Linux From Scratch

Version 6.2

Gerard Beekmans

Copyright © 1999–2006 Gerard Beekmans

Copyright (c) 1999–2006, Gerard Beekmans

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  • Redistributions in any form must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer

  • Neither the name of “Linux From Scratch” nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this material without specific prior written permission

  • Any material derived from Linux From Scratch must contain a reference to the “Linux From Scratch” project

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Table of Contents

Preface

i. Foreword

My adventures in Linux began in 1998 when I downloaded and installed my first distribution. After working with it for a while, I discovered issues I definitely would have liked to see improved upon. For example, I didn't like the arrangement of the bootscripts or the way programs were configured by default. I tried a number of alternative distributions to address these issues, yet each had its pros and cons. Finally, I realized that if I wanted full satisfaction from my Linux system, I would have to build my own from scratch.

What does this mean? I resolved not to use pre-compiled packages of any kind, nor CD-ROMs or boot disks that would install basic utilities. I would use my current Linux system to develop my own customized system. This “perfect” Linux system would then have the strengths of various systems without their associated weaknesses. In the beginning, the idea was rather daunting, but I remained committed to the idea that a system could be built that would conform to my needs and desires rather than to a standard that just did not fit what I was looking for.

After sorting through issues such as circular dependencies and compile-time errors, I created a custom-built Linux system that was fully operational and suitable to individual needs. This process also allowed me to create compact and streamlined Linux systems which are faster and take up less space than traditional operating systems. I called this system a Linux From Scratch system, or an LFS system for short.

As I shared my goals and experiences with other members of the Linux community, it became apparent that there was sustained interest in the ideas set forth in my Linux adventures. Such custom-built LFS systems serve not only to meet user specifications and requirements, but also serve as an ideal learning opportunity for programmers and system administrators to enhance their Linux skills. Out of this broadened interest, the Linux From Scratch Project was born.

This Linux From Scratch book provides readers with the background and instruction to design and build custom Linux systems. This book highlights the Linux from Scratch project and the benefits of using this system. Users can dictate all aspects of their system, including directory layout, script setup, and security. The resulting system will be compiled completely from the source code, and the user will be able to specify where, why, and how programs are installed. This book allows readers to fully customize Linux systems to their own needs and allows users more control over their system.

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

--
Gerard Beekmans
gerard AT linuxfromscratch D0T org

ii. Audience

There are many reasons why somebody would want to read this book. The principal reason is to install a Linux system from the source code. A question 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?” That is a good question and is the impetus for this section of the book.

One important reason for LFS's existence is to help people 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 provides is the ability to customize Linux to your own tastes and needs.

A key benefit of LFS is that it allows users 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, such as the directory layout and bootscript setup. You also dictate where, why, and how programs are installed.

Another benefit of LFS is the ability to create a very compact Linux system. When installing a regular distribution, one is often forced to include several programs which are probably never used. These programs waste disk space, or worse, CPU cycles. It is not difficult to build an LFS system of less than 100 megabytes (MB), which is substantially smaller than the majority of existing installations. Does this still sound like a lot of space? A few of us have been working on creating a very small embedded LFS system. We successfully built a system that was specialized to run the Apache web server with approximately 8MB of disk space used. Further stripping could bring this down to 5 MB or less. Try that with a regular distribution! This is only one of the many benefits of designing your own Linux implementation.

We could compare Linux distributions to a hamburger purchased at a fast-food restaurant—you have no idea what might be in what you are eating. LFS, on the other hand, does not give you a hamburger. Rather, LFS provides the recipe to make the exact hamburger desired. This allows users to review the recipe, omit unwanted ingredients, and add your own ingredients to enhance the flavor of the burger. When you are satisfied with the recipe, move on to preparing it. It can be made to exact specifications—broil it, bake it, deep-fry it, or barbecue it.

Another analogy that we can use is that of comparing LFS with a finished house. LFS provides the skeletal plan of a house, but it is up to you to build it. LFS maintains the freedom to adjust plans throughout the process, customizing it to the user's needs and preferences.

An additional 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. Readers who do not wish to build their own Linux system from scratch may not benefit from the information in this book. If you only want to know what happens while the computer boots, we recommend the “From Power Up To Bash Prompt” HOWTO located at http://axiom.anu.edu.au/~okeefe/p2b/ or on The Linux Documentation Project's (TLDP) website at http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/From-PowerUp-To-Bash-Prompt-HOWTO.html. The HOWTO builds a system which is similar to that of this book, but it focuses strictly on creating a system capable of booting to a BASH prompt. Consider your objective. If you wish to build a Linux system while learning along the way, then this book is your best choice.

There are too many good reasons to build your own LFS system to list them all here. This section is only the tip of the iceberg. As you continue in your LFS experience, you will find the power that information and knowledge truly bring.

iii. 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, the reader 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 the reader has 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; 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:

iv. 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.

  • Bash-2.05a

  • Binutils-2.12 (Versions greater than 2.16.1 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Bzip2-1.0.2

  • Coreutils-5.0 (or Sh-Utils-2.0, Textutils-2.0, and Fileutils-4.1)

  • Diffutils-2.8

  • Findutils-4.1.20

  • Gawk-3.0

  • Gcc-2.95.3 (Versions greater than 4.0.3 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Glibc-2.2.5 (Versions greater than 2.3.6 are not recommended as they have not been tested)

  • Grep-2.5

  • Gzip-1.2.4

  • Linux Kernel-2.6.x (having been compiled with GCC-3.0 or greater)

    The reason for the kernel version requirement is that thread-local storage support in Binutils will not be built and the Native POSIX Threading Library (NPTL) test suite will segfault if the host's kernel isn't at least a 2.6.x version compiled with a 3.0 or later release of GCC.

    If the host kernel is either earlier than 2.6.x, or it was not compiled using a GCC-3.0 (or later) compiler, you will have to replace the kernel with one adhering to the specifications. There are two methods you can take to solve this. First, see if your Linux vendor provides a 2.6 kernel package. If so, you may wish to install it. If your vendor doesn't offer a 2.6 kernel package, or you would prefer not to install it, then you can compile a 2.6 kernel yourself. Instructions for compiling the kernel and configuring the boot loader (assuming the host uses GRUB) are located in Chapter 8.

  • Make-3.79.1

  • Patch-2.5.4

  • Sed-3.0.2

  • Tar-1.14

To see whether your host system has all the appropriate versions, run the following: 

cat > version-check.sh << "EOF"
#!/bin/bash

# Simple script to list version numbers of critical development tools

bash --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f2-4
echo -n "Binutils: "; ld --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f3-4
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
gcc --version | head -n1
/lib/libc.so.6 | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f1-7
grep --version | head -n1
gzip --version | head -n1
cat /proc/version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f1-3,5-7
make --version | head -n1
patch --version | head -n1
sed --version | head -n1
tar --version | head -n1

EOF

bash version-check.sh

v. 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. 

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

This form of text (fixed-width text) shows screen output, probably 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 page (hereinafter referred to simply as a “man” page). The number inside parentheses indicates a specific section inside of man. 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. Both man pages have different information in them. 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.

vi. Structure

This book is divided into the following parts.

vi.1. 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.

vi.2. 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.

vi.3. 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.

vii. 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/6.2/ 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

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. How to Build an LFS System

The LFS system will be built by using a previously 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 the Linux From Scratch LiveCD. The CD works well as a host system, providing all the tools you need to successfully follow the instructions in this book. Additionally, it contains all the source packages, patches and a copy of this book. So once you have the CD, no network connection or additional downloads are necessary. For more information about the LFS LiveCD or to download a copy, visit http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/livecd/.

Chapter 2 of this book describes how to create a new Linux native partition and file system, 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 the reader should be aware of before beginning to work 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 the user 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, but a full technical explanation 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 the builder to continue using the host while LFS is being built. While waiting for package compilation to complete, a user can switch to a different virtual console (VC) or X desktop and continue using the 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 furthering 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 the reader embarks 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 1.9.6

  • Bash 3.1

  • Binutils 2.16.1

  • Bison 2.2

  • Coreutils 5.96

  • E2fsprogs 1.39

  • File 4.17

  • Findutils 4.2.27

  • Flex 2.5.33

  • Gawk 3.1.5

  • GCC 4.0.3

  • Gettext 0.14.5

  • Glibc 2.3.6

  • GRUB 0.97

  • IANA-Etc 2.10

  • IPRoute2 2.6.16-060323

  • Less 394

  • LFS-Bootscripts 6.2

  • Libtool 1.5.22

  • Linux 2.6.16.27

  • Linux-Libc-Headers 2.6.12.0

  • M4 1.4.4

  • Man-pages 2.34

  • Ncurses 5.5

  • Perl 5.8.8

  • Procps 3.2.6

  • Psmisc 22.2

  • Readline 5.1

  • Sed 4.1.5

  • Shadow 4.0.15

  • TCL 8.4.13

  • Udev 096

  • Vim 7.0

  • Zlib 1.2.3

Downgraded to:

  • Groff 1.18.1.1

Added:

  • bash-3.1-fixes-8.patch

  • Berkeley DB-4.4.20

  • bzip2-1.0.3-bzgrep_security-1.patch

  • bzip2-1.0.3-install_docs-1.patch

  • db-4.4.20-fixes-1.patch

  • gawk-3.1.5-segfault_fix-1.patch

  • gcc-4.0.3-specs-1.patch

  • glibc-2.3.6-inotify-1.patch

  • glibc-2.3.6-linux_types-1.patch

  • groff-1.18.1.1-debian_fixes-1.patch

  • inetutils-1.4.2-gcc4_fixes-3.patch

  • kbd-1.12-gcc4_fixes-1.patch

  • linux-libc-headers-2.6.12.0-inotify-3.patch

  • MAN-DB-2.4.3

  • mktemp-1.5-add_tempfile-3.patch

  • module-init-tools-3.2.2-modprobe-1.patch

  • perl-5.8.8-libc-2.patch

  • readline-5.1-fixes-3.patch

  • tar-1.15.1-gcc4_fix_tests-1.patch

  • texinfo-4.8-tempfile_fix-2.patch

  • udev-config-6.2

  • vim-7.0-fixes-7.patch

  • vim-7.0-mandir-1.patch

  • vim-7.0-spellfile-1.patch

Removed:

  • flex-2.5.31-debian_fixes-3.patch

  • gcc-3.4.3-linkonce-1.patch

  • gcc-3.4.3-no_fixincludes-1.patch

  • gcc-3.4.3-specs-2.patch

  • glibc-2.3.4-fix_test-1.patch

  • hotplug-2004-09-23

  • inetutils-1.4.2-kernel_headers-1.patch

  • iproute2-2.6.11-050330-remove_db-1.patch

  • Man-1.6b

  • mktemp-1.5-add_tempfile-2.patch

  • perl-5.8.6-libc-1.patch

  • udev-config-4.rules

  • vim-6.3-security_fix-1.patch

  • zlib-1.2.2-security_fix-1.patch

1.3. Changelog

This is version 6.2 of the Linux From Scratch book, dated August 3, 2006. 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:

  • August 3, 2006

    • [dnicholson] - Fixed typo in list of acceptable ext3 features. Thanks to Randy McMurchy.

    • [dnicholson] - Updated Berkeley DB patch to contain all available upstream fixes. Fixed md5sum for glibc inotify patch.

  • August 2, 2006

    • [dnicholson] - Fixed Berkeley DB patch to conform to LFS style.

    • [dnicholson] - Added to the list of acceptable features in ext3 file systems. Thanks to George Gowers.

  • August 1, 2006

    • [dnicholson] - Added text describing a potential failure in the E2fsprogs testsuite when there is not enough memory available and suggest enabling swap space to address this. Also added an explicit swapon to the Chapter 2 mounting instructions to ensure that the user has enabled their swap space if desired. Thanks to Nathan Coulson and Alexander Patrakov.

    • [dnicholson] - Added text warning that the Udev testsuite will produce messages in the host's logs. Fixes #1846. Thanks to Archaic.

    • [dnicholson] - Finished adding system inotify support. Split the patch so that the syscall functions are part of the Glibc installation. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov for supplying the proper syscall bits.

  • July 31, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Added a patch vim to fix a spellfile download problem. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

  • July 30, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Added notes that udev does not recognize a backslash for line continuation.

    • [bdubbs] - Expanded the note in vim to better explain spell files.

  • July 29, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Added a patch to the linux-libc-headers to add the inotify header.

    • [bdubbs] - Added a patch to Berkeley DB to avoid potential program traps.

  • July 21, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Added the existing bash patch to Chapter 5 to avoid potential custom scripting problems.

    • [bdubbs] - Added grub-0.97-disk_geometry-1.patch.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated to linux-2.6.16.27. Added a note to use the latest kernel version available in the 2.6.16 series.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated vim patch set to level 7.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated the discussion concerning zimezones.

    • [dnicholson] - Added a reminder to check that the virtual kernel file systems are mounted after the description of the revised chroot command.

    • [dnicholson] - Fixed dead link to Linux Driver Model paper on the Device and Module Handling page. Replaced with sysfs paper by the same author. Thanks to Chris Staub and Bryan Kadzban.

  • July 18, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Several textual corrections. Thanks to Chris Staub.

  • July 15, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Added a patch to module-init-tools to correct a possible problem when aliases are specified with regular expressions.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated the kernel to version 2.6.16.26.

    • [bdubbs] - Added sed to correct path to the find program in updatedb after moving find to /bin.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated text concerning test failures in glibc to describe the most recent results.

  • July 13, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Moved the executables: nice, find, kbd_mode, openvt, and setfont to /bin to support boot scripts. Added --datadir=/lib/kbd to kbd's configure so that keyboard data will always be on the root partition.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated text in section 7.9 (The Bash Shell Startup Files) to better explain the Xlib example.

  • July 12, 20006

    • [bdubbs] - Updated to man-pages-2.34.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated to e2fsprogs-1.39.

    • [dnicholson] - Changed text explaining the installation of the udev-config rules. Thanks to Matthew Burgess.

    • [dnicholson] - Various fixes and additions for examples of custom rules in Udev courtesy of Alexander Patrakov. Added the "Creating custom symlinks" page which includes examples of creating persistent device symlinks, including CD-ROMs. Added a second set of guidelines for creating persistent symlinks for network cards. Other text touch ups on the configuration pages involving Udev. Closes ticket #1818.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated udev-config and bootscripts download location.

    • [dnicholson] - Added commands to create the vi to vim man page symlink in all available languages. Closes ticket #1811. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

    • [dnicholson] - Updated to udev-096 and udev-config-20060712. Removed the bug.c program and the cd symlinks script. The cd symlinks will be covered in Chapter 7. Closes ticket #1804. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov for making the appropriate changes in the Udev rules.

  • July 11, 2006

    • [bdubbs] - Changed url for the SBU pages to a generic location.

    • [bdubbs] - Added clarifying text to section 7.9 concerning charmap specifications. Thanks to Dan Nicholson. Closes ticket #1813.

    • [bdubbs] - Moved text in section 5.7 "Adjusting the Toolchain" referencing TCL out of the caution and into its own note so it does not get included later in gcc-pass2. Closes ticket #1822.

    • [bdubbs] - Updated the kernel to version 2.6.16.24. Closes ticket #1808.

  • July 10, 2006

    • [dnicholson] - Specified the full path to modprobe in the example modprobe rule. Closes ticket #1812.

    • [dnicholson] - Remove the locale country command from the heuristic to determine the locale in the Bash Shell Startup Files since it doesn't produce results in all locales.

  • July 7, 2006

    • [matt] - Updated module-init-tools download information as it has a new maintainer.

  • June 10, 2006

    • [ken] - Added gettext.sh to list of programs installed by gettext, similarly nologin for shadow, grub-set-default for grub, enc2xs and instmodsh for perl, slabtop for procps, flock and tailf for util-linux, bootlogd for sysvinit, manpath for man-db, filefrag for e2fsprogs. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

  • May 31, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-2.6.16.19.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages-2.33.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Bison-2.2.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Coreutils-5.96.

    • [gerard] - Added tee to chapter 6's Glibc make check so the output can be seen on screen as well as captured in the log file.

  • May 30, 2006

    • [matthew] - Removed an out of date comment regarding having to run pwconv to reset passwords after enabling password shadowing. Thanks to Chris Staub for the report.

    • [matthew] - Removed getunimap, setlogons, and setvesablank from the list of programs installed by kbd. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

  • May 30, 2006

    • [matthew] - Removed swapdev from the list of files installed by util-linux. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

  • May 27, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Remove the 'refer back's in the gcc-pass2 and chapter06/gcc pages. Better organizes the commands and data so that the flow of the book is not lost.

    • [jhuntwork] - Add a note about installing spell files for Vim in a language other than English.

    • [jhuntwork] - Correct Vim's installation of man pages to work well with Man-DB. Patch from Alexander Patrakov and Ag Hatzim.

  • May 26, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Some version corrections in the vim page.

  • May 25, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Updated to Vim-7.0. Fixes #1793.

    • [jhuntwork] - Fixed generation of diff's man page. Thanks Randy McMurchy for the report and Ken Moffat for the fix. Fixes #1800.

  • May 22, 2006

    • [jim] - Fixed a constant support question asked in #IRC and the mailing lists about shadow's additional sed command for cracklib. Using a complete sed command instead.

  • May 15, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated to udev-config-20060515. This adds the rule to create /dev/usb nodes as well as making the rules files slightly more modular by reorganizing which rules go to which files. This is a very minor update.

    • [archaic] - Updated to man-pages-2.32.

    • [archaic] - Updated to udev-092.

  • May 14, 2006

    • [manuel] - Updated SBU and disk usage values.

    • [manuel] - Created packages.ent. Moved data about packages to packages.ent as entities.

  • May 12, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated to linux-2.6.16.16.

  • May 9, 2006

    • [manuel] - Updated packages and patches sizes.

  • May 8, 2006

    • [archaic] - Made the directory tree creation more concise and removed the extraneous /opt/* hierarchy (it is not required by FHS). Closes ticket #1656.

  • May 7, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated to linux-2.6.16.14.

    • [ken] - Use ext3 filesystem instead of ext2. Resolves ticket #1792.

  • May 6, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Added MD5 sums for packages and patches. Resolves ticket #1788.

  • May 3, 2006

    • [archaic] - Upgraded to linux-2.6.16.13.

    • [jhuntwork] - Updated stripping notes to reflect current findings. Resolves ticket #1657.

    • [archaic] - Updated the bug.c code to avoid USB-related uevent leakage reports.

  • May 2, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Fixed sanity checks to work after final GCC and changed their format. Resolves ticket #1768.

    • [archaic] - Removed mention of usbfs from the fstab page since it is already covered in BLFS.

    • [archaic] - Updated to man-pages-2.31.

    • [archaic] - Updated to iana-etc-2.10.

    • [archaic] - Updated to tcl8.4.13.

  • May 1, 2006

    • [archaic] - Added two seds to avoid symlink problems with Readline during reinstallation. Thanks to Dan and Manuel for the fix and for testing. Fixes ticket #1770.

    • [archaic] - Fixed issue where module-init-tools would not re-install its binaries.

    • [archaic] - Updated to linux-2.6.16.11.

    • [archaic] - Updated to udev-091. Moved to a tarball-based set of udev rules. Updated the bootscripts to support the new udevsettle program.

  • April 27, 2006

    • [manuel] - Added SEO Company Canada to donators acknowledgements.

  • April 23, 2006

    • [manuel] - Fixed command to change $LFS/tools ownership. Resolves ticket #1780.

  • April 22, 2006

    • [manuel] - Revised again the Host System Requirements page wording and look. Thanks to Bruce Dubbs for the patch. Resolves ticket #1779.

  • April 21, 2006

    • [manuel] - Added commands to determine the version of the required packages installed on the host. Thanks to Bruce Dubbs for the commands list and Randy McMurchy for reviewing the wording.

    • [manuel] - Alphabetized patches list. Thanks to Justin R. Knierim for the patch.

  • April 20, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Updated bash to 3.1.17 via an updated patch. Resolves Ticket 1775.

    • [manuel] - Reworded why a 2.6 kernel compiled with GCC-3 is required on the host system.

    • [manuel] - Revised dependencies info. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch.

  • April 19, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Added a more detailed list of minimum software requirements. Thanks to Chris Staub for researching these and Alexander Patrakov for suggesting the enhancement. Resolves Ticket 1598.

  • April 18, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Moved all dependency information to a new page, Appendix C. Appendix C also contains information concerning the build order. While there might need to be a few tweaks yet, this information is complete enough at this point to close out the long-standing ticket #684. Many thanks to Chris Staub, Dan Nicholson and Manuel Canales Esparcia for helping get this finished.

  • April 15, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated to lfs-bootscripts-20060415.

    • [archaic] - Added patch to glibc to fix build errors in packages that include linux/types.h after sys/kd.h.

  • April 14, 2006

    • [ken] - Add security patch for tar to address CVE-2006-0300.

    • [archaic] - Upgraded to man-pages-2.29 and linux-2.6.16.5. No command changes.

    • [manuel] - Changed typography conventions. From now, replaceable text is encapsulated inside < >, optional text inside [ ], and library extensions inside { }. Thanks to Bruce Dubbs for the patch.

  • April 13, 2006

    • [archaic] - Removed boot logging rule from /etc/syslog.conf and removed the command to move logger to /bin.

    • [archaic] - Added symlink from vim.1 to vi.1.

    • [archaic] - Added chgpasswd to the list of installed files for Shadow.

    • [archaic] - Merged the udev_update branch to trunk.

  • April 12, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Rewrote section explaining IP Addresses. Thanks Bryan Kadzban and Bruce Dubbs. Resolves Ticket 1663.

    • [jhuntwork] - Added a pointer to GDBM in Berkeley DB page. Also added explanatory text concerning why LFS chose Debian's convention for storing man pages. Thanks to Tushar Teredesai and Alexander Patrakov. Resolves Ticket 1694.

    • [jhuntwork] - Remove symlink of zsoelim to groff's soelim in chapter 6. Man-DB produces a sufficient zsoelim which overwrites the symlink we used to create.

  • April 11, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Updated bash-3.1 patch. (Ticket 1758)

  • April 8, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Added a command to create an empty /etc/mtab file early in chapter 6. This avoids testsuite failures in e2fsprogs and possibly other programs that expect /etc/mtab to be present. Explanation from Dan Nicholson, slightly modified. Also merged the 'Creating Essential Symlinks' section with 'Creating passwd, group and log Files'.

  • April 6, 2006

    • [manuel] - Placed home page (when available) and full download links for all packages in chapter03/packages.xml.

    • [jhuntwork] - Merged alphabetical branch to trunk.

  • April 2, 2006

    • [archaic] - Moved the chowning of /tools to the end of chapter 5 and rewrote note about backing up or re-using /tools. Moved the mounting of kernel filesystems before the package management page and rewrote the page to mount --bind /dev and mount all other kernel filesystems while outside chroot. Rewrote note about re-entering chroot and remounting kernel filesystems. Removed /dev from the list of dirs created in chroot and added it before chroot.

  • March 30, 2006

    • [ken] - Correct my erroneous comment about UTF-8 locales in Man-DB. Thanks to Alexander for explaining it.

    • [ken] - upgraded to Linux-2.6.16.1, Iproute2-2.6.16-060323, and Udev-088.

