user's group memberships

head

Prints the first ten lines (or the given number of lines) of each given file

hostid

Reports the numeric identifier (in hexadecimal) of the host

id

Reports the effective user ID, group ID, and group memberships of the current user or specified user

install

Copies files while setting their permission modes and, if possible, their owner and group

join

Joins the lines that have identical join fields from two separate files

link

Creates a hard link with the given name to a file

ln

Makes hard links or soft (symbolic) links between files

logname

Reports the current user's login name

ls

Lists the contents of each given directory

md5sum

Reports or checks Message Digest 5 (MD5) checksums

mkdir

Creates directories with the given names

mkfifo

Creates First-In, First-Outs (FIFOs), a “named pipe” in UNIX parlance, with the given names

mknod

Creates device nodes with the given names; a device node is a character special file, a block special file, or a FIFO

mktemp

Creates temporary files in a secure manner; it is used in scripts

mv

Moves or renames files or directories

nice

Runs a program with modified scheduling priority

nl

Numbers the lines from the given files

nohup

Runs a command immune to hangups, with its output redirected to a log file

nproc

Prints the number of processing units available to a process

od

Dumps files in octal and other formats

paste

Merges the given files, joining sequentially corresponding lines side by side, separated by tab characters

pathchk

Checks if file names are valid or portable

pinky

Is a lightweight finger client; it reports some information about the given users

pr

Paginates and columnates files for printing

printenv

Prints the environment

printf

Prints the given arguments according to the given format, much like the C printf function

ptx

Produces a permuted index from the contents of the given files, with each keyword in its context

pwd

Reports the name of the current working directory

readlink

Reports the value of the given symbolic link

realpath

Prints the resolved path

rm

Removes files or directories

rmdir

Removes directories if they are empty

runcon

Runs a command with specified security context

seq

Prints a sequence of numbers within a given range and with a given increment

sha1sum

Prints or checks 160-bit Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA1) checksums

sha224sum

Prints or checks 224-bit Secure Hash Algorithm checksums

sha256sum

Prints or checks 256-bit Secure Hash Algorithm checksums

sha384sum

Prints or checks 384-bit Secure Hash Algorithm checksums

sha512sum

Prints or checks 512-bit Secure Hash Algorithm checksums

shred

Overwrites the given files repeatedly with complex patterns, making it difficult to recover the data

shuf

Shuffles lines of text

sleep

Pauses for the given amount of time

sort

Sorts the lines from the given files

split

Splits the given file into pieces, by size or by number of lines

stat

Displays file or filesystem status

stdbuf

Runs commands with altered buffering operations for its standard streams

stty

Sets or reports terminal line settings

sum

Prints checksum and block counts for each given file

sync

Flushes file system buffers; it forces changed blocks to disk and updates the super block

tac

Concatenates the given files in reverse

tail

Prints the last ten lines (or the given number of lines) of each given file

tee

Reads from standard input while writing both to standard output and to the given files

test

Compares values and checks file types

timeout

Runs a command with a time limit

touch

Changes file timestamps, setting the access and modification times of the given files to the current time; files that do not exist are created with zero length

tr

Translates, squeezes, and deletes the given characters from standard input

true

Does nothing, successfully; it always exits with a status code indicating success

truncate

Shrinks or expands a file to the specified size

tsort

Performs a topological sort; it writes a completely ordered list according to the partial ordering in a given file

tty

Reports the file name of the terminal connected to standard input

uname

Reports system information

unexpand

Converts spaces to tabs

uniq

Discards all but one of successive identical lines

unlink

Removes the given file

users

Reports the names of the users currently logged on

vdir

Is the same as ls -l

wc

Reports the number of lines, words, and bytes for each given file, as well as a total line when more than one file is given

who

Reports who is logged on

whoami

Reports the user name associated with the current effective user ID

yes

Repeatedly outputs “y” or a given string until killed

libstdbuf.so

Library used by stdbuf

6.28. Iana-Etc-2.30

The Iana-Etc package provides data for network services and protocols.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB

6.28.1. Installation of Iana-Etc

The following command converts the raw data provided by IANA into the correct formats for the /etc/protocols and /etc/services data files:

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package:

make install

6.28.2. Contents of Iana-Etc

Installed files: /etc/protocols and /etc/services

Short Descriptions

/etc/protocols

Describes the various DARPA Internet protocols that are available from the TCP/IP subsystem

/etc/services

Provides a mapping between friendly textual names for internet services, and their underlying assigned port numbers and protocol types