  • March 29, 2006

    • [ken] - Upgrade to shadow-4.0.15 and add convert-mans script to convert its UTF-8 man pages. Thanks to Alexander and Archaic for the script and commands. Fixes tickets #1748 and #1750.

  • March 22, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated to lfs-bootscripts-udev_update-20060321.

  • March 21, 2006

    • [archaic] - Updated the bootscripts. Removed references to hotplug and the bootscripts udev patch. Removed reference to udevstart. Added text and commands for generating Udev bug reports.

  • March 18, 2006

    • [matthew] - Do not run configure manually for iproute2 as it is run automatically by the Makefile. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch. Fixes ticket #1734.

    • [matthew] - Make bzdiff use mktemp instead of the deprecated tempfile command. Thanks to Chris Staub for the patch. Fixes ticket #1713.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to flex-2.5.33.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to readline-5.1.004.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to bash-3.1.014.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to psmisc-22.2.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to file-4.17.

    • [matthew] - Use updated version of the coreutils suppression patch to prevent coreutils version of the su man page from being installed. Fixes #1690.

  • March 11, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to GCC 4.0.3.

  • March 8, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages 2.25.

    • [matthew] - Remove an example of poor Udev support as it does not apply to the kernel used in the book. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux 2.6.15.6.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to udev-087.

    • [matthew] - Udev's run_program rules require a null device to be present at an early stage, so create one in /lib/udev/devices.

  • March 7, 2006

    • [matthew] - Update Udev rules file to load SCSI modules and upload firmware to devices that need it. Improve explanations of device and module handling. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

    • [archaic] - Replaced the debian-specific groff patch with an LFS-style patch.

  • March 3, 2006

    • [gerard] - Remove -D_GNU_SOURCE from chapter 5 - Patch. Thanks to Dan Nicholson for the patch.

  • March 1, 2006

    • [archaic] - Create the Udev directories before creating the symlinks.

    • [jhuntwork] - Added a description of perl configure flags that help perl deal with a lack of groff. Thanks Dan Nicholson.

  • February 27, 2006

    • [archaic] - New bash fixes patch adds patch 011 from Bash upstream. Bash patch 010 broke quoting in certain situations.

  • February 20, 2006

    • [matthew] - Use non-deprecated format for accessing MODALIAS keys in the Udev rules file, and prevent the "$" from being expanded by the shell.

    • [matthew] - Add patches 009 and 010 from Bash upstream.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages 2.24.

  • February 19, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade Perl libc patch to prevent Perl from trying to find headers on the host system. Fixes bug 1695.

    • [matthew] - Expand the Udev module handling rule to run for every subsystem, not just USB.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux 2.6.15.4.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Udev 085.

    • [matthew] - Install Sed's HTML documentation by using --enable-html instead of editing the Makefile. Thanks to Greg Schafer for the report and the fix.

    • [matthew] - Add upstream fixes 001-002 for Readline.

    • [matthew] - Add upstream fixes 001-008 for Bash.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Sed 4.1.5.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages 2.23.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Coreutils-5.94.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to DB-4.4.20.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Perl-5.8.8, removing the now unneeded vulnerability and DB module patches.

    • [matthew] - Add the verbose parameter to a couple of commands in Linux-Libc-Headers and DB.

    • [matthew] - Create udev specific directories in udev's instructions instead of the more generic creatingdirs.xml. Add "pts" and "shm" directories to /lib/udev/devices so that they can be mounted successfully at boot time.

  • February 10, 2006

    • [manuel] - Finished the XML indentation plus few tags changes.

  • February 8, 2006

    • [matthew] - Rewrite the majority of chapter07/udev.xml to reflect the new configuration for handling dynamic device naming and module loading.

  • February 3, 2006

    • [matthew] - Create the /lib/firmware directory that can be used by Udev's firmware_helper utility.

    • [matthew] - Add descriptions of Udev's helper binaries.

    • [manuel] - Add udev bootscript patch to whatsnew. Removed hotplug from list of packages to download.

    • [ken] - Add udev bootscript patch to list of patches to download.

    • [ken] - Correct the size of the udev tarball.

  • February 2, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Udev-084 and build all its extras to enable custom rules to be written more easily. Also, change the rules file to handle kernel module loading and patch the udev bootscript to work with this version of udev.

    • [matthew] - Remove the hotplug package and related bootscript. Udev will now handle device creation and module loading.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Linux-2.6.15.2.

  • January 30, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Adjust binutils-pass1 so we don't need to hang on to its source directories. Also use 'gcc -dumpmachine' instead of the MACHTYPE var.

    • [jhuntwork] - Various textual corrections. Thanks Chris Staub.

    • [jhuntwork] - Remove unnecessary LDFLAGS variables in binutils pass 1 and 2. Thanks Dan Nicholson.

  • January 29, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Restore the use of *startfile_prefix_spec.

    • [jhuntwork] - Remove a spurious -i from the perl command when readjusting the toolchain. Thanks Dan Nicholson.

  • January 26, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Modify chapter 6 Glibc's make install command to allow test-installation.pl to run.

    • [jhuntwork] - Adjust chapter 5 binutils to build a static ld-new for use in the chapter 6 readjusting section. Also add some extended sanity checks. These fixes are adapted from DIY-Linux and Greg Schafer. Thanks to Dan Nicholson for the report, as well.

    • [jhuntwork] - Added 'nodump' to commands in the Package Management section.

  • January 25, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Remove ppc specific instructions from chapter 6 patch. Cross-LFS can handle non-x86 arch specifics at this point.

    • [jhuntwork] - Fix chapter 6 Glibc's test-installation.pl to test the correct Glibc. Fixes bug 1675. Thanks to Dan Nicholson for the report and Greg Schafer for the fix.

    • [jhuntwork] - Fixed the re-adjusting of the toolchain in chapter 6 so that chapter 6 GCC and Binutils links against the proper Glibc and so that we don't have to keep the binutils directories from chapter 5. Also moved a note about saving the /tools directory to the beginning of chapter 6. Fixes bug 1677. Thanks to Chris Staub, Alexander Patrakov, Greg Schafer and Tushar Teredesai for reporting and resolving this issue.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade coreutils i18n patch to version 2 to fix sort -n and add the en_US.UTF-8 locale to improve coreutils' test coverage. Fixes bugs 1688 and 1689. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

    • [matthew] - Add information about package management. Thanks to the BLFS project for the text.

  • January 24, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Groff-1.18.1.1-11.

  • January 23, 2006

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Man-pages 2.21.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Psmisc 22.1.

    • [matthew] - Upgrade to Shadow 4.0.14.

    • [matthew] - Install documentation for the Linux kernel. Thanks to Tushar for the report. Fixes bug 1683.

    • [matthew] - Added a patch to enable Perl's DB_File module to compile with the latest version of Berkeley DB. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov for the patch.

  • January 20, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Added a patch to fix the sprintf security vulnerability in Perl. Thanks to Tim van der Molen for pointing it out.

  • January 17, 2006

    • [jhuntwork] - Fixed locale generation for French UTF-8. Thanks to Dan McGhee for the report and Alexander Patrakov for the fix.

  • January 10, 2006

    • [ken]: Define YYENABLE_NLS in bison, to resolve a code difference shown up by Iterative Comparison Analysis. Thanks to Greg Schafer.

    • [ken]: Revert my move of mktemp and add a sed to correct gccbug.

  • January 7, 2006

    • [ken]: Alter the Perl instructions to always create an /etc/hosts file. This fixes a potential difference in the 'hostcat' recorded in Config_heavy.pl. Thanks to Bryan Kadzban for explaining this.

    • [ken]: Move grep ahead of libtool, so that the latter will correctly reference /bin/grep in references to EGREP.

    • [ken]: Move mktemp ahead of gcc so that gccbug will use mktemp.

    • [ken]: Give Berkeley DB its full name, and remove the '-lpthread' overrides. Also add pointer to BLFS, thanks to Randy McMurchy.

  • January 5, 2006

    • [jhuntwork]: Remove mention of news server until we actually have one. Thanks Randy.

    • [jhuntwork]: Initial addition of UTF-8 support. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov.

  • January 3, 2006

    • [matt]: Clarify the description of mktemp's --with-libc configure parameter (fixes bug 1667).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to libtool 1.5.22.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.18.

    • [matt]: Remove the -v flag from the example mkswap command in chapter 2 as it does not affect verbosity (fixes bug 1674).

  • December 31, 2005

    • [ken]: Alter installation of Linux Libc asm Headers in chroot, to be repeatable.

  • December 23, 2005

    • [jim]: Corrected version on Vim symlink

  • December 21, 2005

    • [matt]: Correctly symlink Vim's documentation to /usr/share/doc. Thanks to Jeremy for the report and the fix.

  • December 17, 2005

    • [matt]: Pass a valid path to module-init-tools' --prefix configure switch and remove the now unnecessary --mandir switch

    • [matt]: Symlink Vim's documentation to /usr/share/doc. Fixes bug 1610. Thanks to Randy McMurchy for the original report and to Ken and Jeremy for their investigations into the fix.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to psmisc-21.9

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages-2.17

  • December 16, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Move Procps to before Perl in chapter 6. Perl's testsuite uses 'ps'.

  • December 13, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Install Tcl's internal headers to /tools/include, allowing us to drop its source directory right away. Origin is Greg Schafer, and thanks to Dan Nicholson for the report (fixes bug 1670).

  • December 12, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Updated texinfo patch. Fixes segfault issues with texindex. Thanks to Randy McMurchy for the report and Bruce Dubbs and Joe Ciccone for the fix.

  • December 11, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Upgrade to tcl-8.4.12

    • [jhuntwork]: Upgrade to less-394.

    • [jhuntwork]: Upgrade to readline-5.1. Also removed bash-3.0 and readline-5.0 specific patches.

    • [jhuntwork]: Upgrade to bash-3.1. Also fixed Tcl to work with the new bash version. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov and ultimately, Greg Schafer for the fix.

    • [jhuntwork]: Changed variable used in readline for linking in ncurses. Thanks to Alexander Patrakov for the fix.

  • December 9, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages-2.16

    • [matt]: Upgrade to module-init-tools-3.2.2

    • [matt]: Upgrade to findutils-4.2.27

  • December 7, 2005

    • [matt]: Mention the testsuites (or lack of them) for all packages (fixes bug 1664). Thanks to Chris Staub for the report and analysis of affected packages.

  • November 26, 2005

    • [matt]: Don't install the Linuxthreads man pages, the POSIX threading API is documented in the man3p section provided by the man-pages package (fixes bug 1660).

    • [matt]: Remove the incorrect note about not having to dump/check a journalled filesystem (fixes bug 1662).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to module-init-tools 3.2.1.

    • [matt]: Prevent installing the internationalized man pages for Shadow's groups binary (thanks to Randy McMurchy for the report).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.14.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to findutils-4.2.26

    • [manuel]: Changed --strip-path to --strip-components in the unpack of module-init-tools-testsuite package.

  • November 23, 2005

    • [gerard]: Corrected reference to 'man page' to 'HTML documentation' in chapter 6/sec

  • November 18, 2005

    • [manuel]: Fixed the unpack of the module-init-tools-testsuite package.

  • November 16, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Textual correction concerning gettext in chapter 5 and the use of --disable-shared

  • November 15, 2005

    • [archaic]: Changed the chapter 6 Perl Dpager configure option to reflect the new location of the less binary.

  • November 14, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Only install msgfmt from gettext in chapter 5. This is all that is necessary and prevents gettext from trying to pull in unnecessary elements from the host. Thanks to Greg Schafer for pointing this out.

  • November 12, 2005

    • [matt]: Improve the heuristic for determining a locale that is supported by both Glibc and packages outside LFS (bug 1642). Many thanks to Alexander Patrakov for highlighting the numerous issues and for reviewing the various suggested fixes.

    • [jhuntwork]: Move sed to earlier in the build.

    • [jhuntwork]: Move m4 to earlier in the build. Thanks Chris Staub.

  • November 11, 2005

    • [matt]: Omit running Bzip2's testsuite as a separate step, as make runs it automatically (bug 1652).

  • November 10, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Initial re-ordering of packages. Thanks to Chris Staub (bug 684).

  • November 7, 2005

    • [matt]: Install the binaries from Less to /usr/bin instead of /bin (fixes bug 1643).

    • [matt]: Remove the --libexecdir option from both passes of GCC in chapter 5 (fixes bug 1646). Also change the --libexecdir option for Findutils to conform with the /usr/lib/packagename convention already prevalent in the book (fixes bug 1644).

  • November 6, 2005

    • [matt]: Remove the optimization related warnings from the toolchain packages (bug 1650).

    • [matt]: Install Vim's documentation to /usr/share/doc/vim-7.0 instead of /usr/share/vim/vim64/doc (bug 1610). Thanks to Randy McMurchy for the report, and Jeremy Huntwork for the fix.

    • [matt]: Stop Udev from killing udevd processes on the host system (fixes bug 1651). Thanks to Alexander Patrakov for the report and the fix.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to Coreutils 5.93.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to Psmisc 21.8.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to Glibc 2.3.6.

  • November 5, 2005

    • [matt]: Add a note to the toolchain sanity check in chapter 5 to explain that if TCL fails to build, it's an indication of a broken toolchain (bug 1581).

  • November 3, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.13.

    • [matt]: Correct the instructions for running Module-Init-Tools' testsuite (fixes bug 1597). Thanks to Greg Schafer, Tushar Teredesai and to Randy McMurchy for providing the patch.

  • October 31, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to shadow-4.0.13.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to vim-6.4.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to procps-3.2.6.

    • [matt]: Build udev_run_devd and udev_run_hotplugd and alter the udev rules file so that udev once again executes programs in the /etc/dev.d and /etc/hotplug.d directories (fixes bug 1635). Also change the udev rules to prevent udev from handling the "card" and "dm" devices as these are managed entirely by programs outside of LFS.

  • October 29, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to udev-071

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.11.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to coreutils-5.92. This involved removing the DEFAULT_POSIX2_VERSION environment variable as it is no longer required. The testsuite also requires the Data::Dumper module from Perl, so it is now built in chapter05/perl.xml.

  • October 22, 2005

    • [archaic]: Upgrade to m4-1.4.4.

  • October 21, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to file-4.16.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.10.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to ncurses 5.5.

  • October 15, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages 2.09.

    • [matt]: Use an updated version of the Udev rules file (fixes bug 1639).

    • [matt]: Add a cdrom group as required by the Udev rules. file

  • October 9, 2005

    • [matt]: Emphasise the fact that one must delete the source directory after each package has been installed. Fixes bug 1638. Thanks to Chris Staub.

  • October 8, 2005

    • [archaic]: Added patch to fix poor tempfile creation in Texinfo-4.8 that can lead to a symlink attack.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to iproute2-051007.

  • October 7, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to gcc-4.0.2.

  • October 4, 2005

    • [matt]: Prevent GCC from running the fixincludes script in chapter5 pass2 and chapter 6 (fixes bug 1636). Thanks to Tushar and Greg for their contributions on this issue.

  • September 29, 2005

    • [matt]: Add more explicit reader prerequisites (fixes bug 1629).

    • [matt]: Add -v to commands that accept it (fixes bug 1612).

  • September 26, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-pages-2.08.

  • September 24, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to gawk-3.1.5.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to man-1.6b.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to util-linux-2.12r.

  • September 20, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to bison-2.1.

  • September 17, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to udev-070 and remove the unnecessary "udevdir=/dev" parameter.

    • [matt]: Added patch for coreutils to improve echo's POSIX and bash compatibility and to recognise "\xhh" syntax as required by the test suite in udev-069 and later.

  • September 15, 2005

    • [archaic]: Added patch for util-linux to prevent a umount vulnerability.

  • September 8, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Upgrade to groff-1.19.2

  • September 6, 2005

    • [ken]: Reworded the glibc text to expect test failures.

  • September 5, 2005

    • [ken]: Add patch to fix some of the math tests in glibc.

  • September 4, 2005

    • [matt]: Add patch to stop cfdisk segfaulting when invoked on devices with partitions that don't contain an ext2, ext3, xfs or jfs filesystem (see bug 1604).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to libtool-1.5.20.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to findutils-4.2.25.

  • September 2, 2005

    • [matt]: The optimization flag for util-linux comes from configure rather than MCONFIG, so adjust the sed in order for the segfault fix to actually work.

    • [matt]: Avoid the potential race condition when invoking find to remove GCC's fixed headers.

  • August 30th, 2005

    • [matt]: Work around a segfault in cfdisk by compiling with -O instead of the default -O2 optimization setting (fixes bug 1604).

    • [matt]: Update the inetutils patch to use the upstream fix for GCC-4.x compilation problems (fixes bug 1602).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to shadow-2.0.12

    • [ken]: Remove sed -i commands from gcc-pass2.

  • August 28th, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Adjusted tar commands in Bash and Glibc chapter 6 builds for consistency

  • August 23rd, 2005

    • [matt]: find may fail due to a race condition when deleting files. Remove the && construct in chapter05/adjusting.xml so that the rest of the commands for removing fixed headers will be executed (fixes bug 1621).

    • [matt]: Install Udev's documentation relating to configuring rules (fixes bug 1622).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to Man-1.6a.

  • August 20th, 2005

    • [matt]: Stop moving some of coreutils' binaries to /bin as they aren't required to be there (fixes bug 1620).

  • August 19th, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgrade to Udev-068.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to IANA-etc-2.00.

    • [matt]: Upgrade to file-4.15.

  • August 18th, 2005

    • [matt]: Simplify the method for finding where GCC's default specs file and private include directory live. Additionally, don't assume the host's sed supports the -i switch.

    • [ken]: Add a patch to sanitise bzgrep's handling of filenames.

  • August 16th, 2005

    • [matt]: Install sed's man page to /usr/share/doc/sed-4.1.4 instead of /usr/share/doc (fixes bug 1600).

    • [matt]: Upgraded to linux-2.6.12.5.

  • August 15th, 2005

    • [matt]: Alter the GCC -fomit-frame-pointer sed to protect from multiple invocations (Greg Schafer).

  • August 14th, 2005

    • [ken]: Upgrade shadow to 4.0.11.1 with --enable-shadowgrp as advised by Greg Schafer.

    • [matt]: Mention the common libmudflap test failures in GCC (fixes bug 1615).

    • [matt]: Added patch to install documentation for bzip2 (fixes bug 1603).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to linux-2.6.12.4.

    • [matt]: Add sed to chapter05/gcc-pass2 and chapter06/gcc to ensure they get built with -fomit-frame-pointer so it matches the bootstrap build in chapter05/gcc-pass1 (fixes bug 1609).

    • [matt]: Upgrade to udev-067 including a fix for the failing test (bug 1611).

  • August 12th, 2005

    • [matt]: Explain that libiconv isn't required on an LFS system (fixes bug 1614).

    • [matt]: Fix ownership of libtool's libltdl data files (fixes bug 1601).

    • [matt]: Change findutils and vim's configure switch explanations to the convention used in the rest of the book (Bug 1613).

    • [matt]: Expand explanation of device node creation at the start of chapter 6.

    • [matt]: Fix incorrect version number for expect's installed library (Bug 1608).

  • August 7th, 2005

    • [archaic]: Added note in Shadow regarding building Cracklib from BLFS first.

  • August 6th, 2005

    • [matt]: Add texi2pdf to list of Texinfo's installed files.

    • [matt]: Updated Vim's security patch to address the latest modeline vulnerability.

  • July 30th, 2005

    • [matt]: Added instructions for installing Bash documentation (Randy McMurchy).

    • [matt]: Remove GCC linkonce patch from chapter03/patches.xml as it's no longer used in the book

  • July 29th, 2005

    • [manuel]: Removed the text about defining gvimrc.

  • July 28th, 2005

    • [matt]: Add GCC-4 related patch for kbd.

    • [matt]: Add GCC-4 related patch for inetutils.

    • [matt]: Remove the note regarding a known test failure in GRUB. The test no longer fails under GCC-4.

    • [matt]: Add GCC-4 related patch to chapter06 tar.

  • July 27th, 2005

    • [matt]: Don't define gvim's configuration file as we don't compile gvim in LFS (Bruce Dubbs).

  • July 26th, 2005

    • [matt]: Remove “groups” from the list of programs installed by shadow, as we use the version provided by coreutils instead (Randy McMurchy).

    • [matt]: Updated to mktemp-1.5-add_tempfile-3.patch, which adds license and copyright information to the previous version.

  • July 23rd, 2005

    • [matt]: Moved FORMER_CONTRIBUTORS information into the book, so as people can actually see it. The space constraint argument in that file was weak - it only added another 10 lines to a 255 page document (PDF). Now at least we publically acknowledge the efforts of previous contributors.

    • [matt]: Updated to man-pages-2.07.

    • [matt]: Updated to zlib-1.2.3.

  • July 22nd, 2005

    • [manuel]: Added obfuscate.sh and modified the Makefile to obfuscate e-mail addresses in XHTML output.

  • July 21st, 2005

    • [matt]: Add GCC-4 related patches to chapter06 glibc.

    • [matt]: Unset the GCC_INCLUDEDIR variable once it's no longer needed.

  • July 19th, 2005

    • [matt]: Removed flex++ from the list of installed files, as it is no longer present (Randy McMurchy)

  • July 18th, 2005

    • [matt]: Re-added the explanation of the fixincludes process and rewording where necessary (Chris Staub), and reworded description of the specs patch.

    • [matt]: Remove all host headers brought in via the fixincludes process, not just pthread.h and sigaction.h

  • July 17th, 2005

    • [matt]: Slightly adjusted the specs file seds, to prevent multiple seds from adversely affecting them.

    • [matt]: Removed the fixincludes sed from gcc-pass1 as we may need to fix up host's headers. Also reinstate the associated removal of pthread.h and sigthread.h.

  • July 16th, 2005

    • [jhuntwork]: Added sed to chapter 5 gcc builds to force the fixincludes to use the headers in /tools and not the host.

    • [jhuntwork]: Removed no_fixincludes and linkonce patches for gcc4. Also removed the command to remove the fixed pthread.h.

    • [jhuntwork]: Fixed adjusting toolchain sed for both chapters 5 and 6.

  • July 15th, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to Linux-2.6.12.3.

    • [matt]: Added a patch to enable tar to build with gcc-4.0.1

    • [matt]: GCC-4.x no longer installs its specs file by default. Alter the toolchain adjustment stage to first dump the specs file where GCC will find it, then alter it.

    • [matt]: Added patches for chapter 5's Glibc to build with gcc-4.0.1

    • [matt]: Updated to gcc-4.0.1.

    • [matt]: Updated to udev-063.

  • July 13th, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to automake-1.9.6.

  • July 8th, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to udev-062.

    • [matt]: Updated to linux-libc-headers-2.6.12.0.

    • [matt]: Updated to linux-2.6.12.2.

    • [matt]: Updated to shadow-4.0.10.

    • [matt]: Updated to iana-etc-1.10.

  • July 6th, 2005

    • [archaic]: Pulled the inetutils kernel header patch out again as it is not needed.

    • [matt]: Updated to e2fsprogs-1.38.

    • [matt]: Updated to binutils-2.16.1.

  • July 5th, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to tcl-8.4.11.

    • [matt]: Updated to man-1.6.

    • [matt]: Updated to file 4.14.