6.29. M4-1.4.16

The M4 package contains a macro processor.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 26.6 MB

6.29.1. Installation of M4

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17:

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' lib/stdio.in.h

Prepare M4 for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, first fix a test program and then run the test programs:

sed -i -e '41s/ENOENT/& || errno == EINVAL/' tests/test-readlink.h
make check

Install the package:

make install

6.29.2. Contents of M4

Installed program: m4

Short Descriptions

m4

copies the given files while expanding the macros that they contain. These macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take any number of arguments. Besides performing macro expansion, m4 has built-in functions for including named files, running Unix commands, performing integer arithmetic, manipulating text, recursion, etc. The m4 program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.

6.30. Bison-2.7

The Bison package contains a parser generator.

Approximate build time: 1.3 SBU
Required disk space: 34 MB

6.30.1. Installation of Bison

Prepare Bison for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

The configure system causes Bison to be built without support for internationalization of error messages if a bison program is not already in $PATH. The following addition will correct this:

echo '#define YYENABLE_NLS 1' >> lib/config.h

Compile the package:

make

To test the results (about 0.5 SBU), issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.30.2. Contents of Bison

Installed programs: bison and yacc
Installed library: liby.a
Installed directory: /usr/share/bison

Short Descriptions

bison

Generates, from a series of rules, a program for analyzing the structure of text files; Bison is a replacement for Yacc (Yet Another Compiler Compiler)

yacc

A wrapper for bison, meant for programs that still call yacc instead of bison; it calls bison with the -y option

liby.a

The Yacc library containing implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions; this library is normally not very useful, but POSIX requires it

6.31. Grep-2.14

The Grep package contains programs for searching through files.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 30 MB

6.31.1. Installation of Grep

Prepare Grep for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.31.2. Contents of Grep

Installed programs: egrep, fgrep, and grep

Short Descriptions

egrep

Prints lines matching an extended regular expression

fgrep

Prints lines matching a list of fixed strings

grep

Prints lines matching a basic regular expression

6.32. Readline-6.2

The Readline package is a set of libraries that offers command-line editing and history capabilities.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 17.2 MB

6.32.1. Installation of Readline

Reinstalling Readline will cause the old libraries to be moved to <libraryname>.old. While this is normally not a problem, in some cases it can trigger a linking bug in ldconfig. This can be avoided by issuing the following two seds:

sed -i '/MV.*old/d' Makefile.in
sed -i '/{OLDSUFF}/c:' support/shlib-install

Apply a patch to fix a known bug that has been fixed upstream:

patch -Np1 -i ../readline-6.2-fixes-1.patch

Prepare Readline for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/lib

Compile the package:

make SHLIB_LIBS=-lncurses

The meaning of the make option:

SHLIB_LIBS=-lncurses

This option forces Readline to link against the libncurses (really, libncursesw) library.

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package:

make install

Now move the static libraries to a more appropriate location:

mv -v /lib/lib{readline,history}.a /usr/lib

Next, remove the .so files in /lib and relink them into /usr/lib:

rm -v /lib/lib{readline,history}.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/libreadline.so.6 /usr/lib/libreadline.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/libhistory.so.6 /usr/lib/libhistory.so

If desired, install the documentation:

mkdir   -v       /usr/share/doc/readline-6.2
install -v -m644 doc/*.{ps,pdf,html,dvi} \
                 /usr/share/doc/readline-6.2

6.32.2. Contents of Readline

Installed libraries: libhistory.{a,so}, and libreadline.{a,so}
Installed directories: /usr/include/readline, /usr/share/readline, /usr/share/doc/readline-6.2

Short Descriptions

libhistory

Provides a consistent user interface for recalling lines of history

libreadline

Aids in the consistency of user interface across discrete programs that need to provide a command line interface

6.33. Bash-4.2

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again SHell.

Approximate build time: 1.7 SBU
Required disk space: 45 MB

6.33.1. Installation of Bash

First, apply the following patch to fix various bugs that have been addressed upstream:

patch -Np1 -i ../bash-4.2-fixes-11.patch

Prepare Bash for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr                     \
            --bindir=/bin                     \
            --htmldir=/usr/share/doc/bash-4.2 \
            --without-bash-malloc             \
            --with-installed-readline

The meaning of the configure options:

--htmldir

This option designates the directory into which HTML formatted documentation will be installed.