    • [matt]: Updated to man-pages 2.05.

  • June 12th, 2005

    • [matt]: Upgraded to gettext-0.14.5.

    • [matt]: Upgraded to perl-5.8.7.

    • [matt]: Upgraded to tcl-8.4.10.

    • [matt]: Upgraded to man-pages-2.03.

  • May 24th, 2005

    • [jim]: Changed gcc-specs patch to -2.

  • May 23nd, 2005

    • [jim]: Changed changelog to use version entities.

  • May 22nd, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to Udev-058.

    • [matt]: Updated to Libtool-1.5.18.

    • [matt]: Updated to Gcc-3.4.4.

    • [matt]: Updated to Binutils-2.16.

  • May 15th, 2005

    • [matt]: Updated to Grub 0.97.

    • [matt]: Updated to Libtool 1.5.16.

    • [jim]: Updated to udev 057.

  • April 14, 2005

    • [jim]: Updated to man-pages 2.02.

  • April 13, 2005

    • [jim]: Updated to glibc 2.3.5.

    • [jim]: Updated to gettext 0.14.4.

  • April 12, 2005

    • [manuel]: Small redaction changes.

  • April 11, 2005

    • [manuel]: Several tags and text corrections.

  • April 6, 2005

    • [jim]: Removed IPRoute2 patch for a sed (Ryan Oliver).

Branch frozen for LFS 6.1 as of April 5, 2005. Some packages and patches updates related with security up to July 9, 2005.

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 our community Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. 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.linuxfromscratch.org. The support channel is named #LFS-support.

1.4.4. References

For additional information on the packages, useful tips are available in the LFS Package Reference page located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/~matthew/LFS-references.html.

1.4.5. 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.

1.4.6. 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, 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 6.2)

  • The host distribution and version being used to create LFS

  • 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

Table of Contents

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. However, an LFS system (in fact even multiple LFS systems) may also be installed on a partition already occupied by another operating system and the different systems will co-exist peacefully. The document http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/lfs_next_to_existing_systems.txt explains how to implement this, whereas this book discusses the method of using a fresh partition for the installation.

A minimal system requires a partition of around 1.3 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 (2-3 GB). 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.

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.

2.3. 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 journalling 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, dir_index, filetype, large_file, resize_inode, sparse_super 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 -xjvf /path/to/sources/e2fsprogs-1.39.tar.bz2
cd e2fsprogs-1.39
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-1.39

If a swap partition was created, it will need to be initialized for use by issuing the command below. If you are using an existing swap partition, there is no need to format it. 

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, nodev, or noatime 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.

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

3.2. All Packages

Download or otherwise obtain the following packages:

Autoconf (2.59) - 904 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.59.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 1ee40f7a676b3cfdc0e3f7cd81551b5f

Automake (1.9.6) - 748 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/automake-1.9.6.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: c11b8100bb311492d8220378fd8bf9e0

Bash (3.1) - 2,475 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/bash-3.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: ef5304c4b22aaa5088972c792ed45d72

Bash Documentation (3.1) - 2,013 KB:

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/bash-doc-3.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: a8c517c6a7b21b8b855190399c5935ae

Berkeley DB (4.4.20) - 7,767 KB:

Home page: http://dev.sleepycat.com/

Download: http://downloads.sleepycat.com/db-4.4.20.tar.gz

MD5 sum: d84dff288a19186b136b0daf7067ade3

Binutils (2.16.1) - 12,256 KB:

Home page: http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/binutils-2.16.1.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 6a9d529efb285071dad10e1f3d2b2967

Bison (2.2) - 1,052 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-2.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: e345a5d021db850f06ce49eba78af027

Bzip2 (1.0.3) - 654 KB:

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

Download: http://www.bzip.org/1.0.3/bzip2-1.0.3.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 8a716bebecb6e647d2e8a29ea5d8447f

Coreutils (5.96) - 4,948 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.96.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: bf55d069d82128fd754a090ce8b5acff

DejaGNU (1.4.4) - 1,056 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/dejagnu/dejagnu-1.4.4.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 053f18fd5d00873de365413cab17a666

Diffutils (2.8.1) - 762 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/diffutils-2.8.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 71f9c5ae19b60608f6c7f162da86a428

E2fsprogs (1.39) - 3,616 KB:

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

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.39.tar.gz?download

MD5 sum: 06f7806782e357797fad1d34b7ced0c6

Expect (5.43.0) - 514 KB:

Home page: http://expect.nist.gov/

Download: http://expect.nist.gov/src/expect-5.43.0.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 43e1dc0e0bc9492cf2e1a6f59f276bc3

File (4.17) - 544 KB:

Download: ftp://ftp.gw.com/mirrors/pub/unix/file/file-4.17.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 50919c65e0181423d66bb25d7fe7b0fd

Note

File (4.17) 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 (4.2.27) - 1,097 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils/findutils-4.2.27.tar.gz

MD5 sum: f1e0ddf09f28f8102ff3b90f3b5bc920

Flex (2.5.33) - 680 KB:

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

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/flex/flex-2.5.33.tar.bz2?download

MD5 sum: 343374a00b38d9e39d1158b71af37150

Gawk (3.1.5) - 1,716 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-3.1.5.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 5703f72d0eea1d463f735aad8222655f

GCC (4.0.3) - 32,208 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-4.0.3/gcc-4.0.3.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 6ff1af12c53cbb3f79b27f2d6a9a3d50

Gettext (0.14.5) - 6,940 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/gettext-0.14.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: e2f6581626a22a0de66dce1d81d00de3

Glibc (2.3.6) - 13,687 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.3.6.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: bfdce99f82d6dbcb64b7f11c05d6bc96

Glibc LibIDN add-on (2.3.6) - 99 KB:

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-libidn-2.3.6.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 49dbe06ce830fc73874d6b38bdc5b4db

Grep (2.5.1a) - 516 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep-2.5.1a.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 52202fe462770fa6be1bb667bd6cf30c

Groff (1.18.1.1) - 2,208 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.18.1.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 511dbd64b67548c99805f1521f82cc5e

GRUB (0.97) - 950 KB:

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

Download: ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.97.tar.gz

MD5 sum: cd3f3eb54446be6003156158d51f4884

Gzip (1.3.5) - 324 KB:

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

Download: ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/gzip-1.3.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 3d6c191dfd2bf307014b421c12dc8469

Iana-Etc (2.10) - 184 KB:

Home page: http://www.sethwklein.net/projects/iana-etc/

Download: http://www.sethwklein.net/projects/iana-etc/downloads/iana-etc-2.10.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 53dea53262b281322143c744ca60ffbb

Inetutils (1.4.2) - 1,019 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/inetutils/inetutils-1.4.2.tar.gz

MD5 sum: df0909a586ddac2b7a0d62795eea4206

IPRoute2 (2.6.16-060323) - 378 KB:

Home page: http://linux-net.osdl.org/index.php/Iproute2

Download: http://developer.osdl.org/dev/iproute2/download/iproute2-2.6.16-060323.tar.gz

MD5 sum: f31d4516b35bbfeaa72c762f5959e97c

Kbd (1.12) - 618 KB:

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kbd/kbd-1.12.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 069d1175b4891343b107a8ac2b4a39f6

Less (394) - 286 KB:

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

Download: http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/less-394.tar.gz

MD5 sum: a9f072ccefa0d315b325f3e9cdbd4b97

LFS-Bootscripts (6.2) - 24 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/6.2/lfs-bootscripts-6.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 45f9efc6b75c26751ddb74d1ad0276c1

Libtool (1.5.22) - 2,856 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/libtool-1.5.22.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 8e0ac9797b62ba4dcc8a2fb7936412b0

Linux (2.6.16.27) - 39,886 KB:

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

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.16.27.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: ebedfe5376efec483ce12c1629c7a5b1

Note

The Linux kernel is updated relatively often, many times due to discoveries of security vulnerabilities. The latest available 2.6.16.x kernel version should be used, unless the errata page says otherwise. Do not use version 2.6.17 or later kernels due to potential incompatibilites of the bootscripts.

Linux-Libc-Headers (2.6.12.0) - 2,481 KB:

Download: http://ep09.pld-linux.org/~mmazur/linux-libc-headers/linux-libc-headers-2.6.12.0.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: eae2f562afe224ad50f65a6acfb4252c

M4 (1.4.4) - 376 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.4.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 8d1d64dbecf1494690a0f3ba8db4482a

Make (3.80) - 900 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.80.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 0bbd1df101bc0294d440471e50feca71

Man-DB (2.4.3) - 798 KB:

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

Download: http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/man-db/man-db-2.4.3.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 30814a47f209f43b152659ba51fc7937

Man-pages (2.34) - 1,760 KB:

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages/man-pages-2.34.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: fb8d9f55fef19ea5ab899437159c9420

Mktemp (1.5) - 69 KB:

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

Download: ftp://ftp.mktemp.org/pub/mktemp/mktemp-1.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 9a35c59502a228c6ce2be025fc6e3ff2

Module-Init-Tools (3.2.2) - 166 KB:

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

Download: http://www.kerneltools.org/pub/downloads/module-init-tools/module-init-tools-3.2.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: a1ad0a09d3231673f70d631f3f5040e9

Ncurses (5.5) - 2,260 KB:

Home page: http://dickey.his.com/ncurses/

Download: ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-5.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: e73c1ac10b4bfc46db43b2ddfd6244ef

Patch (2.5.4) - 183 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/patch/patch-2.5.4.tar.gz

MD5 sum: ee5ae84d115f051d87fcaaef3b4ae782

Perl (5.8.8) - 9,887 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/CPAN/src/perl-5.8.8.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: a377c0c67ab43fd96eeec29ce19e8382

Procps (3.2.6) - 273 KB:

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

Download: http://procps.sourceforge.net/procps-3.2.6.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 7ce39ea27d7b3da0e8ad74dd41d06783

Psmisc (22.2) - 239 KB:

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

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/psmisc/psmisc-22.2.tar.gz?download

MD5 sum: 77737c817a40ef2c160a7194b5b64337

Readline (5.1) - 1,983 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-5.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 7ee5a692db88b30ca48927a13fd60e46

Sed (4.1.5) - 781 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.1.5.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 7a1cbbbb3341287308e140bd4834c3ba

Shadow (4.0.15) - 1,265 KB:

Download: ftp://ftp.pld.org.pl/software/shadow/shadow-4.0.15.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: a0452fa989f8ba45023cc5a08136568e

Note

Shadow (4.0.15) 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.

Sysklogd (1.4.1) - 80 KB:

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

Download: http://www.infodrom.org/projects/sysklogd/download/sysklogd-1.4.1.tar.gz

MD5 sum: d214aa40beabf7bdb0c9b3c64432c774

Sysvinit (2.86) - 97 KB:

Download: ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/miquels/sysvinit/sysvinit-2.86.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 7d5d61c026122ab791ac04c8a84db967

Tar (1.15.1) - 1,574 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.15.1.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 57da3c38f8e06589699548a34d5a5d07

Tcl (8.4.13) - 3,432 KB:

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

Download: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl8.4.13-src.tar.gz?download

MD5 sum: c6b655ad5db095ee73227113220c0523

Texinfo (4.8) - 1,487 KB:

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

Download: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-4.8.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 6ba369bbfe4afaa56122e65b3ee3a68c

Udev (096) - 190 KB:

Home page: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev-096.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: f4effef7807ce1dc91ab581686ef197b

Udev Configuration Tarball - 4 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/6.2/udev-config-6.2.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 9ff2667ab0f7bfe8182966ef690078a0

Util-linux (2.12r) - 1,339 KB:

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/util-linux-2.12r.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: af9d9e03038481fbf79ea3ac33f116f9

Vim (7.0) - 6,152 KB:

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

Download: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unix/vim-7.0.tar.bz2

MD5 sum: 4ca69757678272f718b1041c810d82d8

Vim (7.0) language files (optional) - 1,228 KB:

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

Download: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/extra/vim-7.0-lang.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 6d43efaff570b5c86e76b833ea0c6a04

Zlib (1.2.3) - 485 KB:

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

Download: http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz

MD5 sum: debc62758716a169df9f62e6ab2bc634

Total size of these packages: about 180 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 - 23 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/bash-3.1-fixes-8.patch

MD5 sum: bc337045fa4c5839babf0306cc9df6d0

Bzip2 Bzgrep Security Fixes Patch - 1.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/bzip2-1.0.3-bzgrep_security-1.patch

MD5 sum: 4eae50e4fd690498f23d3057dfad7066

Bzip2 Documentation Patch - 1.6 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/bzip2-1.0.3-install_docs-1.patch

MD5 sum: 9e5dfbf4814b71ef986b872c9af84488

Coreutils Internationalization Fixes Patch - 101 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/coreutils-5.96-i18n-1.patch

MD5 sum: 3df2e6fdb1b5a5c13afedd3d3e05600f

Coreutils Suppress Uptime, Kill, Su Patch - 13 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/coreutils-5.96-suppress_uptime_kill_su-1.patch

MD5 sum: 227d41a6d0f13c31375153eae91e913d

Coreutils Uname Patch - 4.6 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/coreutils-5.96-uname-1.patch

MD5 sum: c05b735710fbd62239588c07084852a0

Database (Berkeley) Upstream Fixes Patch - 3.8 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/db-4.4.20-fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 32b28d1d1108dfcd837fe10c4eb0fbad

Diffutils Internationalization Fixes Patch - 18 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/diffutils-2.8.1-i18n-1.patch

MD5 sum: c8d481223db274a33b121fb8c25af9f7

Expect Spawn Patch - 6.8 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/expect-5.43.0-spawn-1.patch

MD5 sum: ef6d0d0221c571fb420afb7033b3bbba

Gawk Segfault Patch - 1.3 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/gawk-3.1.5-segfault_fix-1.patch

MD5 sum: 7679530d88bf3eb56c42eb6aba342ddb

GCC Specs Patch - 15 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/gcc-4.0.3-specs-1.patch

MD5 sum: 0aa7d4c6be50c3855fe812f6faabc306

Glibc Linux Types Patch - 1.1 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/glibc-2.3.6-linux_types-1.patch

MD5 sum: 30ea59ae747478aa9315455543b5bb43

Glibc Inotify Syscall Functions Patch - 1.4 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/glibc-2.3.6-inotify-1.patch

MD5 sum: 94f6d26ae50a0fe6285530fdbae90bbf

Grep RedHat Fixes Patch - 55 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/grep-2.5.1a-redhat_fixes-2.patch

MD5 sum: 2c67910be2d0a54714f63ce350e6d8a6

Groff Debian Patch - 360 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/groff-1.18.1.1-debian_fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: a47c281afdda457ba4033498f973400d

GRUB Disk Geometry Patch - 28 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/grub-0.97-disk_geometry-1.patch

MD5 sum: bf1594e82940e25d089feca74c6f1879

Gzip Security Patch - 2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/gzip-1.3.5-security_fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: f107844f01fc49446654ae4a8f8a0728

Inetutils GCC-4.x Fix Patch - 1.3 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/inetutils-1.4.2-gcc4_fixes-3.patch

MD5 sum: 5204fbc503c9fb6a8e353583818db6b9

Inetutils No-Server-Man-Pages Patch - 4.1 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/inetutils-1.4.2-no_server_man_pages-1.patch

MD5 sum: eb477f532bc6d26e7025fcfc4452511d

Kbd Backspace/Delete Fix Patch - 11 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/kbd-1.12-backspace-1.patch

MD5 sum: 692c88bb76906d99cc20446fadfb6499

Kbd GCC-4.x Fix Patch - 1.4 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/kbd-1.12-gcc4_fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 615bc1e381ab646f04d8045751ed1f69

Linux kernel UTF-8 Composing Patch - 11 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/linux-2.6.16.27-utf8_input-1.patch

MD5 sum: d67b53e1e99c782bd28d879e11ee16c3

Linux Libc Headers Inotify Patch - 4.7 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/linux-libc-headers-2.6.12.0-inotify-3.patch

MD5 sum: 8fd71a4bd3344380bd16caf2c430fa9b

Mktemp Tempfile Patch - 3.5 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/mktemp-1.5-add_tempfile-3.patch

MD5 sum: 65d73faabe3f637ad79853b460d30a19

Module-init-tools Patch - 1.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/module-init-tools-3.2.2-modprobe-1.patch

MD5 sum: f1e452fdf3b8d7ef60148125e390c3e8

Ncurses Fixes Patch - 8.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/ncurses-5.5-fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 0e033185008f21578c6e4c7249f92cbb

Perl Libc Patch - 1.1 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/perl-5.8.8-libc-2.patch

MD5 sum: 3bf8aef1fb6eb6110405e699e4141f99

Readline Upstream Fixes Patch - 3.8 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/readline-5.1-fixes-3.patch

MD5 sum: e30963cd5c6f6a11a23344af36cfa38c

Sysklogd 8-Bit Cleanness Patch - 0.9 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/sysklogd-1.4.1-8bit-1.patch

MD5 sum: cc0d9c3bd67a6b6357e42807cf06073e

Sysklogd Fixes Patch - 27 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/sysklogd-1.4.1-fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 508104f058d1aef26b3bc8059821935f

Tar GCC-4.x Fix Patch - 1.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/tar-1.15.1-gcc4_fix_tests-1.patch

MD5 sum: 8e286a1394e6bcf2907f13801770a72a

Tar Security Fixes Patch - 3.9 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/tar-1.15.1-security_fixes-1.patch

MD5 sum: 19876e726d9cec9ce1508e3af74dc22e

Tar Sparse Fix Patch - 0.9 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/tar-1.15.1-sparse_fix-1.patch

MD5 sum: 9e3623f7c88d8766878ecb27c980d86a

Texinfo Multibyte Fixes Patch - 1.5 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/texinfo-4.8-multibyte-1.patch

MD5 sum: 6cb5b760cfdd2dd53a0430eb572a8aaa

Texinfo Tempfile Fix Patch - 2.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/texinfo-4.8-tempfile_fix-2.patch

MD5 sum: 559bda136a2ac7777ecb67511227af85

Util-linux Cramfs Patch - 2.8 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/util-linux-2.12r-cramfs-1.patch

MD5 sum: 1c3f40b30e12738eb7b66a35b7374572

Vim Upstream Fixes Patch - 42 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/vim-7.0-fixes-7.patch

MD5 sum: d274219566702b0bafcb83ab4685bbde

Vim Man Directories Patch - 4.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/vim-7.0-mandir-1.patch

MD5 sum: b6426eb4192faba1e867ddd502323f5b

Vim Spellfile Patch - 1.2 KB:

Download: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/lfs/6.2/vim-7.0-spellfile-1.patch

MD5 sum: 98e59e34cb6e16a8d4671247cebd64ee

Total size of these patches: about 775.9 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/ and acquire any additional patches to suit the system needs.

Chapter 4. Final Preparations

4.1. About $LFS

Throughout this book, the environment variable LFS will be used several times. 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 this chapter (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
PATH=/tools/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
export LFS LC_ALL 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.

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. Note that on Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP)-based machines, SBUs are even less accurate. 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/.

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 in Chapter 5.

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/6.2/ 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 compile and install 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.

Important

Before issuing the build instructions for a package, the package should be unpacked as user lfs, and a cd into the created directory should be performed. The build instructions assume that the bash shell is in use.

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.

Important

After installing each package, delete its source and build directories, unless specifically instructed otherwise. Deleting the sources prevents mis-configuration when the same package is reinstalled later.

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.

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 back to at any time during the process.

The overall goal of Chapter 5 is to provide a temporary environment that can be chrooted into and from which can be produced a clean, trouble-free build of the target LFS system in Chapter 6. Along the way, we separate the new system from the host system as much as possible, and in doing so, build a self-contained and self-hosted toolchain. It should be noted that the build process has been designed to minimize the risks for new readers and provide maximum educational value at the same time.

Important

Before continuing, be aware of the name of the working platform, often referred to as the target triplet. Many times, the target triplet will probably be i686-pc-linux-gnu. 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.

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 will usually be ld-linux.so.2. On platforms that are less prevalent, the name might be ld.so.1, and newer 64 bit platforms might be named something else entirely. The name of the platform's dynamic linker can be determined by looking in the /lib directory on the host system. A sure-fire way to determine the name 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:

  • The process is similar in principle to cross-compiling, whereby tools installed in the same prefix work in cooperation, and thus utilize a little GNU “magic”

  • Careful manipulation of the standard linker's library search path ensures programs are linked only against chosen libraries

  • Careful manipulation of gcc's specs file 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/$TARGET_TRIPLET/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-pc-linux-gnu/bin/as
checking what linker to use... /tools/i686-pc-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.

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 gcc found in a PATH directory. 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="gcc -B/tools/bin/" 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.

After the Glibc installation, make some adjustments to ensure that searching and linking take place only within the /tools prefix. Install an adjusted ld, which has a hard-wired search path limited to /tools/lib. Then amend gcc's specs file to point to the new dynamic linker in /tools/lib. This last step is vital to the whole process. As mentioned above, a hard-wired path to a dynamic linker is embedded into every Executable and Link Format (ELF)-shared executable. This can be inspected by running: readelf -l <name of binary> | grep interpreter. Amending gcc's specs file ensures that every program compiled from here through the end of this chapter will use the new dynamic linker in /tools/lib.

The need to use the new dynamic linker is also the reason why the Specs patch is applied for the second pass of GCC. 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.

During the second pass of Binutils, we are able to utilize the --with-lib-path configure switch to control ld's library search path. 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, perform a quick changeover of the toolchain defaults, then proceed in building the rest of the target LFS system.

5.3. Binutils-2.16.1 - 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: 189 MB

5.3.1. Installation of Binutils

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 three commands in a time command like this: time { ./configure ... && make && make install; }.

Now prepare Binutils for compilation: 

../binutils-2.16.1/configure --prefix=/tools --disable-nls

The meaning of the configure options:

--prefix=/tools

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

--disable-nls

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

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.

Install the package: 

make install

Next, prepare the linker for the “Adjusting” phase later on: 

make -C ld clean
make -C ld LIB_PATH=/tools/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=/tools/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 and point it to the temporary tools location. The value of this variable specifies the linker's default library search path. This preparation is used later in the chapter.

Details on this package are located in Section 6.11.2, “Contents of Binutils.”

5.4. GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 1

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

Approximate build time: 8.2 SBU
Required disk space: 514 MB

5.4.1. Installation of GCC

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-4.0.3/configure --prefix=/tools \
    --with-local-prefix=/tools --disable-nls --enable-shared \
    --enable-languages=c

The meaning of the configure options:

--with-local-prefix=/tools

The purpose of this switch is to remove /usr/local/include from gcc's include search path. This is not absolutely essential, however, it helps to minimize the influence of the host system.

--enable-shared

This switch allows the building of libgcc_s.so.1 and libgcc_eh.a. Having libgcc_eh.a available ensures that the configure script for Glibc (the next package we compile) produces the proper results.

--enable-languages=c

This option ensures that only the C compiler is built.

Continue with compiling the package: 

make bootstrap

The meaning of the make parameter:

bootstrap

This target 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. It then compares these second and third compiles to make sure it can reproduce itself flawlessly. This also implies that it was compiled correctly.