--with-installed-readline

This option tells Bash to use the readline library that is already installed on the system rather than using its own readline version.

Compile the package:

make

Skip down to “Install the package” if not running the test suite.

To prepare the tests, ensure that the nobody user can write to the sources tree:

chown -Rv nobody .

Now, run the tests as the nobody user:

su nobody -s /bin/bash -c "PATH=$PATH make tests"

Install the package:

make install

Run the newly compiled bash program (replacing the one that is currently being executed):

exec /bin/bash --login +h

Note

The parameters used make the bash process an interactive login shell and continue to disable hashing so that new programs are found as they become available.

6.33.2. Contents of Bash

Installed programs: bash, bashbug, and sh (link to bash)
Installed directory: /usr/share/doc/bash-4.2

Short Descriptions

bash

A widely-used command interpreter; it performs many types of expansions and substitutions on a given command line before executing it, thus making this interpreter a powerful tool

bashbug

A shell script to help the user compose and mail standard formatted bug reports concerning bash

sh

A symlink to the bash program; when invoked as sh, bash tries to mimic the startup behavior of historical versions of sh as closely as possible, while conforming to the POSIX standard as well

6.34. Libtool-2.4.2

The Libtool package contains the GNU generic library support script. It wraps the complexity of using shared libraries in a consistent, portable interface.

Approximate build time: 3.0 SBU
Required disk space: 37 MB

6.34.1. Installation of Libtool

Prepare Libtool for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results (about 3.0 SBU), issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.34.2. Contents of Libtool

Installed programs: libtool and libtoolize
Installed libraries: libltdl.{a,so}
Installed directories: /usr/include/libltdl, /usr/share/libtool

Short Descriptions

libtool

Provides generalized library-building support services

libtoolize

Provides a standard way to add libtool support to a package

libltdl

Hides the various difficulties of dlopening libraries

6.35. GDBM-1.10

The GDBM package contains the GNU Database Manager. This is a disk file format database which stores key/data-pairs in single files. The actual data of any record being stored is indexed by a unique key, which can be retrieved in less time than if it was stored in a text file.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 8.5 MB

6.35.1. Installation of GDBM

Prepare GDBM for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-libgdbm-compat

The meaning of the configure option:

--enable-libgdbm-compat

This switch enables the libgdbm compatibility library to be built, as some packages outside of LFS may require the older DBM routines it provides.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.35.2. Contents of GDBM

Installed program: testgdbm
Installed libraries: libgdbm.{so,a} and libgdbm_compat.{so,a}

Short Descriptions

testgdbm

Tests and modifies a GDBM database

libgdbm

Contains functions to manipulate a hashed database

6.36. Inetutils-1.9.1

The Inetutils package contains programs for basic networking.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 27 MB

6.36.1. Installation of Inetutils

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' lib/stdio.in.h

Prepare Inetutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr  \
    --libexecdir=/usr/sbin \
    --localstatedir=/var   \
    --disable-ifconfig     \
    --disable-logger       \
    --disable-syslogd      \
    --disable-whois        \
    --disable-servers

The meaning of the configure options:

--disable-ifconfig

This option prevents Inetutils from installing the ifconfig program, which can be used to configure network interfaces. LFS uses ip from IPRoute2 to perform this task.

--disable-logger

This option prevents Inetutils from installing the logger program, which is used by scripts to pass messages to the System Log Daemon. Do not install it because Util-linux installed a version earlier.

--disable-syslogd

This option prevents Inetutils from installing the System Log Daemon, which is installed with the Sysklogd package.

--disable-whois

This option disables the building of the Inetutils whois client, which is out of date. Instructions for a better whois client are in the BLFS book.

--disable-servers

This disables the installation of the various network servers included as part of the Inetutils package. These servers are deemed not appropriate in a basic LFS system. Some are insecure by nature and are only considered safe on trusted networks. More information can be found at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/basicnet/inetutils.html. Note that better replacements are available for many of these servers.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Move some programs so they are available if /usr is not accessible:

mv -v /usr/bin/{hostname,ping,ping6,traceroute} /bin

6.36.2. Contents of Inetutils

Installed programs: ftp, hostname, ping, ping6, rcp, rexec, rlogin, rsh, talk, telnet, tftp, and traceroute

Short Descriptions

ftp

Is the file transfer protocol program

hostname

Reports or sets the name of the host

ping

Sends echo-request packets and reports how long the replies take

ping6

A version of ping for IPv6 networks

rcp

Performs remote file copy

rexec

executes commands on a remote host

rlogin

Performs remote login

rsh

Runs a remote shell

talk

Is used to chat with another user

telnet

An interface to the TELNET protocol

tftp

A trivial file transfer program

traceroute

Traces the route your packets take from the host you are working on to another host on a network, showing all the intermediate hops (gateways) along the way

6.37. Perl-5.16.2

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

Approximate build time: 7.5 SBU
Required disk space: 247 MB

6.37.1. Installation of Perl

First create a basic /etc/hosts file to be referenced in one of Perl's configuration files as well as the optional test suite:

echo "127.0.0.1 localhost $(hostname)" > /etc/hosts

This version of Perl now builds the Compress::Raw::Zlib module. By default Perl will use an internal copy of the Zlib source for the build. Issue the following command so that Perl will use the Zlib library installed on the system:

sed -i -e "s|BUILD_ZLIB\s*= True|BUILD_ZLIB = False|"           \
       -e "s|INCLUDE\s*= ./zlib-src|INCLUDE    = /usr/include|" \
       -e "s|LIB\s*= ./zlib-src|LIB        = /usr/lib|"         \
    cpan/Compress-Raw-Zlib/config.in

To have full control over the way Perl is set up, you can remove the “-des” options from the following command and hand-pick the way this package is built. Alternatively, use the command exactly as below to use the defaults that Perl auto-detects:

sh Configure -des -Dprefix=/usr                 \
                  -Dvendorprefix=/usr           \
                  -Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 \
                  -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/man3 \
                  -Dpager="/usr/bin/less -isR"  \
                  -Duseshrplib

The meaning of the configure options:

-Dvendorprefix=/usr

This ensures perl knows how to tell packages where they should install their perl modules.

-Dpager="/usr/bin/less -isR"

This corrects an error in the way that perldoc invokes the less program.

-Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/man3

Since Groff is not installed yet, Configure thinks that we do not want man pages for Perl. Issuing these parameters overrides this decision.

-Duseshrplib

Build a shared libperl needed by some perl modules.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results (approximately 2.5 SBU), issue:

make -k test

Install the package:

make install

6.37.2. Contents of Perl

Installed programs: a2p, c2ph, config_data, corelist, cpan, cpan2dist, cpanp, cpanp-run-perl, enc2xs, find2perl, h2ph, h2xs, instmodsh, json_pp, libnetcfg, perl, perl5.16.2 (link to perl), perlbug, perldoc, perlivp, perlthanks (link to perlbug), piconv, pl2pm, pod2html, pod2latex, pod2man, pod2text, pod2usage, podchecker, podselect, prove, psed (link to s2p), pstruct (link to c2ph), ptar, ptardiff, ptargrep, s2p, shasum, splain, xsubpp, and zipdetails
Installed libraries: Several hundred which cannot all be listed here
Installed directory: /usr/lib/perl5

Short Descriptions

a2p

Translates awk to Perl

c2ph

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S

config_data

Queries or changes configuration of Perl modules

corelist

A commandline frontend to Module::CoreList

cpan

Interact with the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) from the command line

cpan2dist

The CPANPLUS distribution creator

cpanp

The CPANPLUS launcher

cpanp-run-perl

Perl script that is used to enable flushing of the output buffer after each write in spawned processes

enc2xs

Builds a Perl extension for the Encode module from either Unicode Character Mappings or Tcl Encoding Files

find2perl

Translates find commands to Perl

h2ph

Converts .h C header files to .ph Perl header files

h2xs

Converts .h C header files to Perl extensions

instmodsh

Shell script for examining installed Perl modules, and can even create a tarball from an installed module

json_pp

Converts data between certain input and output formats

libnetcfg

Can be used to configure the libnet Perl module

perl

Combines some of the best features of C, sed, awk and sh into a single swiss-army language

perl5.16.2

A hard link to perl

perlbug

Used to generate bug reports about Perl, or the modules that come with it, and mail them

perldoc

Displays a piece of documentation in pod format that is embedded in the Perl installation tree or in a Perl script

perlivp

The Perl Installation Verification Procedure; it can be used to verify that Perl and its libraries have been installed correctly

perlthanks

Used to generate thank you messages to mail to the Perl developers

piconv

A Perl version of the character encoding converter iconv

pl2pm

A rough tool for converting Perl4 .pl files to Perl5 .pm modules

pod2html

Converts files from pod format to HTML format

pod2latex

Converts files from pod format to LaTeX format

pod2man

Converts pod data to formatted *roff input

pod2text

Converts pod data to formatted ASCII text

pod2usage

Prints usage messages from embedded pod docs in files

podchecker

Checks the syntax of pod format documentation files

podselect

Displays selected sections of pod documentation

prove

Command line tool for running tests against the Test::Harness module.