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

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 -vs gcc /tools/bin/cc

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

5.5. Linux-Libc-Headers-2.6.12.0

The Linux-Libc-Headers package contains the “sanitized” kernel headers.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 27 MB

5.5.1. Installation of Linux-Libc-Headers

For years it has been common practice to use “raw” kernel headers (straight from a kernel tarball) in /usr/include, but over the last few years, the kernel developers have taken a strong stance that this should not be done. This gave birth to the Linux-Libc-Headers Project, which was designed to maintain an Application Programming Interface (API) stable version of the Linux headers.

Install the header files: 

cp -Rv include/asm-i386 /tools/include/asm
cp -Rv include/linux /tools/include

If your architecture is not i386 (compatible), adjust the first command accordingly.

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

5.6. Glibc-2.3.6

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: 6 SBU
Required disk space: 325 MB

5.6.1. Installation of Glibc

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-2.3.6/configure --prefix=/tools \
    --disable-profile --enable-add-ons \
    --enable-kernel=2.6.0 --with-binutils=/tools/bin \
    --without-gd --with-headers=/tools/include \
    --without-selinux

The meaning of the configure options:

--disable-profile

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

--enable-add-ons

This tells Glibc to use the NPTL add-on as its threading library.

--enable-kernel=2.6.0

This tells Glibc to compile the library with support for 2.6.x Linux kernels.

--with-binutils=/tools/bin

While not required, this switch ensures that there are no errors pertaining to which Binutils programs get used during the Glibc build.

--without-gd

This prevents the build of the memusagestat program, which insists on linking against the host's libraries (libgd, libpng, libz, etc.).

--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.

--without-selinux

When building from hosts that include SELinux functionality (e.g., Fedora Core 3), Glibc will build with support for SELinux. As the LFS tools environment does not contain support for SELinux, a Glibc compiled with such support will fail to operate correctly.

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, but it can sometimes cause issues when running the test suite. This msgfmt program is part of the Gettext package which the host distribution should provide. If msgfmt is present but deemed incompatible, upgrade the host system's Gettext package or continue without it and see if the test suite runs without problems regardless.

Compile the package: 

make

Compilation is now complete. As mentioned earlier, running the test suites for the temporary tools installed in this chapter is not mandatory. To run the Glibc test suite (if desired), the following command will do so: 

make check

For a discussion of test failures that are of particular importance, please see Section 6.9, “Glibc-2.3.6.”

In this chapter, some tests can be adversely affected by existing tools or environmental issues on the host system. Glibc test suite failures in this chapter are typically not worrisome. The Glibc installed in Chapter 6 is the one that will ultimately end up being used, so that is the one that needs to pass most tests (even in Chapter 6, some failures could still occur, for example, with the math tests).

When experiencing a failure, make a note of it, then continue by reissuing the make check command. The test suite should pick up where it left off and continue. This stop-start sequence can be circumvented by issuing a make -k check command. If using this option, be sure to log the output so that the log file can be examined for failures later.

The install stage of Glibc will issue a harmless warning at the end about the absence of /tools/etc/ld.so.conf. Prevent this warning with: 

mkdir -v /tools/etc
touch /tools/etc/ld.so.conf

Install the package: 

make install

Different countries and cultures have varying conventions for how to communicate. These conventions range from the format for representing dates and times to more complex issues, such as the language spoken. The “internationalization” of GNU programs works by locale.

Note

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-2.3.6.”

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

5.7. Adjusting the Toolchain

Now that the temporary C libraries have been installed, all tools compiled in the rest of this chapter should be linked against these libraries. In order to accomplish this, the linker and the compiler's specs file need to be adjusted.

The linker, adjusted at the end of the first pass of Binutils, needs to be renamed so that it can be properly found and used. First, backup the original linker, then replace it with the adjusted linker. 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

From this point onwards, everything will link only against the libraries in /tools/lib.

The next task is to point GCC to the new dynamic linker. This is done by dumping GCC's “specs” file to a location where GCC will look for it by default. A simple sed substitution then alters the dynamic linker that GCC will use: 

SPECFILE=`dirname $(gcc -print-libgcc-file-name)`/specs &&
gcc -dumpspecs > $SPECFILE &&
sed 's@^/lib/ld-linux.so.2@/tools&@g' $SPECFILE > tempspecfile &&
mv -vf tempspecfile $SPECFILE &&
unset SPECFILE

It is recommended that the above command be copy-and-pasted in order to ensure accuracy. Alternatively, the specs file can be edited by hand. This is done by replacing every occurrence of “/lib/ld-linux.so.2” with “/tools/lib/ld-linux.so.2”

Be sure to visually inspect the specs file in order to verify the intended changes have been made.

Important

If working on a platform where the name of the dynamic linker is something other than ld-linux.so.2, replace “ld-linux.so.2” with the name of the platform's dynamic linker in the above commands. Refer back to Section 5.2, “Toolchain Technical Notes,” if necessary.

During the build process, GCC runs a script (fixincludes) that scans the system for header files that may need to be fixed (they might contain syntax errors, for example), and installs the fixed versions in a private include directory. There is a possibility that, as a result of this process, some header files from the host system have found their way into GCC's private include directory. As the rest of this chapter only requires the headers from GCC and Glibc, which have both been installed at this point, any “fixed” headers can safely be removed. This helps to avoid any host headers polluting the build environment. Run the following commands to remove the header files in GCC's private include directory (you may find it easier to copy and paste these commands, rather than typing them by hand, due to their length): 

GCC_INCLUDEDIR=`dirname $(gcc -print-libgcc-file-name)`/include &&
find ${GCC_INCLUDEDIR}/* -maxdepth 0 -xtype d -exec rm -rvf '{}' \; &&
rm -vf `grep -l "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE" ${GCC_INCLUDEDIR}/*` &&
unset GCC_INCLUDEDIR

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 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. Revisit Section 5.4, “GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 1,” and install the symlink. 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.” Another option is that something may have gone wrong with the specs file amendment above. In this case, redo the specs file amendment, being careful to copy-and-paste the commands.

Once all is well, clean up the test files: 

rm -v dummy.c a.out

Note

Building TCL in the next section will serve as an additional check that the toolchain has been built properly. If TCL fails to build, it is an indication that something has gone wrong with the Binutils, GCC, or Glibc installation, but not with TCL itself.

5.8. Tcl-8.4.13

The Tcl package contains the Tool Command Language.

Approximate build time: 0.3 SBU
Required disk space: 24 MB

5.8.1. Installation of Tcl

This package and the next two (Expect and DejaGNU) are installed to support running the test suites for GCC and Binutils. Installing three 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

To test the results, issue: TZ=UTC make test. The Tcl test suite is known to 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

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

make install-private-headers

Now make a necessary symbolic link: 

ln -sv tclsh8.4 /tools/bin/tclsh

5.8.2. Contents of Tcl

Installed programs: tclsh (link to tclsh8.4) and tclsh8.4
Installed library: libtcl8.4.so

Short Descriptions

tclsh8.4

The Tcl command shell

tclsh

A link to tclsh8.4

libtcl8.4.so

The Tcl library

5.9. Expect-5.43.0

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 MB

5.9.1. Installation of Expect

First, fix a bug that can result in false failures during the GCC test suite run: 

patch -Np1 -i ../expect-5.43.0-spawn-1.patch

Now prepare Expect for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools --with-tcl=/tools/lib \
  --with-tclinclude=/tools/include --with-x=no

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.

--with-x=no

This tells the configure script not to search for Tk (the Tcl GUI component) or the X Window System libraries, both of which may reside on the host system but will not exist in the temporary environment.

Build the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: 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.

5.9.2. Contents of Expect

Installed program: expect
Installed library: libexpect-5.43.a

Short Descriptions

expect

Communicates with other interactive programs according to a script

libexpect-5.43.a

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

5.10. DejaGNU-1.4.4

The DejaGNU package contains a framework for testing other programs.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.2 MB

5.10.1. Installation of DejaGNU

Prepare DejaGNU for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Build and install the package: 

make install

To test the results, issue: make check.

5.10.2. Contents of DejaGNU

Installed program: runtest

Short Descriptions

runtest

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

5.11. GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 2

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

Approximate build time: 4.2 SBU
Required disk space: 443 MB

5.11.1. Re-installation of GCC

The tools required to test GCC and Binutils—Tcl, Expect and DejaGNU—are installed now. GCC and Binutils can now be rebuilt, linking them against the new Glibc and testing them properly (if running the test suites in this chapter). Please note that these test suites are highly dependent on properly functioning PTYs which are provided by the host. PTYs are most commonly implemented via the devpts file system. Check to see if the host system is set up correctly in this regard by performing a quick test: 

expect -c "spawn ls"

The response might be: 

The system has no more ptys.
Ask your system administrator to create more.

If the above message is received, the host does not have its PTYs set up properly. In this case, there is no point in running the test suites for GCC and Binutils until this issue is resolved. Please consult the LFS FAQ at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org//lfs/faq.html#no-ptys for more information on how to get PTYs working.

As previously explained in Section 5.7, “Adjusting the Toolchain”, under normal circumstances the GCC fixincludes script is run in order to fix potentially broken header files. As GCC-4.0.3 and Glibc-2.3.6 have already been installed at this point, and their respective header files are known to not require fixing, the fixincludes script is not required. As mentioned previously, the script may in fact pollute the build environment by installing fixed headers from the host system into GCC's private include directory. The running of the fixincludes script can be suppressed by issuing the following commands: 

cp -v gcc/Makefile.in{,.orig} &&
sed 's@\./fixinc\.sh@-c true@' gcc/Makefile.in.orig > gcc/Makefile.in

The bootstrap build performed in Section 5.4, “GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 1” built GCC with the -fomit-frame-pointer compiler flag. Non-bootstrap builds omit this flag by default, so apply the following sed to use it in order to ensure consistent compiler builds. 

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

Apply the following patch to change the location of GCC's default dynamic linker (typically ld-linux.so.2): 

patch -Np1 -i ../gcc-4.0.3-specs-1.patch

The above patch also removes /usr/include from GCC's include search path. Patching now rather than adjusting the specs file after installation ensures that the new dynamic linker is used during the actual build of GCC. That is, all of the binaries created during the build will link against the new Glibc.

Important

The above patch is critical in ensuring a successful overall build. Do not forget to apply it.

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: 

../gcc-4.0.3/configure --prefix=/tools \
    --with-local-prefix=/tools --enable-clocale=gnu \
    --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix \
    --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-languages=c,c++ \
    --disable-libstdcxx-pch

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.

Compile the package: 

make

There is no need to use the bootstrap target now because the compiler being used to compile this GCC was built from the exact same version of the GCC sources used earlier.

Compilation is now complete. As previously mentioned, running the test suites for the temporary tools compiled in this chapter is not mandatory. To run the GCC test suite anyway, use the following command: 

make -k check

The -k flag is used to make the test suite run through to completion and not stop at the first failure. The GCC test suite is very comprehensive and is almost guaranteed to generate a few failures.

For a discussion of test failures that are of particular importance, please see Section 6.12, “GCC-4.0.3.”

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
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 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. Revisit Section 5.4, “GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 1,” and install the symlink. 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.” Another option is that something may have gone wrong with the specs file amendment above. In this case, redo the specs file amendment, being careful to copy-and-paste the commands.

Once all is well, clean up the test files: 

rm -v dummy.c a.out

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

5.12. Binutils-2.16.1 - 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: 154 MB

5.12.1. Re-installation of Binutils

Create a separate build directory again: 

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

Prepare Binutils for compilation: 

../binutils-2.16.1/configure --prefix=/tools \
    --disable-nls --with-lib-path=/tools/lib

The meaning of the new configure options:

--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

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 Binutils test suite anyway, issue the following command: 

make check

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

Details on this package are located in Section 6.11.2, “Contents of Binutils.”

5.13. Ncurses-5.5

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

Approximate build time: 0.7 SBU
Required disk space: 30 MB

5.13.1. 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 does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

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

5.14. Bash-3.1

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again SHell.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 22 MB

5.14.1. Installation of Bash

Upstream developers have fixed several issues since the initial release of Bash-3.1. Apply those fixes: 

patch -Np1 -i ../bash-3.1-fixes-8.patch

Prepare Bash for compilation: 

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

The meaning of the configure option:

--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

To test the results, issue: make tests.

Install the package: 

make install

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

ln -vs bash /tools/bin/sh

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

5.15. Bzip2-1.0.3

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: 4.2 MB

5.15.1. 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 6.28.2, “Contents of Bzip2.”

5.16. Coreutils-5.96

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

Approximate build time: 0.6 SBU
Required disk space: 56.1 MB

5.16.1. Installation of Coreutils

Prepare Coreutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: 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 6.14.2, “Contents of Coreutils.”

5.17. Diffutils-2.8.1

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

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.2 MB

5.17.1. Installation of Diffutils

Prepare Diffutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

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

5.18. Findutils-4.2.27

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: 12 MB

5.18.1. Installation of Findutils

Prepare Findutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.32.2, “Contents of Findutils.”

5.19. Gawk-3.1.5

The Gawk package contains programs for manipulating text files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 18.2 MB

5.19.1. Installation of Gawk

Prepare Gawk for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Due to a bug in the configure script, Gawk fails to detect certain aspects of locale support in Glibc. This bug leads to, e.g., Gettext testsuite failures. Work around this issue by appending the missing macro definitions to config.h: 

cat >>config.h <<"EOF"
#define HAVE_LANGINFO_CODESET 1
#define HAVE_LC_MESSAGES 1
EOF

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.35.2, “Contents of Gawk.”

5.20. Gettext-0.14.5

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: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 43 MB

5.20.1. 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
./configure --prefix=/tools --disable-shared

The meaning of the configure option:

--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 lib
make -C src msgfmt

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

Install the msgfmt binary: 

cp -v src/msgfmt /tools/bin

Details on this package are located in Section 6.36.2, “Contents of Gettext.”

5.21. Grep-2.5.1a

The Grep package contains programs for searching through files.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 4.8 MB

5.21.1. Installation of Grep

Prepare Grep for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools \
    --disable-perl-regexp

The meaning of the configure option:

--disable-perl-regexp

This ensures that the grep program does not get linked against a Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library that may be present on the host but will not be available once we enter the chroot environment.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

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

5.22. Gzip-1.3.5

The Gzip package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB

5.22.1. Installation of Gzip

Prepare Gzip for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.39.2, “Contents of Gzip.”

5.23. M4-1.4.4

The M4 package contains a macro processor.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 3 MB

5.23.1. Installation of M4

Prepare M4 for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.16.2, “Contents of M4.”

5.24. Make-3.80

The Make package contains a program for compiling packages.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 7.8 MB

5.24.1. Installation of Make

Prepare Make for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

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

5.25. Patch-2.5.4

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: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 1.6 MB

5.25.1. Installation of Patch

Prepare Patch for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.48.2, “Contents of Patch.”

5.26. Perl-5.8.8

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

Approximate build time: 0.7 SBU
Required disk space: 84 MB

5.26.1. Installation of Perl

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

patch -Np1 -i ../perl-5.8.8-libc-2.patch

Prepare Perl for compilation (make sure to get the 'Data/Dumper Fcntl IO POSIX' part of the command correct—they are all letters): 

./configure.gnu --prefix=/tools -Dstatic_ext='Data/Dumper Fcntl IO POSIX'

The meaning of the configure options:

-Dstatic_ext='Data/Dumper Fcntl IO POSIX'

This tells Perl to build the minimum set of static extensions needed for installing and testing the Coreutils and Glibc packages in the next chapter.

Only a few of the utilities contained in this package need to be built: 

make perl utilities

Although Perl comes with a test suite, it is not recommended to run it at this point. Only part of Perl was built and running make test now will cause the rest of Perl to be built as well, which is unnecessary at this point. The test suite can be run in the next chapter if desired.

Install these tools and their libraries: 

cp -v perl pod/pod2man /tools/bin
mkdir -pv /tools/lib/perl5/5.8.8
cp -Rv lib/* /tools/lib/perl5/5.8.8

Details on this package are located in Section 6.22.2, “Contents of Perl.”

5.27. Sed-4.1.5

The Sed package contains a stream editor.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.1 MB

5.27.1. Installation of Sed

Prepare Sed for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.20.2, “Contents of Sed.”

5.28. Tar-1.15.1

The Tar package contains an archiving program.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 13.7 MB

5.28.1. Installation of Tar

If you wish to run the test suite, apply the following patch to fix some issues with GCC-4.0.3: 

patch -Np1 -i ../tar-1.15.1-gcc4_fix_tests-1.patch

Prepare Tar for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Details on this package are located in Section 6.53.2, “Contents of Tar.”

5.29. Texinfo-4.8

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

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

5.29.1. Installation of Texinfo

Prepare Texinfo for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/tools

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

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

5.30. Util-linux-2.12r

The Util-linux package contains miscellaneous utility programs. Among them are utilities for handling file systems, consoles, partitions, and messages.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 8.9 MB

5.30.1. Installation of Util-linux

Util-linux does not use the freshly installed headers and libraries from the /tools directory by default. This is fixed by altering the configure script: 

sed -i 's@/usr/include@/tools/include@g' configure

Prepare Util-linux for compilation: 

./configure

Compile some support routines: 

make -C lib

Only a few of the utilities contained in this package need to be built: 

make -C mount mount umount
make -C text-utils more

This package does not come with a test suite.

Copy these programs to the temporary tools directory: 

cp mount/{,u}mount text-utils/more /tools/bin

Details on this package are located in Section 6.56.3, “Contents of Util-linux.”

5.31. 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/*

The last of the above commands will skip some twenty 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 nearly 20 MB more, remove the documentation: 

rm -rf /tools/{info,man}

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.

5.32. 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 and is left as an exercise for the reader.

Part III. Building the LFS System

Table of Contents

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 the user (or the system) needs it. For every installed package, a summary of its contents is given, followed by concise descriptions of each program and library the package installed.

If using compiler optimizations, please review the optimization hint at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/optimization.txt. Compiler optimizations 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 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 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.

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 -pv $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 will 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. This 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 --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 tmpfs shm $LFS/dev/shm
mount -vt proc proc $LFS/proc
mount -vt sysfs sysfs $LFS/sys

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. 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 subproject 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. LD_PRELOAD Based

In this approach, a library is 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.

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.

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.

6.4. 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,home,lib,mnt,opt}
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
mkdir -v /var/{lock,log,mail,run,spool}
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,grep,pwd,stty} /bin
ln -sv /tools/bin/perl /usr/bin
ln -sv /tools/lib/libgcc_s.so{,.1} /usr/lib
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
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:
tty:x:4:
tape: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:
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/run/utmp /var/log/{btmp,lastlog,wtmp}
chgrp -v utmp /var/run/utmp /var/log/lastlog
chmod -v 664 /var/run/utmp /var/log/lastlog

The /var/run/utmp file records the users that are currently logged in. 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.

6.7. Linux-Libc-Headers-2.6.12.0

The Linux-Libc-Headers package contains the “sanitized” kernel headers.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 27 MB

6.7.1. Installation of Linux-Libc-Headers

For years it has been common practice to use “raw” kernel headers (straight from a kernel tarball) in /usr/include, but over the last few years, the kernel developers have taken a strong stance that this should not be done. This gave birth to the Linux-Libc-Headers Project, which was designed to maintain an API stable version of the Linux headers.

Add a userspace header and syscall support for the inotify feature available in newer Linux kernels: 

patch -Np1 -i ../linux-libc-headers-2.6.12.0-inotify-3.patch

Install the header files: 

install -dv /usr/include/asm
cp -Rv include/asm-i386/* /usr/include/asm
cp -Rv include/linux /usr/include

Ensure that all the headers are owned by root: 

chown -Rv root:root /usr/include/{asm,linux}

Make sure the users can read the headers: 

find /usr/include/{asm,linux} -type d -exec chmod -v 755 {} \;
find /usr/include/{asm,linux} -type f -exec chmod -v 644 {} \;

6.7.2. Contents of Linux-Libc-Headers

Installed headers: /usr/include/{asm,linux}/*.h

Short Descriptions

/usr/include/{asm,linux}/*.h

The Linux API headers

6.8. Man-pages-2.34

The Man-pages package contains over 1,200 man pages.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 18.4 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-2.3.6

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: 13.5 SBU testsuite included
Required disk space: 510 MB testsuite included

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-libidn tarball adds support for internationalized domain names (IDN) to Glibc. Many programs that support IDN require the full libidn library, not this add-on (see http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/libidn.html). Unpack the tarball from within the Glibc source directory: 

tar -xf ../glibc-libidn-2.3.6.tar.bz2

Apply the following patch to fix build errors in packages that include linux/types.h after sys/kd.h: 

patch -Np1 -i ../glibc-2.3.6-linux_types-1.patch

Add a header to define syscall functions for the inotify feature available in newer Linux kernels: 

patch -Np1 -i ../glibc-2.3.6-inotify-1.patch

In the vi_VN.TCVN locale, bash enters an infinite loop at startup. It is unknown whether this is a bash bug or a Glibc problem. Disable installation of this locale in order to avoid the problem: 

sed -i '/vi_VN.TCVN/d' localedata/SUPPORTED

When running make install, a script called test-installation.pl performs a small sanity test on our newly installed Glibc. However, because our toolchain still points to the /tools directory, the sanity test would be carried out against the wrong Glibc. We can force the script to check the Glibc we have just installed with the following: 

sed -i \
's|libs -o|libs -L/usr/lib -Wl,-dynamic-linker=/lib/ld-linux.so.2 -o|' \
        scripts/test-installation.pl

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-2.3.6/configure --prefix=/usr \
    --disable-profile --enable-add-ons \
    --enable-kernel=2.6.0 --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.

Test the 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 test. 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 and tst-attr3 tests sometimes fail. The reason is not completely understood, but indications are that a heavy system load 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.

  • If you have mounted the LFS partition with the noatime option, the atime test will fail. As mentioned in Section 2.4, “Mounting the New Partition”, do not use the noatime option while building LFS.

  • When running on older and slower hardware or on systems under load, some tests can fail because of test timeouts being exceeded.

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 the inotify header to the system header location: 

cp -v ../glibc-2.3.6/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/inotify.h \
    /usr/include/sys

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, testsuites 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/de_DE charset-independent locale definition with the /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/ISO-8859-1.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 de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE
localedef -i de_DE@euro -f ISO-8859-15 de_DE@euro
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 ja_JP -f EUC-JP ja_JP

In addition, install the locale for your own country, language and character set.

Alternatively, install all locales listed in the glibc-2.3.6/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-2.3.6/localedata/SUPPORTED file in the unlikely case if 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

One way to determine the local time zone, 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

# End /etc/ld.so.conf
EOF

6.9.4. Contents of Glibc

Installed programs: catchsegv, gencat, getconf, getent, iconv, iconvconfig, ldconfig, ldd, lddlibc4, locale, localedef, mtrace, nscd, nscd_nischeck, pcprofiledump, pt_chown, rpcgen, rpcinfo, sln, sprof, tzselect, xtrace, zdump, and zic
Installed libraries: ld.so, libBrokenLocale.{a,so}, libSegFault.so, libanl.{a,so}, libbsd-compat.a, libc.{a,so}, libcidn.so, libcrypt.{a,so}, libdl.{a,so}, libg.a, libieee.a, libm.{a,so}, libmcheck.a, libmemusage.so, libnsl.a, libnss_compat.so, libnss_dns.so, libnss_files.so, libnss_hesiod.so, libnss_nis.so, libnss_nisplus.so, libpcprofile.so, libpthread.{a,so}, libresolv.{a,so}, librpcsvc.a, librt.{a,so}, libthread_db.so, and libutil.{a,so}

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

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

nscd_nischeck

Checks whether or not secure mode is necessary for NIS+ lookup

pcprofiledump

Dumps information generated by PC profiling

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 Procecure Call (RPC) protocol

rpcinfo

Makes an RPC call to an RPC server

sln

A statically linked ln program

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-2.3.6/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 Berkey 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. Re-adjusting the Toolchain

Now that the final C libraries have been installed, it is time to adjust the toolchain again. The toolchain will be adjusted so that it will link any newly compiled program against these new libraries. This is a similar process used in the “Adjusting” phase in the beginning of Chapter 5, but with the adjustments reversed. In Chapter 5, the chain was guided from the host's /{,usr/}lib directories to the new /tools/lib directory. Now, the chain will be guided from that same /tools/lib directory to the LFS /{,usr/}lib directories.