psed

A Perl version of the stream editor sed

pstruct

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S stabs

ptar

A tar-like program written in Perl

ptardiff

A Perl program that compares an extracted archive with an unextracted one

ptargrep

A Perl program that applies pattern matching to the contents of files in a tar archive

s2p

Translates sed scripts to Perl

shasum

Prints or checks SHA checksums

splain

Is used to force verbose warning diagnostics in Perl

xsubpp

Converts Perl XS code into C code

zipdetails

Displays details about the internal structure of a Zip file

6.38. Autoconf-2.69

The Autoconf package contains programs for producing shell scripts that can automatically configure source code.

Approximate build time: 4.5 SBU
Required disk space: 17.1 MB

6.38.1. Installation of Autoconf

Prepare Autoconf for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

This takes a long time, about 4.7 SBUs. In addition, 6 tests are skipped that use Automake. For full test coverage, Autoconf can be re-tested after Automake has been installed.

Install the package:

make install

6.38.2. Contents of Autoconf

Installed programs: autoconf, autoheader, autom4te, autoreconf, autoscan, autoupdate, and ifnames
Installed directory: /usr/share/autoconf

Short Descriptions

autoconf

Produces shell scripts that automatically configure software source code packages to adapt to many kinds of Unix-like systems. The configuration scripts it produces are independent—running them does not require the autoconf program.

autoheader

A tool for creating template files of C #define statements for configure to use

autom4te

A wrapper for the M4 macro processor

autoreconf

Automatically runs autoconf, autoheader, aclocal, automake, gettextize, and libtoolize in the correct order to save time when changes are made to autoconf and automake template files

autoscan

Helps to create a configure.in file for a software package; it examines the source files in a directory tree, searching them for common portability issues, and creates a configure.scan file that serves as as a preliminary configure.in file for the package

autoupdate

Modifies a configure.in file that still calls autoconf macros by their old names to use the current macro names

ifnames

Helps when writing configure.in files for a software package; it prints the identifiers that the package uses in C preprocessor conditionals. If a package has already been set up to have some portability, this program can help determine what configure needs to check for. It can also fill in gaps in a configure.in file generated by autoscan

6.39. Automake-1.13.1

The Automake package contains programs for generating Makefiles for use with Autoconf.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU (34.1 SBU with tests)
Required disk space: 100 MB

6.39.1. Installation of Automake

Prepare Automake for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --docdir=/usr/share/doc/automake-1.13.1

Compile the package:

make

Note

The tests take a very long time: over 30 SBUs. Running the tests is not recommended.

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.39.2. Contents of Automake

Installed programs: acinstall, aclocal, aclocal-1.13, automake, automake-1.13, compile, config.guess, config.sub, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, py-compile, symlink-tree, and ylwrap
Installed directories: /usr/share/aclocal-1.13, /usr/share/automake-1.13, /usr/share/doc/automake-1.13.1

Short Descriptions

acinstall

A script that installs aclocal-style M4 files

aclocal

Generates aclocal.m4 files based on the contents of configure.in files

aclocal-1.13

A hard link to aclocal

automake

A tool for automatically generating Makefile.in files from Makefile.am files. To create all the Makefile.in files for a package, run this program in the top-level directory. By scanning the configure.in file, it automatically finds each appropriate Makefile.am file and generates the corresponding Makefile.in file

automake-1.13

A hard link to automake

compile

A wrapper for compilers

config.guess

A script that attempts to guess the canonical triplet for the given build, host, or target architecture

config.sub

A configuration validation subroutine script

depcomp

A script for compiling a program so that dependency information is generated in addition to the desired output

elisp-comp

Byte-compiles Emacs Lisp code

install-sh

A script that installs a program, script, or data file

mdate-sh

A script that prints the modification time of a file or directory

missing

A script acting as a common stub for missing GNU programs during an installation

mkinstalldirs

A script that creates a directory tree

py-compile

Compiles a Python program

symlink-tree

A script to create a symlink tree of a directory tree

ylwrap

A wrapper for lex and yacc

6.40. Diffutils-3.2

The Diffutils package contains programs that show the differences between files or directories.