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, and so that GCC knows where to find its start files. A perl command accomplishes this: 

gcc -dumpspecs | \
perl -p -e 's@/tools/lib/ld-linux.so.2@/lib/ld-linux.so.2@g;' \
    -e 's@\*startfile_prefix_spec:\n@$_/usr/lib/ @g;' > \
    `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.

Important

If working on a platform where the name of the dynamic linker is something other than ld-linux.so.2, substitute “ld-linux.so.2” with the name of the platform's dynamic linker in the above commands. Refer back to Section 5.2, “Toolchain Technical Notes,” if necessary.

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 -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].* .*' 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

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 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 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): 

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. Binutils-2.16.1

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

Approximate build time: 1.5 SBU testsuite included
Required disk space: 172 MB testsuite included

6.11.1. Installation of Binutils

Verify that the PTYs are working properly inside the chroot environment. Check that everything is set up correctly by performing a simple test: 

expect -c "spawn ls"

If the following message shows up, the chroot environment is not set up for proper PTY operation: 

The system has no more ptys.
Ask your system administrator to create more.

This issue needs to be resolved before running the test suites for Binutils and GCC.

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-2.16.1/configure --prefix=/usr \
    --enable-shared

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, i686 machines would expand that to /usr/i686-pc-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-2.16.1/include/libiberty.h /usr/include

6.11.2. Contents of Binutils

Installed programs: addr2line, ar, as, c++filt, gprof, ld, nm, objcopy, objdump, ranlib, readelf, size, strings, and strip
Installed libraries: libiberty.a, libbfd.{a,so}, and libopcodes.{a,so}

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

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

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.

6.12. GCC-4.0.3

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

Approximate build time: 22 SBU testsuite included
Required disk space: 566 MB testsuite included

6.12.1. 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

The bootstrap build performed in Section 5.4, “GCC-4.0.3 - Pass 1” built GCC with the -fomit-frame-pointer compiler flag. Non-bootstrap builds omit this flag by default, so apply the following sed to use it in order to ensure consistent compiler builds. 

sed -i 's/^XCFLAGS =$/& -fomit-frame-pointer/' gcc/Makefile.in

The fixincludes script is known to occasionally erroneously attempt to "fix" the system headers installed so far. As the headers installed by GCC-4.0.3 and Glibc-2.3.6 are known to not require fixing, issue the following command to prevent the fixincludes script from running: 

sed -i 's@\./fixinc\.sh@-c true@' gcc/Makefile.in

GCC provides a gccbug script which detects at compile time whether mktemp is present, and hardcodes the result in a test. This will cause the script to fall back to using less random names for temporary files. We will be installing mktemp later, so the following sed will simulate its presence. 

sed -i 's/@have_mktemp_command@/yes/' gcc/gccbug.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-4.0.3/configure --prefix=/usr \
    --libexecdir=/usr/lib --enable-shared \
    --enable-threads=posix --enable-__cxa_atexit \
    --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-languages=c,c++

Compile the package: 

make

Important

In this section, the test suite for GCC is considered critical. Do not skip it under any circumstance.

Test the results, but do not stop at errors: 

make -k check

To receive a summary of the test suite results, run: 

../gcc-4.0.3/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/6.2/.

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 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 -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].* .*' 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/4.0.3/../../../crt1.o succeeded
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../crti.o succeeded
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../crtn.o succeeded

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 will be: 

SEARCH_DIR("/usr/i686-pc-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 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): 

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

6.12.2. Contents of GCC

Installed programs: c++, cc (link to gcc), cpp, g++, gcc, gccbug, and gcov
Installed libraries: libgcc.a, libgcc_eh.a, libgcc_s.so, libstdc++.{a,so}, and libsupc++.a

Short Descriptions

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

c++

The C++ compiler

g++

The C++ compiler

gcc

The C compiler

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

libstdc++

The standard C++ library

libsupc++

Provides supporting routines for the C++ programming language

6.13. Berkeley DB-4.4.20

The Berkeley DB package contains programs and utilities used by many other applications for database related functions.

Approximate build time: 1.2 SBU
Required disk space: 77 MB

Other Installation Possibilities

There are instructions to build this package in the BLFS book if you need to build the RPC server or additional language bindings. The additional language bindings will require additional packages to be installed. See http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/server/databases.html#db for suggested installation instructions.

Also, GDBM could be used in place of Berkeley DB to satisfy Man-DB. However, since Berkeley DB is considered a core part of the LFS build, it will not be listed as a dependency for any package in the BLFS book. Likewise, many hours go into testing LFS with Berkeley DB installed, not with GDBM. If you fully understand the risks versus benefits of using GDBM and wish to use it anyway, see the BLFS instructions located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/gdbm.html

6.13.1. Installation of Berkeley DB

Patch the package to eliminate potential trap events: 

patch -Np1 -i ../db-4.4.20-fixes-1.patch

Prepare Berkeley DB for compilation: 

cd build_unix &&
../dist/configure --prefix=/usr --enable-compat185 --enable-cxx

The meaning of the configure options:

--enable-compat185

This option enables building Berkeley DB 1.85 compatibility API.

--enable-cxx

This option enables building C++ API libraries.

Compile the package: 

make

It is not possible to test the package meaningfully, because that would involve building TCL bindings. TCL bindings cannot be built properly now because TCL is linked against Glibc in /tools, not against Glibc in /usr.

Install the package: 

make docdir=/usr/share/doc/db-4.4.20 install

The meaning of the make parameter:

docdir=...

This variable specifies the correct place for the documentation.

Fix the ownerships of the installed files: 

chown -v root:root /usr/bin/db_* \
    /usr/lib/libdb* /usr/include/db* &&
chown -Rv root:root /usr/share/doc/db-4.4.20

6.13.2. Contents of Berkeley DB

Installed programs: db_archive, db_checkpoint, db_deadlock, db_dump, db_hotbackup, db_load, db_printlog, db_recover, db_stat, db_upgrade, and db_verify
Installed libraries: libdb.{so,ar}and libdb_cxx.r{o,ar}

Short Descriptions

db_archive

Prints the pathnames of log files that are no longer in use

db_checkpoint

A daemon used to monitor and checkpoint database logs

db_deadlock

A daemon used to abort lock requests when deadlocks are detected

db_dump

Converts database files to a plain-text file format readable by db_load

db_hotbackup

Creates “hot backup” or “hot failover” snapshots of Berkeley DB databases

db_load

Is used to create database files from plain-text files

db_printlog

Converts database log files to human readable text

db_recover

Is used to restore a database to a consistent state after a failure

db_stat

Displays statistics for Berkeley databases

db_upgrade

Is used to upgrade database files to a newer version of Berkeley DB

db_verify

Is used to run consistency checks on database files

libdb.{so,a}

Contains functions to manipulate database files from C programs

libdb_cxx.{so,a}

Contains functions to manipulate database files from C++ programs

6.14. Coreutils-5.96

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

Approximate build time: 1.1 SBU
Required disk space: 58.3 MB

6.14.1. Installation of Coreutils

A known issue with the uname program from this package is that the -p switch always returns unknown. The following patch fixes this behavior for Intel architectures: 

patch -Np1 -i ../coreutils-5.96-uname-1.patch

Prevent Coreutils from installing binaries that will be installed by other packages later: 

patch -Np1 -i ../coreutils-5.96-suppress_uptime_kill_su-1.patch

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-5.96-i18n-1.patch

In order for the tests added by this patch to pass, the permissions for the test file have to be changed: 

chmod +x tests/sort/sort-mb-tests

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.

It has been found that translated messages sometimes overflow a buffer in the who -Hu command. Increase the buffer size: 

sed -i 's/_LEN 6/_LEN 20/' src/who.c

Now prepare Coreutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

The test suite of Coreutils makes several assumptions about the presence of system users and groups that are not valid within the minimal environment that exists at the moment. Therefore, additional items need to be set up before running the tests. Skip down to “Install the package” if not running the test suite.

Create two dummy groups and a dummy user: 

echo "dummy1:x:1000:" >> /etc/group
echo "dummy2:x:1001:dummy" >> /etc/group
echo "dummy:x:1000:1000::/root:/bin/bash" >> /etc/passwd

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=dummy check-root

Then run the remainder of the tests as the dummy user: 

src/su dummy -c "make RUN_EXPENSIVE_TESTS=yes check"

When testing is complete, remove the dummy user and groups: 

sed -i '/dummy/d' /etc/passwd /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,hostname,ln,ls,mkdir,mknod,mv,pwd,rm} /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/{rmdir,stty,sync,true,uname} /bin
mv -v /usr/bin/chroot /usr/sbin

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

6.14.2. Contents of Coreutils

Installed programs: basename, cat, 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, hostname, id, install, join, link, ln, logname, ls, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mv, nice, nl, nohup, od, paste, pathchk, pinky, pr, printenv, printf, ptx, pwd, readlink, rm, rmdir, seq, sha1sum, shred, sleep, sort, split, stat, stty, sum, sync, tac, tail, tee, test, touch, tr, true, tsort, tty, uname, unexpand, uniq, unlink, users, vdir, wc, who, whoami, and yes

Short Descriptions

basename

Strips any path and a given suffix from a file name

cat

Concatenates files to standard output

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

hostname

Reports or sets the name 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

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

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

rm

Removes files or directories

rmdir

Removes directories if they are empty

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

shred

Overwrites the given files repeatedly with complex patterns, making it difficult to recover the data

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

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

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

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

6.15. Iana-Etc-2.10

The Iana-Etc package provides data for network services and protocols.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.1 MB

6.15.1. 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

6.15.2. 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

6.16. M4-1.4.4

The M4 package contains a macro processor.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 3 MB

6.16.1. Installation of M4

Prepare M4 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 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.

6.17. Bison-2.2

The Bison package contains a parser generator.

Approximate build time: 0.6 SBU
Required disk space: 11.9 MB

6.17.1. 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' >> config.h

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.17.2. Contents of Bison

Installed programs: bison and yacc
Installed library: liby.a

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

6.18. Ncurses-5.5

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

Approximate build time: 0.7 SBU
Required disk space: 31 MB

6.18.1. Installation of Ncurses

Since the release of Ncurses-5.5, a memory leak and some display bugs were found and fixed upstream. Apply those fixes: 

patch -Np1 -i ../ncurses-5.5-fixes-1.patch

Prepare Ncurses for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-shared --without-debug --enable-widec

The meaning of the configure option:

--enable-widec

This switch causes wide-character libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so.5.5) to be built instead of normal ones (e.g., libncurses.so.5.5). 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.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Give the Ncurses libraries execute permissions: 

chmod -v 755 /usr/lib/*.5.5

Fix a library that should not be executable: 

chmod -v 644 /usr/lib/libncurses++w.a

Move the 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 curses 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 ; \
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: 

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

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, build them 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

6.18.2. Contents of Ncurses

Installed programs: captoinfo (link to tic), clear, infocmp, infotocap (link to tic), reset (link to tset), tack, 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.

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

reset

Reinitializes a terminal to its default values

tack

The terminfo action checker; it is mainly used to test the accuracy of an entry in the terminfo database

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

6.19. Procps-3.2.6

The Procps package contains programs for monitoring processes.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.3 MB

6.19.1. Installation of Procps

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.19.2. Contents of Procps

Installed programs: free, kill, pgrep, pkill, pmap, ps, skill, slabtop, snice, sysctl, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w, and watch
Installed library: libproc.so

Short Descriptions

free

Reports the amount of free and used memory (both physical and swap memory) in the system

kill

Sends signals to processes

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

skill

Sends signals to processes matching the given criteria

slabtop

Displays detailed kernel slap cache information in real time

snice

Changes the scheduling priority of processes matching the given criteria

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

6.20. Sed-4.1.5

The Sed package contains a stream editor.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.4 MB

6.20.1. Installation of Sed

Prepare Sed for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin --enable-html

The meaning of the new configure option:

--enable-html

This builds the HTML documentation.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.20.2. Contents of Sed

Installed program: sed

Short Descriptions

sed

Filters and transforms text files in a single pass

6.21. Libtool-1.5.22

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: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 16.6 MB

6.21.1. Installation of Libtool

Prepare Libtool for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.21.2. Contents of Libtool

Installed programs: libtool and libtoolize
Installed libraries: libltdl.{a,so}

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

6.22. Perl-5.8.8

The Perl package contains the Practical Extraction and Report Language.

Approximate build time: 1.5 SBU
Required disk space: 143 MB

6.22.1. Installation of Perl

First create a basic /etc/hosts file which will be referenced in one of Perl's configuration files as well as being used used by the testsuite if you run that. 

echo "127.0.0.1 localhost $(hostname)" > /etc/hosts

To have full control over the way Perl is set up, run the interactive Configure script and hand-pick the way this package is built. If the defaults it auto-detects are suitable, prepare Perl for compilation with: 

./configure.gnu --prefix=/usr \
    -Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 \
    -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/man3 \
    -Dpager="/usr/bin/less -isR"

The meaning of the configure options:

-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.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make test.

Install the package: 

make install

6.22.2. Contents of Perl

Installed programs: a2p, c2ph, dprofpp, enc2xs, find2perl, h2ph, h2xs, instmodsh, libnetcfg, perl, perl5.8.8 (link to perl), perlbug, perlcc, perldoc, perlivp, piconv, pl2pm, pod2html, pod2latex, pod2man, pod2text, pod2usage, podchecker, podselect, psed (link to s2p), pstruct (link to c2ph), s2p, splain, and xsubpp
Installed libraries: Several hundred which cannot all be listed here

Short Descriptions

a2p

Translates awk to Perl

c2ph

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S

dprofpp

Displays Perl profile data

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

libnetcfg

Can be used to configure the libnet

perl

Combines some of the best features of C, sed, awk and sh into a single swiss-army language

perl5.8.8

A hard link to perl

perlbug

Used to generate bug reports about Perl, or the modules that come with it, and mail them

perlcc

Generates executables from Perl programs

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

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

psed

A Perl version of the stream editor sed

pstruct

Dumps C structures as generated from cc -g -S stabs

s2p

Translates sed scripts to Perl

splain

Is used to force verbose warning diagnostics in Perl

xsubpp

Converts Perl XS code into C code

6.23. Readline-5.1

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: 10.2 MB

6.23.1. Installation of Readline

Upstream developers have fixed several issues since the initial release of Readline-5.1. Apply those fixes: 

patch -Np1 -i ../readline-5.1-fixes-3.patch

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

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

Give Readline's dynamic libraries more appropriate permissions: 

chmod -v 755 /lib/lib{readline,history}.so*

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.5 /usr/lib/libreadline.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/libhistory.so.5 /usr/lib/libhistory.so

6.23.2. Contents of Readline

Installed libraries: libhistory.{a,so}, and libreadline.{a,so}

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

6.24. Zlib-1.2.3

The Zlib package contains compression and decompression routines used by some programs.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 3.1 MB

6.24.1. Installation of Zlib

Note

Zlib is known to build its shared library incorrectly if CFLAGS is specified in the environment. If using a specified CFLAGS variable, be sure to add the -fPIC directive to the CFLAGS variable for the duration of the configure command below, then remove it afterwards.

Prepare Zlib for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --shared --libdir=/lib

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the shared library: 

make install

The previous command installed a .so file in /lib. We will remove it and relink it into /usr/lib: 

rm -v /lib/libz.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/libz.so.1.2.3 /usr/lib/libz.so

Build the static library: 

make clean
./configure --prefix=/usr
make

To test the results again, issue: make check.

Install the static library: 

make install

Fix the permissions on the static library: 

chmod -v 644 /usr/lib/libz.a

6.24.2. Contents of Zlib

Installed libraries: libz.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

libz

Contains compression and decompression functions used by some programs

6.25. Autoconf-2.59

The Autoconf package contains programs for producing shell scripts that can automatically configure source code.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 7.2 MB

6.25.1. 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 3 SBUs. In addition, 2 test are skipped that use Automake. For full test coverage, Autoconf can be re-tested after Automake has been installed.

Install the package: 

make install

6.25.2. Contents of Autoconf

Installed programs: autoconf, autoheader, autom4te, autoreconf, autoscan, autoupdate, and ifnames

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

6.26. Automake-1.9.6

The Automake package contains programs for generating Makefiles for use with Autoconf.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 7.9 MB

6.26.1. Installation of Automake

Prepare Automake for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check. This takes a long time, about 10 SBUs.

Install the package: 

make install

6.26.2. Contents of Automake

Installed programs: acinstall, aclocal, aclocal-1.9.6, automake, automake-1.9.6, compile, config.guess, config.sub, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, py-compile, symlink-tree, and ylwrap

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-1.9.6

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-1.9.6

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

6.27. Bash-3.1

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again SHell.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 25.8 MB

6.27.1. Installation of Bash

If you downloaded the Bash documentation tarball and wish to install HTML documentation, issue the following commands: 

tar -xvf ../bash-doc-3.1.tar.gz &&
sed -i "s|htmldir = @htmldir@|htmldir = /usr/share/doc/bash-3.1|" \
    Makefile.in

Upstream developers have fixed several issues since the initial release of Bash-3.1. Apply those fixes: 

patch -Np1 -i ../bash-3.1-fixes-8.patch

Prepare Bash for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin \
    --without-bash-malloc --with-installed-readline

The meaning of the configure options:

--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

To test the results, issue: 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.

6.27.2. Contents of Bash

Installed programs: bash, bashbug, and sh (link to bash)

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

6.28. Bzip2-1.0.3

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: 5.3 MB

6.28.1. Installation of Bzip2

Apply a patch to install the documentation for this package: 

patch -Np1 -i ../bzip2-1.0.3-install_docs-1.patch

The bzgrep command does not escape '|' and '&' in filenames passed to it. This allows arbitrary commands to be executed with the privileges of the user running bzgrep. Apply the following to address this: 

patch -Np1 -i ../bzip2-1.0.3-bzgrep_security-1.patch

The bzdiff script still uses the deprecated tempfile program. Update it to use mktemp instead: 

sed -i 's@tempfile -d /tmp -p bz@mktemp -p /tmp@' bzdiff

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

If reinstalling Bzip2, perform rm -vf /usr/bin/bz* first, otherwise the following make install will fail.

Install the programs: 

make 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

6.28.2. Contents of Bzip2

Installed programs: bunzip2 (link to bzip2), bzcat (link to bzip2), bzcmp, bzdiff, bzegrep, bzfgrep, bzgrep, bzip2, bzip2recover, bzless, and bzmore
Installed libraries: libbz2.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

bunzip2

Decompresses bzipped files

bzcat

Decompresses to standard output

bzcmp

Runs cmp on bzipped files

bzdiff

Runs diff on bzipped files

bzgrep

Runs grep on bzipped files

bzegrep

Runs egrep on bzipped files

bzfgrep

Runs fgrep 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

6.29. Diffutils-2.8.1

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

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.3 MB

6.29.1. Installation of Diffutils

POSIX requires the diff command to treat whitespace characters according to the current locale. The following patch fixes the non-compliance issue: 

patch -Np1 -i ../diffutils-2.8.1-i18n-1.patch

The above patch will cause the Diffutils build system to attempt to rebuild the diff.1 man page using the unavailable program help2man. The result is an unreadable man page for diff. We can avoid this by updating the timestamp on the file man/diff.1: 

touch man/diff.1

Prepare Diffutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.29.2. 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

6.30. E2fsprogs-1.39

The E2fsprogs package contains the utilities for handling the ext2 file system. It also supports the ext3 journaling file system.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 31.2 MB

6.30.1. Installation of E2fsprogs

It is recommended that E2fsprogs 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-evms

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-evms

This disables the building of the Enterprise Volume Management System (EVMS) plugin. This plugin is not up-to-date with the latest EVMS internal interfaces and EVMS is not installed as part of a base LFS system, so the plugin is not required. See the EVMS website at http://evms.sourceforge.net/ for more information regarding EVMS.

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, it is recommended 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 and documentation: 

make install

Install the shared libraries: 

make install-libs

6.30.2. Contents of E2fsprogs

Installed programs: badblocks, blkid, chattr, compile_et, debugfs, dumpe2fs, e2fsck, e2image, e2label, filefrag, findfs, fsck, fsck.ext2, fsck.ext3, logsave, lsattr, mk_cmds, mke2fs, mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mklost+found, resize2fs, tune2fs, and uuidgen.
Installed libraries: libblkid.{a,so}, libcom_err.{a,so}, libe2p.{a,so}, libext2fs.{a,so}, libss.{a,so}, and libuuid.{a,so}

Short Descriptions

badblocks

Searches a device (usually a disk partition) for bad blocks

blkid

A command line utility to locate and print block device attributes

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

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

e2label

Displays or changes the file system label on the ext2 file system present on a given device

filefrag

Reports on how badly fragmented a particular file might be

findfs

Finds a file system by label or Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)

fsck

Is used to check, and optionally repair, file systems

fsck.ext2

By default checks ext2 file systems

fsck.ext3

By default checks ext3 file systems

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

mkfs.ext3

By default creates ext3 file systems

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

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

libblkid

Contains routines for device identification and token extraction

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

libss

Used by debugfs

libuuid

Contains routines for generating unique identifiers for objects that may be accessible beyond the local system

6.31. File-4.17

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: 7.5 MB

6.31.1. Installation of File

Prepare File for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.31.2. 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

6.32. Findutils-4.2.27

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: 12 MB

6.32.1. 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 -e 's/find:=${BINDIR}/find:=\/bin/' /usr/bin/updatedb

6.32.2. Contents of Findutils

Installed programs: bigram, code, find, frcode, locate, updatedb, and xargs

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

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

6.33. Flex-2.5.33

The Flex package contains a utility for generating programs that recognize patterns in text.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 8.4 MB

6.33.1. Installation of Flex

Prepare Flex for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, 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

6.33.2. Contents of Flex

Installed programs: flex and lex
Installed library: libfl.a

Short Descriptions

flex

A tool for generating programs that recognize patterns in text; it allows for the versatility to specify the rules for pattern-finding, eradicating the need to develop a specialized program

lex

A script that runs flex in lex emulation mode

libfl.a

The flex library

6.34. GRUB-0.97

The GRUB package contains the GRand Unified Bootloader.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 10.2 MB

6.34.1. Installation of GRUB

This package is known to have issues when its default optimization flags (including the -march and -mcpu options) are changed. If any environment variables that override default optimizations have been defined, such as CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, unset them when building GRUB.

Start by applying the following patch to allow for better drive detection, fix some GCC 4.x issues, and provide better SATA support for some disk controllers: 

patch -Np1 -i ../grub-0.97-disk_geometry-1.patch

Prepare GRUB for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install
mkdir -v /boot/grub
cp -v /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage{1,2} /boot/grub

Replace i386-pc with whatever directory is appropriate for the hardware in use.

The i386-pc directory contains a number of *stage1_5 files, different ones for different file systems. Review the files available and copy the appropriate ones to the /boot/grub directory. Most users will copy the e2fs_stage1_5 and/or reiserfs_stage1_5 files.

6.34.2. Contents of GRUB

Installed programs: grub, grub-install, grub-md5-crypt, grub-set-default, grub-terminfo, and mbchk

Short Descriptions

grub

The Grand Unified Bootloader's command shell

grub-install

Installs GRUB on the given device

grub-md5-crypt

Encrypts a password in MD5 format

grub-set-default

Sets the default boot entry for GRUB

grub-terminfo

Generates a terminfo command from a terminfo name; it can be employed if an unknown terminal is being used

mbchk

Checks the format of a multi-boot kernel

6.35. Gawk-3.1.5

The Gawk package contains programs for manipulating text files.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 18.2 MB

6.35.1. Installation of Gawk

Under some circumstances, Gawk-3.1.5 attempts to free a chunk of memory that was not allocated. This bug is fixed by the following patch: 

patch -Np1 -i ../gawk-3.1.5-segfault_fix-1.patch

Prepare Gawk for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib

Due to a bug in the configure script, Gawk fails to detect certain aspects of locale support in Glibc. This bug leads to, e.g., Gettext testsuite failures. Work around this issue by appending the missing macro definitions to config.h: 

cat >>config.h <<"EOF"
#define HAVE_LANGINFO_CODESET 1
#define HAVE_LC_MESSAGES 1
EOF

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.35.2. Contents of Gawk

Installed programs: awk (link to gawk), gawk, gawk-3.1.5, grcat, igawk, pgawk, pgawk-3.1.5, and pwcat

Short Descriptions

awk

A link to gawk

gawk

A program for manipulating text files; it is the GNU implementation of awk

gawk-3.1.5

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-3.1.5

Hard link to pgawk

pwcat

Dumps the password database /etc/passwd

6.36. Gettext-0.14.5

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: 1 SBU
Required disk space: 65 MB

6.36.1. Installation of Gettext

Prepare Gettext for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check. This takes a very long time, around 5 SBUs.

Install the package: 

make install

6.36.2. Contents of Gettext

Installed programs: autopoint, config.charset, config.rpath, envsubst, gettext, gettext.sh, gettextize, hostname, msgattrib, msgcat, msgcmp, msgcomm, msgconv, msgen, msgexec, msgfilter, msgfmt, msggrep, msginit, msgmerge, msgunfmt, msguniq, ngettext, and xgettext
Installed libraries: libasprintf.{a,so}, libgettextlib.so, libgettextpo.{a,so}, and libgettextsrc.so

Short Descriptions

autopoint

Copies standard Gettext infrastructure files into a source package

config.charset

Outputs a system-dependent table of character encoding aliases

config.rpath

Outputs a system-dependent set of variables, describing how to set the runtime search path of shared libraries in an executable

envsubst

Substitutes environment variables in shell format strings

gettext

Translates a natural language message into the user's language by looking up the translation in a message catalog

gettext.sh

Primarily serves as a shell function library for gettext

gettextize

Copies all standard Gettext files into the given top-level directory of a package to begin internationalizing it

hostname

Displays a network hostname in various forms

msgattrib

Filters the messages of a translation catalog according to their attributes and manipulates the attributes

msgcat

Concatenates and merges the given .po files

msgcmp

Compares two .po files to check that both contain the same set of msgid strings

msgcomm

Finds the messages that are common to to the given .po files

msgconv

Converts a translation catalog to a different character encoding

msgen

Creates an English translation catalog

msgexec

Applies a command to all translations of a translation catalog

msgfilter

Applies a filter to all translations of a translation catalog

msgfmt

Generates a binary message catalog from a translation catalog

msggrep

Extracts all messages of a translation catalog that match a given pattern or belong to some given source files

msginit

Creates a new .po file, initializing the meta information with values from the user's environment

msgmerge

Combines two raw translations into a single file

msgunfmt

Decompiles a binary message catalog into raw translation text

msguniq

Unifies duplicate translations in a translation catalog

ngettext

Displays native language translations of a textual message whose grammatical form depends on a number

xgettext

Extracts the translatable message lines from the given source files to make the first translation template

libasprintf

defines the autosprintf class, which makes C formatted output routines usable in C++ programs, for use with the <string> strings and the <iostream> streams

libgettextlib

a private library containing common routines used by the various Gettext programs; these are not intended for general use

libgettextpo

Used to write specialized programs that process .po files; this library is used when the standard applications shipped with Gettext (such as msgcomm, msgcmp, msgattrib, and msgen) will not suffice

libgettextsrc

A private library containing common routines used by the various Gettext programs; these are not intended for general use

6.37. Grep-2.5.1a

The Grep package contains programs for searching through files.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 4.8 MB

6.37.1. Installation of Grep

The current Grep package has many bugs, especially in the support of multibyte locales. RedHat fixed some of them with the following patch: 

patch -Np1 -i ../grep-2.5.1a-redhat_fixes-2.patch

In order for the tests added by this patch to pass, the permissions for the test file have to be changed: 

chmod +x tests/fmbtest.sh

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

6.37.2. Contents of Grep

Installed programs: egrep (link to grep), fgrep (link to grep), 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

6.38. Groff-1.18.1.1

The Groff package contains programs for processing and formatting text.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 39.2 MB

6.38.1. Installation of Groff

Apply the patch that adds the “ascii8” and “nippon” devices to Groff: 

patch -Np1 -i ../groff-1.18.1.1-debian_fixes-1.patch

Note

These devices are used by Man-DB when formatting non-English manual pages that are not in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. Currently, there is no working patch for Groff-1.19.x that adds this functionality.

Many screen fonts don't have Unicode single quotes and dashes in them. Tell Groff to use the ASCII equivalents instead: 

sed -i -e 's/2010/002D/' -e 's/2212/002D/' \
    -e 's/2018/0060/' -e 's/2019/0027/' font/devutf8/R.proto

Groff expects the environment variable PAGE to contain the default paper size. For users in the United States, PAGE=letter is appropriate. Elsewhere, PAGE=A4 may be more suitable. While the default paper size is configured during compilation, it can be overridden later by echoing either “A4” or “letter” to the /etc/papersize file.

Prepare Groff for compilation: 

PAGE=<paper_size> ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-multibyte

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Some documentation programs, such as xman, will not work properly without the following symlinks: 

ln -sv eqn /usr/bin/geqn
ln -sv tbl /usr/bin/gtbl

6.38.2. Contents of Groff

Installed programs: addftinfo, afmtodit, eqn, eqn2graph, geqn (link to eqn), grn, grodvi, groff, groffer, grog, grolbp, grolj4, grops, grotty, gtbl (link to tbl), hpftodit, indxbib, lkbib, lookbib, mmroff, neqn, nroff, pfbtops, pic, pic2graph, post-grohtml, pre-grohtml, refer, soelim, tbl, tfmtodit, and troff

Short Descriptions

addftinfo

Reads a troff font file and adds some additional font-metric information that is used by the groff system

afmtodit

Creates a font file for use with groff and grops

eqn

Compiles descriptions of equations embedded within troff input files into commands that are understood by troff

eqn2graph

Converts a troff EQN (equation) into a cropped image

geqn

A link to eqn

grn

A groff preprocessor for gremlin files

grodvi

A driver for groff that produces TeX dvi format

groff

A front-end to the groff document formatting system; normally, it runs the troff program and a post-processor appropriate for the selected device

groffer

Displays groff files and man pages on X and tty terminals

grog

Reads files and guesses which of the groff options -e, -man, -me, -mm, -ms, -p, -s, and -t are required for printing files, and reports the groff command including those options

grolbp

Is a groff driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser printers)

grolj4

Is a driver for groff that produces output in PCL5 format suitable for an HP LaserJet 4 printer

grops

Translates the output of GNU troff to PostScript

grotty

Translates the output of GNU troff into a form suitable for typewriter-like devices

gtbl

A link to tbl

hpftodit

Creates a font file for use with groff -Tlj4 from an HP-tagged font metric file

indxbib

Creates an inverted index for the bibliographic databases with a specified file for use with refer, lookbib, and lkbib

lkbib

Searches bibliographic databases for references that contain specified keys and reports any references found

lookbib

Prints a prompt on the standard error (unless the standard input is not a terminal), reads a line containing a set of keywords from the standard input, searches the bibliographic databases in a specified file for references containing those keywords, prints any references found on the standard output, and repeats this process until the end of input

mmroff

A simple preprocessor for groff

neqn

Formats equations for American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) output

nroff

A script that emulates the nroff command using groff

pfbtops

Translates a PostScript font in .pfb format to ASCII

pic

Compiles descriptions of pictures embedded within troff or TeX input files into commands understood by TeX or troff

pic2graph

Converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image

post-grohtml

Translates the output of GNU troff to HTML

pre-grohtml

Translates the output of GNU troff to HTML

refer

Copies the contents of a file to the standard output, except that lines between .[ and .] are interpreted as citations, and lines between .R1 and .R2 are interpreted as commands for how citations are to be processed

soelim

Reads files and replaces lines of the form .so file by the contents of the mentioned file

tbl

Compiles descriptions of tables embedded within troff input files into commands that are understood by troff

tfmtodit

Creates a font file for use with groff -Tdvi

troff

Is highly compatible with Unix troff; it should usually be invoked using the groff command, which will also run preprocessors and post-processors in the appropriate order and with the appropriate options

6.39. Gzip-1.3.5

The Gzip package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB

6.39.1. Installation of Gzip

Gzip has 2 known security vulnerabilities. The following patch addresses both of them: 

patch -Np1 -i ../gzip-1.3.5-security_fixes-1.patch

Prepare Gzip for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

The gzexe script has the location of the gzip binary hard-wired into it. Because the location of the binary is changed later, the following command ensures that the new location gets placed into the script: 

sed -i 's@"BINDIR"@/bin@g' gzexe.in

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Move the gzip program to the /bin directory and create some commonly used symlinks to it: 

mv -v /usr/bin/gzip /bin
rm -v /usr/bin/{gunzip,zcat}
ln -sv gzip /bin/gunzip
ln -sv gzip /bin/zcat
ln -sv gzip /bin/compress
ln -sv gunzip /bin/uncompress

6.39.2. Contents of Gzip

Installed programs: compress (link to gzip), gunzip (link to gzip), gzexe, gzip, uncompress (link to gunzip), zcat (link to gzip), zcmp, zdiff, zegrep, zfgrep, zforce, zgrep, zless, zmore, and znew

Short Descriptions

compress

Compresses and decompresses files

gunzip

Decompresses gzipped files

gzexe

Creates self-decompressing executable files

gzip

Compresses the given files using Lempel-Ziv (LZ77) coding

uncompress

Decompresses compressed files

zcat

Decompresses the given gzipped files to standard output

zcmp

Runs cmp on gzipped files

zdiff

Runs diff on gzipped files

zegrep

Runs egrep on gzipped files

zfgrep

Runs fgrep on gzipped files

zforce

Forces a .gz extension on all given files that are gzipped files, so that gzip will not compress them again; this can be useful when file names were truncated during a file transfer

zgrep

Runs grep on gzipped files

zless

Runs less on gzipped files

zmore

Runs more on gzipped files

znew

Re-compresses files from compress format to gzip format—.Z to .gz

6.40. Inetutils-1.4.2

The Inetutils package contains programs for basic networking.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 8.9 MB

6.40.1. Installation of Inetutils

Apply a patch to Inetutils to enable it to compile with GCC-4.0.3: 

patch -Np1 -i ../inetutils-1.4.2-gcc4_fixes-3.patch

All programs that come with Inetutils will not be installed. However, the Inetutils build system will insist on installing all the man pages anyway. The following patch will correct this situation: 

patch -Np1 -i ../inetutils-1.4.2-no_server_man_pages-1.patch

Prepare Inetutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/sbin \
    --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var \
    --disable-logger --disable-syslogd \
    --disable-whois --disable-servers

The meaning of the configure options:

--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 installs a better version later.

--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

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Move the ping program to its FHS-compliant place: 

mv -v /usr/bin/ping /bin

6.40.2. Contents of Inetutils

Installed programs: ftp, ping, rcp, rlogin, rsh, talk, telnet, and tftp

Short Descriptions

ftp

Is the file transfer protocol program

ping

Sends echo-request packets and reports how long the replies take

rcp

Performs remote file copy

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

6.41. IPRoute2-2.6.16-060323

The IPRoute2 package contains programs for basic and advanced IPV4-based networking.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 4.8 MB

6.41.1. Installation of IPRoute2

Compile the package: 

make SBINDIR=/sbin

The meaning of the make option:

SBINDIR=/sbin

This ensures that the IPRoute2 binaries will install into /sbin. This is the correct location according to the FHS, because some of the IPRoute2 binaries are used by the LFS-Bootscripts package.

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make SBINDIR=/sbin install

The arpd binary links against the Berkeley DB libraries that reside in /usr and uses a database in /var/lib/arpd/arpd.db. Thus, according to the FHS, it must be in /usr/sbin. Move it there: 

mv -v /sbin/arpd /usr/sbin

6.41.2. Contents of IPRoute2

Installed programs: arpd, ctstat (link to lnstat), ifcfg, ifstat, ip, lnstat, nstat, routef, routel, rtacct, rtmon, rtpr, rtstat (link to lnstat), ss, and tc.

Short Descriptions

arpd

Userspace ARP daemon, useful in really large networks, where the kernelspace ARP implementation is insufficient, or when setting up a honeypot

ctstat

Connection status utility

ifcfg

A shell script wrapper for the ip command

ifstat

Shows the interface statistics, including the amount of transmitted and received packets by interface

ip

The main executable. It has several different functions:

ip link <device> allows users to look at the state of devices and to make changes

ip addr allows users to look at addresses and their properties, add new addresses, and delete old ones

ip neighbor allows users to look at neighbor bindings and their properties, add new neighbor entries, and delete old ones

ip rule allows users to look at the routing policies and change them

ip route allows users to look at the routing table and change routing table rules

ip tunnel allows users to look at the IP tunnels and their properties, and change them

ip maddr allows users to look at the multicast addresses and their properties, and change them

ip mroute allows users to set, change, or delete the multicast routing

ip monitor allows users to continously monitor the state of devices, addresses and routes

lnstat

Provides Linux network statistics. It is a generalized and more feature-complete replacement for the old rtstat program

nstat

Shows network statistics

routef

A component of ip route. This is for flushing the routing tables

routel

A component of ip route. This is for listing the routing tables

rtacct

Displays the contents of /proc/net/rt_acct

rtmon

Route monitoring utility

rtpr

Converts the output of ip -o back into a readable form

rtstat

Route status utility

ss

Similar to the netstat command; shows active connections

tc

Traffic Controlling Executable; this is for Quality Of Service (QOS) and Class Of Service (COS) implementations

tc qdisc allows users to setup the queueing discipline

tc class allows users to setup classes based on the queuing discipline scheduling

tc estimator allows users to estimate the network flow into a network

tc filter allows users to setup the QOS/COS packet filtering

tc policy allows users to setup the QOS/COS policies

6.42. Kbd-1.12

The Kbd package contains key-table files and keyboard utilities.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 12.3 MB

6.42.1. Installation of Kbd

The behaviour of the Backspace and Delete keys is not consistent across the keymaps in the Kbd package. The following patch fixes this issue for i386 keymaps: 

patch -Np1 -i ../kbd-1.12-backspace-1.patch

After patching, the Backspace key generates the character with code 127, and the Delete key generates a well-known escape sequence.

Patch Kbd to fix a bug in setfont that is triggered when compiling with GCC-4.0.3: 

patch -Np1 -i ../kbd-1.12-gcc4_fixes-1.patch

Prepare Kbd for compilation: 

./configure --datadir=/lib/kbd

The meaning of the configure options:

--datadir=/lib/kbd

This option puts keyboard layout data in a directory that will always be on the root partition instead of the default /usr/share/kbd.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Note

For some languages (e.g., Belarusian) the Kbd package doesn't provide a useful keymap where the stock “by” keymap assumes the ISO-8859-5 encoding, and the CP1251 keymap is normally used. Users of such languages have to download working keymaps separately.

Some of the scripts in the LFS-Bootscripts package depend on kbd_mode, openvt, and setfont. 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/{kbd_mode,openvt,setfont} /bin

6.42.2. Contents of Kbd

Installed programs: chvt, deallocvt, dumpkeys, fgconsole, getkeycodes, kbd_mode, kbdrate, loadkeys, loadunimap, mapscrn, openvt, psfaddtable (link to psfxtable), psfgettable (link to psfxtable), psfstriptable (link to psfxtable), psfxtable, resizecons, setfont, setkeycodes, setleds, setmetamode, showconsolefont, showkey, unicode_start, and unicode_stop

Short Descriptions

chvt

Changes the foreground virtual terminal

deallocvt

Deallocates unused virtual terminals

dumpkeys

Dumps the keyboard translation tables

fgconsole

Prints the number of the active virtual terminal

getkeycodes

Prints the kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table

kbd_mode

Reports or sets the keyboard mode

kbdrate

Sets the keyboard repeat and delay rates

loadkeys

Loads the keyboard translation tables

loadunimap

Loads the kernel unicode-to-font mapping table

mapscrn

An obsolete program that used to load a user-defined output character mapping table into the console driver; this is now done by setfont

openvt

Starts a program on a new virtual terminal (VT)

psfaddtable

A link to psfxtable

psfgettable

A link to psfxtable

psfstriptable

A link to psfxtable

psfxtable

Handle Unicode character tables for console fonts

resizecons

Changes the kernel idea of the console size

setfont

Changes the Enhanced Graphic Adapter (EGA) and Video Graphics Array (VGA) fonts on the console

setkeycodes

Loads kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries; this is useful if there are unusual keys on the keyboard

setleds

Sets the keyboard flags and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

setmetamode

Defines the keyboard meta-key handling

showconsolefont

Shows the current EGA/VGA console screen font

showkey

Reports the scancodes, keycodes, and ASCII codes of the keys pressed on the keyboard

unicode_start

Puts the keyboard and console in UNICODE mode. Don't use this program unless your keymap file is in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. For other encodings, this utility produces incorrect results.

unicode_stop

Reverts keyboard and console from UNICODE mode

6.43. Less-394

The Less package contains a text file viewer.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.6 MB

6.43.1. Installation of Less

Prepare Less for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc

The meaning of the configure options:

--sysconfdir=/etc

This option tells the programs created by the package to look in /etc for the configuration files.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.43.2. Contents of Less

Installed programs: less, lessecho, and lesskey

Short Descriptions

less

A file viewer or pager; it displays the contents of the given file, letting the user scroll, find strings, and jump to marks

lessecho

Needed to expand meta-characters, such as * and ?, in filenames on Unix systems

lesskey

Used to specify the key bindings for less

6.44. Make-3.80

The Make package contains a program for compiling packages.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 7.8 MB

6.44.1. Installation of Make

Prepare Make for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.44.2. Contents of Make

Installed program: make

Short Descriptions

make

Automatically determines which pieces of a package need to be (re)compiled and then issues the relevant commands

6.45. Man-DB-2.4.3

The Man-DB package contains programs for finding and viewing man pages.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 9 MB

6.45.1. Installation of Man-DB

Three adjustments need to be made to the sources of Man-DB.

The first one changes the location of translated manual pages that come with Man-DB, in order for them to be accessible in both traditional and UTF-8 locales: 

mv man/de{_DE.88591,} &&
mv man/es{_ES.88591,} &&
mv man/it{_IT.88591,} &&
mv man/ja{_JP.eucJP,} &&
sed -i 's,\*_\*,??,' man/Makefile.in

The second change is a sed substitution to delete the “/usr/man” lines in the man_db.conf file to prevent redundant results when using programs such as whatis: 

sed -i '/\t\/usr\/man/d' src/man_db.conf.in

The third change accounts for programs that Man-DB should be able to find at runtime, but that haven't been installed yet: 

cat >>include/manconfig.h.in <<"EOF"
#define WEB_BROWSER "exec /usr/bin/lynx"
#define COL "/usr/bin/col"
#define VGRIND "/usr/bin/vgrind"
#define GRAP "/usr/bin/grap"
EOF

The col program is a part of the Util-linux package, lynx is a text-based web browser (see BLFS for installation instructions), vgrind converts program sources to Groff input, and grap is useful for typesetting graphs in Groff documents. The vgrind and grap programs are not normally needed for viewing manual pages. They are not part of LFS or BLFS, but you should be able to install them yourself after finishing LFS if you wish to do so.

Prepare Man-DB for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-mb-groff --disable-setuid

The meaning of the configure options:

--enable-mb-groff

This tells the man program to use the “ascii8” and “nippon” Groff devices for formatting non-ISO-8859-1 manual pages.

--disable-setuid

This disables making the man program setuid to user man.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Some packages provide UTF-8 man pages which this version of man is unable to display. The following script will allow some of these to be converted into the expected encodings shown in the table below. Man-DB expects the manual pages to be in the encodings in the table, and will convert them as necessary to the actual locale encoding when it displays them, so that they will display in both UTF-8 and traditional locales. Because this script is intended for limited use during the system build, for public data, we will not bother with error checking, nor use a non-predictable temporary file name. 

cat >>convert-mans <<"EOF"
#!/bin/sh -e
FROM="$1"
TO="$2"
shift ; shift
while [ $# -gt 0 ]
do
        FILE="$1"
        shift
        iconv -f "$FROM" -t "$TO" "$FILE" >.tmp.iconv
        mv .tmp.iconv "$FILE"
done
EOF
install -m755 convert-mans  /usr/bin

Additional information regarding the compression of man and info pages can be found in the BLFS book at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/cvs/postlfs/compressdoc.html.

6.45.2. Non-English Manual Pages in LFS

Linux distributions have different policies concerning the character encoding in which manual pages are stored in the filesystem. E.g., RedHat stores all manual pages in UTF-8, while Debian uses language-specific (mostly 8-bit) encodings. This leads to incompatibility of packages with manual pages designed for different distributions.

LFS uses the same conventions as Debian. This was chosen because Man-DB does not understand man pages stored in UTF-8. And, for our purposes, Man-DB is preferable to Man as it works without extra configuration in any locale. Lastly, as of now, there is no fully-working implementation of the RedHat convention. RedHat's groff is known to misformat text.

The relationship between language codes and the expected encoding of manual pages is listed below. Man-DB automatically converts them to the locale encoding while viewing.