Approximate build time: 0.5 SBU
Required disk space: 25 MB

6.40.1. Installation of Diffutils

Fix an incompatibility between this package and Glibc-2.17

sed -i -e '/gets is a/d' lib/stdio.in.h

Prepare Diffutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

6.40.2. Contents of Diffutils

Installed programs: cmp, diff, diff3, and sdiff

Short Descriptions

cmp

Compares two files and reports whether or in which bytes they differ

diff

Compares two files or directories and reports which lines in the files differ

diff3

Compares three files line by line

sdiff

Merges two files and interactively outputs the results

6.41. Gawk-4.0.2

The Gawk package contains programs for manipulating text files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 30 MB

6.41.1. Installation of Gawk

Prepare Gawk for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

If desired, install the documentation:

mkdir -v /usr/share/doc/gawk-4.0.2
cp    -v doc/{awkforai.txt,*.{eps,pdf,jpg}} /usr/share/doc/gawk-4.0.2

6.41.2. Contents of Gawk

Installed programs: awk (link to gawk), dgawk, gawk, gawk-4.0.2, grcat, igawk, pgawk, pgawk-4.0.2, and pwcat
Installed directories: /usr/lib/awk, /usr/share/awk

Short Descriptions

awk

A link to gawk

dgawk

An awk debugger

gawk

A program for manipulating text files; it is the GNU implementation of awk

gawk-4.0.2

A hard link to gawk

grcat

Dumps the group database /etc/group

igawk

Gives gawk the ability to include files

pgawk

The profiling version of gawk

pgawk-4.0.2

Hard link to pgawk

pwcat

Dumps the password database /etc/passwd

6.42. Findutils-4.4.2

The Findutils package contains programs to find files. These programs are provided to recursively search through a directory tree and to create, maintain, and search a database (often faster than the recursive find, but unreliable if the database has not been recently updated).

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 29 MB

6.42.1. Installation of Findutils

Prepare Findutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr                   \
            --libexecdir=/usr/lib/findutils \
            --localstatedir=/var/lib/locate

The meaning of the configure options:

--localstatedir

This option changes the location of the locate database to be in /var/lib/locate, which is FHS-compliant.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

Some of the scripts in the LFS-Bootscripts package depend on find. As /usr may not be available during the early stages of booting, this program needs to be on the root partition. The updatedb script also needs to be modified to correct an explicit path:

mv -v /usr/bin/find /bin
sed -i 's/find:=${BINDIR}/find:=\/bin/' /usr/bin/updatedb

6.42.2. Contents of Findutils

Installed programs: bigram, code, find, frcode, locate, oldfind, updatedb, and xargs
Installed directory: /usr/lib/findutils

Short Descriptions

bigram

Was formerly used to produce locate databases

code

Was formerly used to produce locate databases; it is the ancestor of frcode.

find

Searches given directory trees for files matching the specified criteria

frcode

Is called by updatedb to compress the list of file names; it uses front-compression, reducing the database size by a factor of four to five.

locate

Searches through a database of file names and reports the names that contain a given string or match a given pattern

oldfind

Older version of find, using a different algorithm

updatedb

Updates the locate database; it scans the entire file system (including other file systems that are currently mounted, unless told not to) and puts every file name it finds into the database

xargs

Can be used to apply a given command to a list of files

6.43. Flex-2.5.37

The Flex package contains a utility for generating programs that recognize patterns in text.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 39 MB

6.43.1. Installation of Flex

First, fix some regression tests:

patch -Np1 -i ../flex-2.5.37-bison-2.6.1-1.patch

Prepare Flex for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr             \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/flex-2.5.37

Compile the package:

make

To test the results (about 0.5 SBU), issue:

make check

Install the package:

make install

There are some packages that expect to find the lex library in /usr/lib. Create a symlink to account for this:

ln -sv libfl.a /usr/lib/libl.a

A few programs do not know about flex yet and try to run its predecessor, lex. To support those programs, create a wrapper script named lex that calls flex in lex emulation mode:

cat > /usr/bin/lex << "EOF"
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/lex

exec /usr/bin/flex -l "$@"

# End /usr/bin/lex
EOF
chmod -v 755 /usr/bin/lex

6.43.2. Contents of Flex

Installed programs: flex, flex++ (link to flex), and lex
Installed libraries: libfl.a and libfl_pic.a
Installed directories: /usr/share/doc/flex-2.5.37

Short Descriptions