Table 6.1. Expected character encoding of manual pages

Language (code) Encoding
Danish (da) ISO-8859-1
German (de) ISO-8859-1
English (en) ISO-8859-1
Spanish (es) ISO-8859-1
Finnish (fi) ISO-8859-1
French (fr) ISO-8859-1
Irish (ga) ISO-8859-1
Galician (gl) ISO-8859-1
Indonesian (id) ISO-8859-1
Icelandic (is) ISO-8859-1
Italian (it) ISO-8859-1
Dutch (nl) ISO-8859-1
Norwegian (no) ISO-8859-1
Portuguese (pt) ISO-8859-1
Swedish (sv) ISO-8859-1
Czech (cs) ISO-8859-2
Croatian (hr) ISO-8859-2
Hungarian (hu) ISO-8859-2
Japanese (ja) EUC-JP
Korean (ko) EUC-KR
Polish (pl) ISO-8859-2
Russian (ru) KOI8-R
Slovak (sk) ISO-8859-2
Turkish (tr) ISO-8859-9

Note

Manual pages in languages not in the list are not supported. Norwegian doesn't work now because of the transition from no_NO to nb_NO locale, and Korean is non-functional because of the incomplete Groff patch.

If upstream distributes the manual pages in the same encoding as Man-DB expects, the manual pages can be copied to /usr/share/man/<language code>. E.g., French manual pages (http://ccb.club.fr/man/man-fr-1.58.0.tar.bz2) can be installed with the following command: 

mkdir -p /usr/share/man/fr &&
cp -rv man? /usr/share/man/fr

If upstream distributes manual pages in UTF-8 (i.e., “for RedHat”) instead of the encoding listed in the table above, they have to be converted from UTF-8 to the encoding listed in the table before installation. This can be achieved with convert-mans, e.g., Spanish manual pages ( http://ditec.um.es/~piernas/manpages-es/man-pages-es-1.55.tar.bz2) can be installed with the following commands: 

mv man7/iso_8859-7.7{,X}
convert-mans UTF-8 ISO-8859-1 man?/*.?
mv man7/iso_8859-7.7{X,}
make install

Note

The need to exclude the man7/iso_8859-7.7 file from the conversion process because it is already in ISO-8859-1 is a packaging bug in man-pages-es-1.55. Future versions should not require this workaround.

6.45.3. Contents of Man-DB

Installed programs: accessdb, apropos, catman, convert-mans,lexgrog, man, mandb, manpath, whatis, and zsoelim

Short Descriptions

accessdb

Dumps the whatis database contents in human-readable form

apropos

Searches the whatis database and displays the short descriptions of system commands that contain a given string

catman

Creates or updates the pre-formatted manual pages

convert-mans

Reformat man pages so that Man-DB can display them

lexgrog

Displays one-line summary information about a given manual page

man

Formats and displays the requested manual page

mandb

Creates or updates the whatis database

manpath

Displays the contents of $MANPATH or (if $MANPATH is not set) a suitable search path based on the settings in man.conf and the user's environment

whatis

Searches the whatis database and displays the short descriptions of system commands that contain the given keyword as a separate word

zsoelim

Reads files and replaces lines of the form .so file by the contents of the mentioned file

6.46. Mktemp-1.5

The Mktemp package contains programs used to create secure temporary files in shell scripts.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 0.4 MB

6.46.1. Installation of Mktemp

Many scripts still use the deprecated tempfile program, which has functionality similar to mktemp. Patch Mktemp to include a tempfile wrapper: 

patch -Np1 -i ../mktemp-1.5-add_tempfile-3.patch

Prepare Mktemp for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-libc

The meaning of the configure options:

--with-libc

This causes the mktemp program to use the mkstemp and mkdtemp functions from the system C library instead of its own implementation of them.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install
make install-tempfile

6.46.2. Contents of Mktemp

Installed programs: mktemp and tempfile

Short Descriptions

mktemp

Creates temporary files in a secure manner; it is used in scripts

tempfile

Creates temporary files in a less secure manner than mktemp; it is installed for backwards-compatibility

6.47. Module-Init-Tools-3.2.2

The Module-Init-Tools package contains programs for handling kernel modules in Linux kernels greater than or equal to version 2.5.47.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 7 MB

6.47.1. Installation of Module-Init-Tools

First correct a potential problem when modules are specified using regular expressions: 

patch -Np1 -i ../module-init-tools-3.2.2-modprobe-1.patch

Issue the following commands to perform the tests (note that the make distclean command is required to clean up the source tree, as the source gets recompiled as part of the testing process): 

./configure &&
make check &&
make distclean

Prepare Module-Init-Tools for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/ --enable-zlib

Compile the package: 

make

Install the package: 

make INSTALL=install install

The meaning of the make parameter:

INSTALL=install

Normally, make install will not install the binaries if they already exist. This option overrides that behavior by calling install instead of using the default wrapper script.

6.47.2. Contents of Module-Init-Tools

Installed programs: depmod, generate-modprobe.conf, insmod, insmod.static, lsmod, modinfo, modprobe, and rmmod

Short Descriptions

depmod

Creates a dependency file based on the symbols it finds in the existing set of modules; this dependency file is used by modprobe to automatically load the required modules

generate-modprobe.conf

Creates a modprobe.conf file from an existing 2.2 or 2.4 module setup

insmod

Installs a loadable module in the running kernel

insmod.static

A statically compiled version of insmod

lsmod

Lists currently loaded modules

modinfo

Examines an object file associated with a kernel module and displays any information that it can glean

modprobe

Uses a dependency file, created by depmod, to automatically load relevant modules

rmmod

Unloads modules from the running kernel

6.48. Patch-2.5.4

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: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 1.6 MB

6.48.1. Installation of Patch

Prepare Patch for compilation. 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.48.2. Contents of Patch

Installed program: patch

Short Descriptions

patch

Modifies files according to a patch file. A patch file is normally a difference listing created with the diff program. By applying these differences to the original files, patch creates the patched versions.

6.49. Psmisc-22.2

The Psmisc package contains programs for displaying information about running processes.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB

6.49.1. Installation of Psmisc

Prepare Psmisc for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=""

The meaning of the configure options:

--exec-prefix=""

This ensures that the Psmisc binaries will install into /bin instead of /usr/bin. This is the correct location according to the FHS, because some of the Psmisc binaries are used by the LFS-Bootscripts package.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

There is no reason for the pstree and pstree.x11 programs to reside in /bin. Therefore, move them to /usr/bin: 

mv -v /bin/pstree* /usr/bin

By default, Psmisc's pidof program is not installed. This usually is not a problem because it is installed later in the Sysvinit package, which provides a better pidof program. If Sysvinit will not be used for a particular system, complete the installation of Psmisc by creating the following symlink: 

ln -sv killall /bin/pidof

6.49.2. Contents of Psmisc

Installed programs: fuser, killall, 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

oldfuser

Reports the Process IDs (PIDs) of processes that use the given files or file systems

pstree

Displays running processes as a tree

pstree.x11

Same as pstree, except that it waits for confirmation before exiting

6.50. Shadow-4.0.15

The Shadow package contains programs for handling passwords in a secure way.

Approximate build time: 0.3 SBU
Required disk space: 18.6 MB

6.50.1. 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.

Prepare Shadow for compilation: 

./configure --libdir=/lib --enable-shared --without-selinux

The meaning of the configure options:

--without-selinux

Support for selinux is enabled by default, but selinux is not built in a base LFS system. The configure script will fail if this option is not used.

Disable the installation of the groups program and its man pages, as Coreutils provides a better version: 

sed -i 's/groups$(EXEEXT) //' src/Makefile
find man -name Makefile -exec sed -i '/groups/d' {} \;

Disable the installation of Chinese and Korean manual pages, since Man-DB cannot format them properly: 

sed -i -e 's/ ko//' -e 's/ zh_CN zh_TW//' man/Makefile

Shadow supplies other manual pages in a UTF-8 encoding. Man-DB can display these in the recommended encodings by using the convert-mans script which we installed. 

 for i in de es fi fr id it pt_BR; do
    convert-mans UTF-8 ISO-8859-1 man/${i}/*.?
done

for i in cs hu pl; do
    convert-mans UTF-8 ISO-8859-2 man/${i}/*.?
done

convert-mans UTF-8 EUC-JP man/ja/*.?
convert-mans UTF-8 KOI8-R man/ru/*.?
convert-mans UTF-8 ISO-8859-9 man/tr/*.?

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

Shadow uses two files to configure authentication settings for the system. Install these two configuration files: 

cp -v etc/{limits,login.access} /etc

Instead of using the default crypt method, use the more secure MD5 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. Both of these can be accomplished by changing the relevant configuration file while copying it to its destination: 

sed -e's@#MD5_CRYPT_ENAB.no@MD5_CRYPT_ENAB yes@' \
    -e 's@/var/spool/mail@/var/mail@' \
    etc/login.defs > /etc/login.defs

Note

If you built Shadow with Cracklib support, run the following: 

sed -i 's@DICTPATH.*@DICTPATH\t/lib/cracklib/pw_dict@' \
    /etc/login.defs

Move a misplaced program to its proper location: 

mv -v /usr/bin/passwd /bin

Move Shadow's libraries to more appropriate locations: 

mv -v /lib/libshadow.*a /usr/lib
rm -v /lib/libshadow.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/libshadow.so.0 /usr/lib/libshadow.so

The -D option of the useradd program requires the /etc/default directory for it to work properly: 

mkdir -v /etc/default

6.50.2. 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

6.50.3. Setting the root password

Choose a password for user root and set it by running: 

passwd root

6.50.4. Contents of Shadow

Installed programs: chage, chfn, chgpasswd, chpasswd, chsh, expiry, faillog, gpasswd, groupadd, groupdel, 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 libraries: libshadow.{a,so}

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

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

libshadow

Contains functions used by most programs in this package

6.51. Sysklogd-1.4.1

The Sysklogd package contains programs for logging system messages, such as those given by the kernel when unusual things happen.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 0.6 MB

6.51.1. Installation of Sysklogd

The following patch fixes various issues, including a problem building Sysklogd with Linux 2.6 series kernels: 

patch -Np1 -i ../sysklogd-1.4.1-fixes-1.patch

The following patch makes sysklogd treat bytes in the 0x80--0x9f range literally in the messages being logged, instead of replacing them with octal codes. Unpatched sysklogd would damage messages in the UTF-8 encoding: 

patch -Np1 -i ../sysklogd-1.4.1-8bit-1.patch

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.51.2. Configuring Sysklogd

Create a new /etc/syslog.conf file by running the following: 

cat > /etc/syslog.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/syslog.conf

auth,authpriv.* -/var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none -/var/log/sys.log
daemon.* -/var/log/daemon.log
kern.* -/var/log/kern.log
mail.* -/var/log/mail.log
user.* -/var/log/user.log
*.emerg *

# End /etc/syslog.conf
EOF

6.51.3. Contents of Sysklogd

Installed programs: klogd and syslogd

Short Descriptions

klogd

A system daemon for intercepting and logging kernel messages

syslogd

Logs the messages that system programs offer for logging. Every logged message contains at least a date stamp and a hostname, and normally the program's name too, but that depends on how trusting the logging daemon is told to be

6.52. Sysvinit-2.86

The Sysvinit package contains programs for controlling the startup, running, and shutdown of the system.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 1 MB

6.52.1. Installation of Sysvinit

When run-levels are changed (for example, when halting the system), init sends termination signals to those processes that init itself started and that should not be running in the new run-level. While doing this, init outputs messages like “Sending processes the TERM signal” which seem to imply that it is sending these signals to all currently running processes. To avoid this misinterpretation, modify the source so that these messages read like “Sending processes started by init the TERM signal” instead: 

sed -i 's@Sending processes@& started by init@g' \
    src/init.c

Compile the package: 

make -C src

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make -C src install

6.52.2. Configuring Sysvinit

Create a new file /etc/inittab by running the following: 

cat > /etc/inittab << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/inittab

id:3:initdefault:

si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 0
l1:S1:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 6

ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t1 -a -r now

su:S016:once:/sbin/sulogin

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty1 9600
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty2 9600
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty3 9600
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty4 9600
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty5 9600
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty6 9600

# End /etc/inittab
EOF

6.52.3. Contents of Sysvinit

Installed programs: bootlogd, halt, init, killall5, last, lastb (link to last), mesg, mountpoint, pidof (link to killall5), poweroff (link to halt), reboot (link to halt), runlevel, shutdown, sulogin, telinit (link to init), utmpdump, and wall

Short Descriptions

bootlogd

Logs boot messages to a log file

halt

Normally invokes shutdown with the -h option, except when already in run-level 0, then it tells the kernel to halt the system; it notes in the file /var/log/wtmp that the system is being brought down

init

The first process to be started when the kernel has initialized the hardware which takes over the boot process and starts all the proceses it is instructed to

killall5

Sends a signal to all processes, except the processes in its own session so it will not kill the shell running the script that called it

last

Shows which users last logged in (and out), searching back through the /var/log/wtmp file; it also shows system boots, shutdowns, and run-level changes

lastb

Shows the failed login attempts, as logged in /var/log/btmp

mesg

Controls whether other users can send messages to the current user's terminal

mountpoint

Checks if the directory is a mountpoint

pidof

Reports the PIDs of the given programs

poweroff

Tells the kernel to halt the system and switch off the computer (see halt)

reboot

Tells the kernel to reboot the system (see halt)

runlevel

Reports the previous and the current run-level, as noted in the last run-level record in /var/run/utmp

shutdown

Brings the system down in a secure way, signaling all processes and notifying all logged-in users

sulogin

Allows root to log in; it is normally invoked by init when the system goes into single user mode

telinit

Tells init which run-level to change to

utmpdump

Displays the content of the given login file in a more user-friendly format

wall

Writes a message to all logged-in users

6.53. Tar-1.15.1

The Tar package contains an archiving program.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 13.7 MB

6.53.1. Installation of Tar

Apply a patch to fix some issues with the test suite when using GCC-4.0.3: 

patch -Np1 -i ../tar-1.15.1-gcc4_fix_tests-1.patch

Tar has a bug when the -S option is used with files larger than 4 GB. The following patch properly fixes this issue: 

patch -Np1 -i ../tar-1.15.1-sparse_fix-1.patch

Recent versions of Tar are vulnerable to a buffer overflow from specially crafted archives. The following patch addresses this: 

patch -Np1 -i ../tar-1.15.1-security_fixes-1.patch

Prepare Tar for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin --libexecdir=/usr/sbin

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

6.53.2. Contents of Tar

Installed programs: rmt and tar

Short Descriptions

rmt

Remotely manipulates a magnetic tape drive through an interprocess communication connection

tar

Creates, extracts files from, and lists the contents of archives, also known as tarballs

6.54. Texinfo-4.8

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

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

6.54.1. Installation of Texinfo

The info program makes assumptions such as that a string occupies the same number of character cells on the screen and bytes in memory and that one can break the string anywhere, which fail in UTF-8 based locales. The patch below makes them valid by falling back to English messages when a multibyte locale is in use: 

patch -Np1 -i ../texinfo-4.8-multibyte-1.patch

Texinfo allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files. Apply the following patch to fix this: 

patch -Np1 -i ../texinfo-4.8-tempfile_fix-2.patch

Prepare Texinfo for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package: 

make install

Optionally, install the components belonging in a TeX installation: 

make TEXMF=/usr/share/texmf install-tex

The meaning of the make parameter:

TEXMF=/usr/share/texmf

The TEXMF makefile variable holds the location of the root of the TeX tree if, for example, a TeX package will be installed later.

The Info documentation system uses a plain text file to hold its list of menu entries. The file is located at /usr/share/info/dir. Unfortunately, due to occasional problems in the Makefiles of various packages, it can sometimes get out of sync with the info pages installed on the system. If the /usr/share/info/dir file ever needs to be recreated, the following optional commands will accomplish the task: 

cd /usr/share/info
rm dir
for f in *
do install-info $f dir 2>/dev/null
done

6.54.2. Contents of Texinfo

Installed programs: info, infokey, install-info, makeinfo, texi2dvi, texi2pdf, and texindex

Short Descriptions

info

Used to read info pages which are similar to man pages, but often go much deeper than just explaining all the available command line options. For example, compare man bison and info bison.

infokey

Compiles a source file containing Info customizations into a binary format

install-info

Used to install info pages; it updates entries in the info index file

makeinfo

Translates the given Texinfo source documents into info pages, plain text, or HTML

texi2dvi

Used to format the given Texinfo document into a device-independent file that can be printed

texi2pdf

Used to format the given Texinfo document into a Portable Document Format (PDF) file

texindex

Used to sort Texinfo index files

6.55. Udev-096

The Udev package contains programs for dynamic creation of device nodes.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 6.8 MB

6.55.1. Installation of Udev

The udev-config tarball contains LFS-specific files used to configure Udev. Unpack it into the Udev source directory: 

tar xf ../udev-config-6.2.tar.bz2

Create some devices and directories that Udev cannot handle due to them being required very early in the boot process: 

install -dv /lib/{firmware,udev/devices/{pts,shm}}
mknod -m0666 /lib/udev/devices/null c 1 3
ln -sv /proc/self/fd /lib/udev/devices/fd
ln -sv /proc/self/fd/0 /lib/udev/devices/stdin
ln -sv /proc/self/fd/1 /lib/udev/devices/stdout
ln -sv /proc/self/fd/2 /lib/udev/devices/stderr
ln -sv /proc/kcore /lib/udev/devices/core

Compile the package: 

make EXTRAS="extras/ata_id extras/cdrom_id extras/edd_id \
            extras/firmware extras/floppy extras/path_id \
            extras/scsi_id extras/usb_id extras/volume_id"

The meaning of the make option:

EXTRAS=...

This builds several helper binaries that can aid in writing custom Udev rules.

To test the results, issue: make test.

Note that the Udev testsuite will produce numerous messages in the host system's logs. These are harmless and can be ignored.

Install the package: 

make DESTDIR=/ \
    EXTRAS="extras/ata_id extras/cdrom_id extras/edd_id \
            extras/firmware extras/floppy extras/path_id \
            extras/scsi_id extras/usb_id extras/volume_id" install

The meaning of the make parameter:

DESTDIR=/

This prevents the Udev build process from killing any udevd processes that may be running on the host system.

Udev has to be configured in order to work properly, as it does not install any configuration files by default. Install the LFS-specific configuration files: 

cp -v udev-config-6.2/[0-9]* /etc/udev/rules.d/

Install the documentation that explains how to create Udev rules: 

install -m644 -D -v docs/writing_udev_rules/index.html \
    /usr/share/doc/udev-096/index.html

6.55.2. Contents of Udev

Installed programs: ata_id, cdrom_id, create_floppy_devices, edd_id, firmware_helper, path_id, scsi_id, udevcontrol, udevd, udevinfo, udevmonitor, udevsettle, udevtest, udevtrigger, usb_id, vol_id, and write_cd_aliases
Installed directory: /etc/udev

Short Descriptions

ata_id

Provides Udev with a unique string and additional information (uuid, label) for an ATA drive

cdrom_id

Provides Udev with the capabilities of a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive

create_floppy_devices

Creates all possible floppy devices based on the CMOS type

edd_id

Provides Udev with the EDD ID for a BIOS disk drive

firmware_helper

Uploads firmware to devices

path_id

Provide the shortest possible unique hardware path to a device

scsi_id

Provides Udev with a unique SCSI identifier based on the data returned from sending a SCSI INQUIRY command to the specified device

udevcontrol

Configures a number of options for the running udevd daemon, such as the log level.

udevd

A daemon that listens for uevents on the netlink socket, creates devices and runs the configured external programs in response to these uevents

udevinfo

Allows users to query the Udev database for information on any device currently present on the system; it also provides a way to query any device in the sysfs tree to help create udev rules

udevmonitor

Prints the event received from the kernel and the environment which Udev sends out after rule processing

udevsettle

Watches the Udev event queue and exits if all current uevents have been handled

udevtest

Simulates a uevent for the given device, and prints out the name of the node the real udevd would have created, or the name of the renamed network interface

udevtrigger

Triggers kernel device uevents to be replayed

usb_id

Provides Udev with information about USB devices

vol_id

Provides Udev with the label and uuid of a filesystem

/etc/udev

Contains Udev configuation files, device permissions, and rules for device naming

6.56. Util-linux-2.12r

The Util-linux package contains miscellaneous utility programs. Among them are utilities for handling file systems, consoles, partitions, and messages.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 17.2 MB

6.56.1. 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 's@etc/adjtime@var/lib/hwclock/adjtime@g' \
    hwclock/hwclock.c
mkdir -p /var/lib/hwclock

6.56.2. Installation of Util-linux

Util-linux fails to compile against newer versions of Linux-Libc-Headers. The following patch properly fixes this issue: 

patch -Np1 -i ../util-linux-2.12r-cramfs-1.patch

Prepare Util-linux for compilation: 

./configure

Compile the package: 

make HAVE_KILL=yes HAVE_SLN=yes

The meaning of the make parameters:

HAVE_KILL=yes

This prevents the kill program (already installed by Procps) from being built and installed again.

HAVE_SLN=yes

This prevents the sln program (a statically linked version of ln already installed by Glibc) from being built and installed again.

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make HAVE_KILL=yes HAVE_SLN=yes install

6.56.3. Contents of Util-linux

Installed programs: agetty, arch, blockdev, cal, cfdisk, chkdupexe, col, colcrt, colrm, column, ctrlaltdel, cytune, ddate, dmesg, elvtune, fdformat, fdisk, flock, fsck.cramfs, fsck.minix, getopt, hexdump, hwclock, ipcrm, ipcs, isosize, line, logger, look, losetup, mcookie, mkfs, mkfs.bfs, mkfs.cramfs, mkfs.minix, mkswap, more, mount, namei, pg, pivot_root, ramsize (link to rdev), raw, rdev, readprofile, rename, renice, rev, rootflags (link to rdev), script, setfdprm, setsid, setterm, sfdisk, swapoff (link to swapon), swapon, tailf, tunelp, ul, umount, vidmode (link to rdev), whereis, and write

Short Descriptions

agetty

Opens a tty port, prompts for a login name, and then invokes the login program

arch

Reports the machine's architecture

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

chkdupexe

Finds duplicate executables

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

ddate

Gives the Discordian date or converts the given Gregorian date to a Discordian one

dmesg

Dumps the kernel boot messages

elvtune

Tunes the performance and interactivity of a block device

fdformat

Low-level formats a floppy disk

flock

Acquires a file lock and then executes a command with the lock held

fdisk

Manipulates the partition table of the given device

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

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

ipcrm

Removes the given Inter-Process Communication (IPC) resource

ipcs

Provides IPC status information

isosize

Reports the size of an iso9660 file system

line

Copies a single line

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

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

namei

Shows the symbolic links in the given pathnames

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

ramsize

Sets the size of the RAM disk in a bootable image

raw

Used to bind a Linux raw character device to a block device

rdev

Queries and sets the root device, among other things, in a bootable image

readprofile

Reads kernel profiling information

rename

Renames the given files, replacing a given string with another

renice

Alters the priority of running processes

rev

Reverses the lines of a given file

rootflags

Sets the rootflags in a bootable image

script

Makes a typescript of a terminal session

setfdprm

Sets user-provided floppy disk parameters

setsid

Runs the given program in a new session

setterm

Sets terminal attributes

sfdisk

A disk partition table manipulator

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

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

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

vidmode

Sets the video mode in a bootable image

whereis

Reports the location of the binary, source, and man page for the given command

write

Sends a message to the given user if that user has not disabled receipt of such messages

6.57. Vim-7.0

The Vim package contains a powerful text editor.

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 47.4 MB

Alternatives to Vim

If you prefer another editor—such as Emacs, Joe, or Nano—please refer to http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/editors.html for suggested installation instructions.

6.57.1. Installation of Vim

First, unpack both vim-7.0.tar.bz2 and (optionally) vim-7.0-lang.tar.gz archives into the same directory. Then, patch Vim with several fixes from upstream developers since the initial release of Vim-7.0: 

patch -Np1 -i ../vim-7.0-fixes-7.patch

This version of Vim installs translated man pages and places them into directories that will not be searched by Man-DB. Patch Vim so that it installs its man pages into searchable directories and ultimately allows Man-DB to transcode the page into the desired format at run-time: 

patch -Np1 -i ../vim-7.0-mandir-1.patch

There is an issue introduced by one of the upstream patches that creates a problem downloading spellfiles via HTTP. Until this is updated by the developers, the following patch fixes the problem: 

patch -Np1 -i ../vim-7.0-spellfile-1.patch

Finally, change the default location of the vimrc configuration file to /etc: 

echo '#define SYS_VIMRC_FILE "/etc/vimrc"' >> src/feature.h

Now prepare Vim for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-multibyte

The meaning of the configure options:

--enable-multibyte

This switch enables support for editing files in multibyte character encodings. This is needed if using a locale with a multibyte character set. This switch is also helpful to be able to edit text files initially created in Linux distributions like Fedora Core that use UTF-8 as a default character set.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: make test. However, this test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen, which can cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. This can be resolved by redirecting the output to a log file.

Install the package: 

make install

In UTF-8 locales, the vimtutor program tries to convert the tutorials from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8. Since some tutorials are not in ISO-8859-1, the text in them is thus made unreadable. If you unpacked the vim-7.0-lang.tar.gz archive and are going to use a UTF-8 based locale, remove non-ISO-8859-1 tutorials. An English tutorial will be used instead. 

rm -f /usr/share/vim/vim70/tutor/tutor.{gr,pl,ru,sk}
rm -f /usr/share/vim/vim70/tutor/tutor.??.*

Many users are used to using vi instead of vim. To allow execution of vim when users habitually enter vi, create a symlink for both the binary and the man page in the provided languages: 

ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
for L in "" fr it pl ru; do
    ln -sv vim.1 /usr/share/man/$L/man1/vi.1
done

By default, Vim's documentation is installed in /usr/share/vim. The following symlink allows the documentation to be accessed via /usr/share/doc/vim-7.0, making it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages: 

ln -sv ../vim/vim70/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-7.0

If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS system, it may be necessary to recompile Vim after installing X. Vim comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some additional libraries to be installed. For more information on this process, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page in the BLFS book at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/editors.html#postlfs-editors-vim.

6.57.2. Configuring Vim

By default, vim runs in vi-incompatible mode. This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The “nocompatible” setting is included below to highlight the fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would change to “compatible” mode that it should be the first setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default vim configuration file by running the following: 

cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
" Begin /etc/vimrc

set nocompatible
set backspace=2
syntax on
if (&term == "iterm") || (&term == "putty")
  set background=dark
endif

" End /etc/vimrc
EOF

The set nocompatible makes vim behave in a more useful way (the default) than the vi-compatible manner. Remove the “no” to keep the old vi behavior. The set backspace=2 allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of insert. The syntax on enables vim's syntax highlighting. Finally, the if statement with the set background=dark corrects vim's guess about the background color of some terminal emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the black background of these programs.

Documentation for other available options can be obtained by running the following command: 

vim -c ':options'

Note

By default, Vim only installs spell files for the English language. To install spell files for your preferred language, download the *.spl and optionally, the *.sug files for your language and character encoding from ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/ and and save them to /usr/share/vim/vim70/spell/.

To use these spell files, some configuration in /etc/vimrc is needed, e.g.: 

set spelllang=en,ru
set spell

For more information, see the appropriate README file located at the the URL above.

6.57.3. Contents of Vim

Installed programs: efm_filter.pl, efm_perl.pl, ex (link to vim), less.sh, mve.awk, pltags.pl, ref, rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), shtags.pl, tcltags, vi (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vim132, vim2html.pl, vimdiff (link to vim), vimm, vimspell.sh, vimtutor, and xxd

Short Descriptions

efm_filter.pl

A filter for creating an error file that can be read by vim

efm_perl.pl

Reformats the error messages of the Perl interpreter for use with the “quickfix” mode of vim

ex

Starts vim in ex mode

less.sh

A script that starts vim with less.vim

mve.awk

Processes vim errors

pltags.pl

Creates a tags file for Perl code for use by vim

ref

Checks the spelling of arguments

rview

Is a restricted version of view; no shell commands can be started and view cannot be suspended

rvim

Is a restricted version of vim; no shell commands can be started and vim cannot be suspended

shtags.pl

Generates a tags file for Perl scripts

tcltags

Generates a tags file for TCL code

view

Starts vim in read-only mode

vi

Link to vim

vim

Is the editor

vim132

Starts vim with the terminal in 132-column mode

vim2html.pl

Converts Vim documentation to HypterText Markup Language (HTML)

vimdiff

Edits two or three versions of a file with vim and show differences

vimm

Enables the DEC locator input model on a remote terminal

vimspell.sh

Spell checks a file and generates the syntax statements necessary to highlight in vim. This script requires the old Unix spell command, which is provided neither in LFS nor in BLFS

vimtutor

Teaches the basic keys and commands of vim

xxd

Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching

6.58. About Debugging Symbols

Most programs and libraries are, by default, compiled with debugging symbols included (with gcc's -g option). This means that when debugging a program or library that was compiled with debugging information included, the debugger can provide not only memory addresses, but also the names of the routines and variables.

However, the inclusion of these debugging symbols enlarges a program or library significantly. The following is an example of the amount of space these symbols occupy:

  • A bash binary with debugging symbols: 1200 KB

  • A bash binary without debugging symbols: 480 KB

  • Glibc and GCC files (/lib and /usr/lib) with debugging symbols: 87 MB

  • Glibc and GCC files without debugging symbols: 16 MB

Sizes may vary depending on which compiler and C library were used, but when comparing programs with and without debugging symbols, the difference will usually be a factor between two and five.

Because most users will never use a debugger on their system software, a lot of disk space can be regained by removing these symbols. The next section shows how to strip all debugging symbols from the programs and libraries. Additional information on system optimization can be found at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/optimization.txt.

6.59. Stripping Again

If the intended user is not a programmer and does not plan to do any debugging on the system software, the system size can be decreased by about 90 MB by removing the debugging symbols from binaries and libraries. This causes no inconvenience other than not being able to debug the software fully anymore.

Most people who use the command mentioned below do not experience any difficulties. However, it is easy to make a typo and render the new system unusable, so before running the strip command, it is a good idea to make a backup of the LFS system in its current state.

Before performing the stripping, take special care to ensure that none of the binaries that are about to be stripped are running. If unsure whether the user entered chroot with the command given in Section 6.4, “Entering the Chroot Environment,” first exit from chroot: 

logout

Then reenter it with: 

chroot $LFS /tools/bin/env -i \
    HOME=/root TERM=$TERM PS1='\u:\w\$ ' \
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin \
    /tools/bin/bash --login

Now the binaries and libraries can be safely stripped: 

/tools/bin/find /{,usr/}{bin,lib,sbin} -type f \
  -exec /tools/bin/strip --strip-debug '{}' ';'

A large number of files will be reported as having their file format not recognized. These warnings can be safely ignored. These warnings indicate that those files are scripts instead of binaries.

If disk space is very tight, the --strip-all option can be used on the binaries in /{,usr/}{bin,sbin} to gain several more megabytes. Do not use this option on libraries—they will be destroyed.

6.60. Cleaning Up

From now on, when reentering the chroot environment after exiting, use the following modified chroot command: 

chroot "$LFS" /usr/bin/env -i \
    HOME=/root TERM="$TERM" PS1='\u:\w\$ ' \
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin \
    /bin/bash --login

The reason for this is that the programs in /tools are no longer needed. Since they are no longer needed you can delete the /tools directory if so desired.

Note

Removing /tools will also remove the temporary copies of Tcl, Expect, and DejaGNU which were used for running the toolchain tests. If you need these programs later on, they will need to be recompiled and re-installed. The BLFS book has instructions for this (see http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/).

If the virtual kernel file systems have been unmounted, either manually or through a reboot, ensure that the virtual kernel file systems are mounted when reentering the chroot. This process was explained in Section 6.2.2, “Mounting and Populating /dev” and Section 6.2.3, “Mounting Virtual Kernel File Systems”.

Chapter 7. Setting Up System Bootscripts

7.1. Introduction

This chapter details how to install and configure the LFS-Bootscripts package. Most of these scripts will work without modification, but a few require additional configuration files because they deal with hardware-dependent information.

System-V style init scripts are employed in this book because they are widely used. For additional options, a hint detailing the BSD style init setup is available at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/bsd-init.txt. Searching the LFS mailing lists for “depinit” will also offer additional choices.

If using an alternative style of init scripts, skip this chapter and move on to Chapter 8.

7.2. LFS-Bootscripts-6.2

The LFS-Bootscripts package contains a set of scripts to start/stop the LFS system at bootup/shutdown.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 0.4 MB

7.2.1. Installation of LFS-Bootscripts

Install the package: 

make install

7.2.2. Contents of LFS-Bootscripts

Installed scripts: checkfs, cleanfs, console, functions, halt, ifdown, ifup, localnet, mountfs, mountkernfs, network, rc, reboot, sendsignals, setclock, static, swap, sysklogd, template, and udev

Short Descriptions

checkfs

Checks the integrity of the file systems before they are mounted (with the exception of journal and network based file systems)

cleanfs

Removes files that should not be preserved between reboots, such as those in /var/run/ and /var/lock/; it re-creates /var/run/utmp and removes the possibly present /etc/nologin, /fastboot, and /forcefsck files

console

Loads the correct keymap table for the desired keyboard layout; it also sets the screen font

functions

Contains common functions, such as error and status checking, that are used by several bootscripts

halt

Halts the system

ifdown

Assists the network script with stopping network devices

ifup

Assists the network script with starting network devices

localnet

Sets up the system's hostname and local loopback device

mountfs

Mounts all file systems, except ones that are marked noauto or are network based

mountkernfs

Mounts virtual kernel file systems, such as proc

network

Sets up network interfaces, such as network cards, and sets up the default gateway (where applicable)

rc

The master run-level control script; it is responsible for running all the other bootscripts one-by-one, in a sequence determined by the name of the symbolic links being processed

reboot

Reboots the system

sendsignals

Makes sure every process is terminated before the system reboots or halts

setclock

Resets the kernel clock to local time in case the hardware clock is not set to UTC time

static

Provides the functionality needed to assign a static Internet Protocol (IP) address to a network interface

swap

Enables and disables swap files and partitions

sysklogd

Starts and stops the system and kernel log daemons

template

A template to create custom bootscripts for other daemons

udev

Prepares the /dev directory and starts Udev

7.3. How Do These Bootscripts Work?

Linux uses a special booting facility named SysVinit that is based on a concept of run-levels. It can be quite different from one system to another, so it cannot be assumed that because things worked in one particular Linux distribution, they should work the same in LFS too. LFS has its own way of doing things, but it respects generally accepted standards.

SysVinit (which will be referred to as “init” from now on) works using a run-levels scheme. There are seven (numbered 0 to 6) run-levels (actually, there are more run-levels, but they are for special cases and are generally not used. See init(8) for more details), and each one of those corresponds to the actions the computer is supposed to perform when it starts up. The default run-level is 3. Here are the descriptions of the different run-levels as they are implemented:

0: halt the computer
1: single-user mode
2: multi-user mode without networking
3: multi-user mode with networking
4: reserved for customization, otherwise does the same as 3
5: same as 4, it is usually used for GUI login (like X's  xdm or KDE's  kdm)
6: reboot the computer

The command used to change run-levels is init <runlevel>, where <runlevel> is the target run-level. For example, to reboot the computer, a user could issue the init 6 command, which is an alias for the reboot command. Likewise, init 0 is an alias for the halt command.

There are a number of directories under /etc/rc.d that look like rc?.d (where ? is the number of the run-level) and rcsysinit.d, all containing a number of symbolic links. Some begin with a K, the others begin with an S, and all of them have two numbers following the initial letter. The K means to stop (kill) a service and the S means to start a service. The numbers determine the order in which the scripts are run, from 00 to 99—the lower the number the earlier it gets executed. When init switches to another run-level, the appropriate services are either started or stopped, depending on the runlevel chosen.

The real scripts are in /etc/rc.d/init.d. They do the actual work, and the symlinks all point to them. Killing links and starting links point to the same script in /etc/rc.d/init.d. This is because the scripts can be called with different parameters like start, stop, restart, reload, and status. When a K link is encountered, the appropriate script is run with the stop argument. When an S link is encountered, the appropriate script is run with the start argument.

There is one exception to this explanation. Links that start with an S in the rc0.d and rc6.d directories will not cause anything to be started. They will be called with the parameter stop to stop something. The logic behind this is that when a user is going to reboot or halt the system, nothing needs to be started. The system only needs to be stopped.

These are descriptions of what the arguments make the scripts do:

start

The service is started.

stop

The service is stopped.

restart

The service is stopped and then started again.

reload

The configuration of the service is updated. This is used after the configuration file of a service was modified, when the service does not need to be restarted.

status

Tells if the service is running and with which PIDs.

Feel free to modify the way the boot process works (after all, it is your own LFS system). The files given here are an example of how it can be done.

7.4. Device and Module Handling on an LFS System

In Chapter 6, we installed the Udev package. Before we go into the details regarding how this works, a brief history of previous methods of handling devices is in order.

Linux systems in general traditionally use a static device creation method, whereby a great many device nodes are created under /dev (sometimes literally thousands of nodes), regardless of whether the corresponding hardware devices actually exist. This is typically done via a MAKEDEV script, which contains a number of calls to the mknod program with the relevant major and minor device numbers for every possible device that might exist in the world.

Using the Udev method, only those devices which are detected by the kernel get device nodes created for them. Because these device nodes will be created each time the system boots, they will be stored on a tmpfs file system (a virtual file system that resides entirely in system memory). Device nodes do not require much space, so the memory that is used is negligible.

7.4.1. History

In February 2000, a new filesystem called devfs was merged into the 2.3.46 kernel and was made available during the 2.4 series of stable kernels. Although it was present in the kernel source itself, this method of creating devices dynamically never received overwhelming support from the core kernel developers.

The main problem with the approach adopted by devfs was the way it handled device detection, creation, and naming. The latter issue, that of device node naming, was perhaps the most critical. It is generally accepted that if device names are allowed to be configurable, then the device naming policy should be up to a system administrator, not imposed on them by any particular developer(s). The devfs file system also suffers from race conditions that are inherent in its design and cannot be fixed without a substantial revision to the kernel. It has also been marked as deprecated due to a lack of recent maintenance.

With the development of the unstable 2.5 kernel tree, later released as the 2.6 series of stable kernels, a new virtual filesystem called sysfs came to be. The job of sysfs is to export a view of the system's hardware configuration to userspace processes. With this userspace-visible representation, the possibility of seeing a userspace replacement for devfs became much more realistic.

7.4.2. Udev Implementation

7.4.2.1. Sysfs

The sysfs filesystem was mentioned briefly above. One may wonder how sysfs knows about the devices present on a system and what device numbers should be used for them. Drivers that have been compiled into the kernel directly register their objects with sysfs as they are detected by the kernel. For drivers compiled as modules, this registration will happen when the module is loaded. Once the sysfs filesystem is mounted (on /sys), data which the built-in drivers registered with sysfs are available to userspace processes and to udevd for device node creation.

7.4.2.2. Udev Bootscript

The S10udev initscript takes care of creating device nodes when Linux is booted. The script unsets the uevent handler from the default of /sbin/hotplug. This is done because the kernel no longer needs to call out to an external binary. Instead udevd will listen on a netlink socket for uevents that the kernel raises. Next, the bootscript copies any static device nodes that exist in /lib/udev/devices to /dev. This is necessary because some devices, directories, and symlinks are needed before the dynamic device handling processes are available during the early stages of booting a system. Creating static device nodes in /lib/udev/devices also provides an easy workaround for devices that are not supported by the dynamic device handling infrastructure. The bootscript then starts the Udev daemon, udevd, which will act on any uevents it receives. Finally, the bootscript forces the kernel to replay uevents for any devices that have already been registered and then waits for udevd to handle them.

7.4.2.3. Device Node Creation

To obtain the right major and minor number for a device, Udev relies on the information provided by sysfs in /sys. For example, /sys/class/tty/vcs/dev contains the string “7:0”. This string is used by udevd to create a device node with major number 7 and minor 0. The names and permissions of the nodes created under the /dev directory are determined by rules specified in the files within the /etc/udev/rules.d/ directory. These are numbered in a similar fashion to the LFS-Bootscripts package. If udevd can't find a rule for the device it is creating, it will default permissions to 660 and ownership to root:root. Documentation on the syntax of the Udev rules configuration files are available in /usr/share/doc/udev-096/index.html

7.4.2.4. Module Loading

Device drivers compiled as modules may have aliases built into them. Aliases are visible in the output of the modinfo program and are usually related to the bus-specific identifiers of devices supported by a module. For example, the snd-fm801 driver supports PCI devices with vendor ID 0x1319 and device ID 0x0801, and has an alias of “pci:v00001319d00000801sv*sd*bc04sc01i*”. For most devices, the bus driver exports the alias of the driver that would handle the device via sysfs. E.g., the /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:0d.0/modalias file might contain the string “pci:v00001319d00000801sv00001319sd00001319bc04sc01i00”. The rules that LFS installs will cause udevd to call out to /sbin/modprobe with the contents of the MODALIAS uevent environment variable (that should be the same as the contents of the modalias file in sysfs), thus loading all modules whose aliases match this string after wildcard expansion.

In this example, this means that, in addition to snd-fm801, the obsolete (and unwanted) forte driver will be loaded if it is available. See below for ways in which the loading of unwanted drivers can be prevented.

The kernel itself is also able to load modules for network protocols, filesystems and NLS support on demand.

7.4.2.5. Handling Hotpluggable/Dynamic Devices

When you plug in a device, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) MP3 player, the kernel recognizes that the device is now connected and generates a uevent. This uevent is then handled by udevd as described above.

7.4.3. Problems with Loading Modules and Creating Devices

There are a few possible problems when it comes to automatically creating device nodes.

7.4.3.1. A kernel module is not loaded automatically

Udev will only load a module if it has a bus-specific alias and the bus driver properly exports the necessary aliases to sysfs. In other cases, one should arrange module loading by other means. With Linux-2.6.16.27, Udev is known to load properly-written drivers for INPUT, IDE, PCI, USB, SCSI, SERIO and FireWire devices.

To determine if the device driver you require has the necessary support for Udev, run modinfo with the module name as the argument. Now try locating the device directory under /sys/bus and check whether there is a modalias file there.

If the modalias file exists in sysfs, the driver supports the device and can talk to it directly, but doesn't have the alias, it is a bug in the driver. Load the driver without the help from Udev and expect the issue to be fixed later.

If there is no modalias file in the relevant directory under /sys/bus, this means that the kernel developers have not yet added modalias support to this bus type. With Linux-2.6.16.27, this is the case with ISA busses. Expect this issue to be fixed in later kernel versions.

Udev is not intended to load “wrapper” drivers such as snd-pcm-oss and non-hardware drivers such as loop at all.

7.4.3.2. A kernel module is not loaded automatically, and Udev is not intended to load it

If the “wrapper” module only enhances the functionality provided by some other module (e.g., snd-pcm-oss enhances the functionality of snd-pcm by making the sound cards available to OSS applications), configure modprobe to load the wrapper after Udev loads the wrapped module. To do this, add an “install” line in /etc/modprobe.conf. For example: 

install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe -i snd-pcm ; \
    /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; true

If the module in question is not a wrapper and is useful by itself, configure the S05modules bootscript to load this module on system boot. To do this, add the module name to the /etc/sysconfig/modules file on a separate line. This works for wrapper modules too, but is suboptimal in that case.

7.4.3.3. Udev loads some unwanted module

Either don't build the module, or blacklist it in /etc/modprobe.conf file as done with the forte module in the example below: 

blacklist forte

Blacklisted modules can still be loaded manually with the explicit modprobe command.

7.4.3.4. Udev creates a device incorrectly, or makes a wrong symlink

This usually happens if a rule unexpectedly matches a device. For example, a poorly-writen rule can match both a SCSI disk (as desired) and the corresponding SCSI generic device (incorrectly) by vendor. Find the offending rule and make it more specific.

7.4.3.5. Udev rule works unreliably

This may be another manifestation of the previous problem. If not, and your rule uses sysfs attributes, it may be a kernel timing issue, to be fixed in later kernels. For now, you can work around it by creating a rule that waits for the used sysfs attribute and appending it to the /etc/udev/rules.d/10-wait_for_sysfs.rules file. Please notify the LFS Development list if you do so and it helps.

7.4.3.6. Udev does not create a device

Further text assumes that the driver is built statically into the kernel or already loaded as a module, and that you have already checked that Udev doesn't create a misnamed device.

Udev has no information needed to create a device node if a kernel driver does not export its data to sysfs. This is most common with third party drivers from outside the kernel tree. Create a static device node in /lib/udev/devices with the appropriate major/minor numbers (see the file devices.txt inside the kernel documentation or the documentation provided by the third party driver vendor). The static device node will be copied to /dev by the S10udev bootscript.

7.4.3.7. Device naming order changes randomly after rebooting

This is due to the fact that Udev, by design, handles uevents and loads modules in parallel, and thus in an unpredictable order. This will never be “fixed”. You should not rely upon the kernel device names being stable. Instead, create your own rules that make symlinks with stable names based on some stable attributes of the device, such as a serial number or the output of various *_id utilities installed by Udev. See Section 7.12, “Creating custom symlinks to devices” and Section 7.13, “Configuring the network Script” for examples.

7.4.4. Useful Reading

Additional helpful documentation is available at the following sites:

7.5. Configuring the setclock Script

The setclock script reads the time from the hardware clock, also known as the BIOS or the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) clock. If the hardware clock is set to UTC, this script will convert the hardware clock's time to the local time using the /etc/localtime file (which tells the hwclock program which timezone the user is in). There is no way to detect whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC, so this needs to be configured manually.

If you cannot remember whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC, find out by running the hwclock --localtime --show command. This will display what the current time is according to the hardware clock. If this time matches whatever your watch says, then the hardware clock is set to local time. If the output from hwclock is not local time, chances are it is set to UTC time. Verify this by adding or subtracting the proper amount of hours for the timezone to the time shown by hwclock. For example, if you are currently in the MST timezone, which is also known as GMT -0700, add seven hours to the local time.

Change the value of the UTC variable below to a value of 0 (zero) if the hardware clock is not set to UTC time.

Create a new file /etc/sysconfig/clock by running the following: 

cat > /etc/sysconfig/clock << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/clock

UTC=1

# End /etc/sysconfig/clock
EOF

A good hint explaining how to deal with time on LFS is available at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/time.txt. It explains issues such as time zones, UTC, and the TZ environment variable.

7.6. Configuring the Linux Console

This section discusses how to configure the console bootscript that sets up the keyboard map and the console font. If non-ASCII characters (e.g., the copyright sign, the British pound sign and Euro symbol) will not be used and the keyboard is a U.S. one, skip this section. Without the configuration file, the console bootscript will do nothing.

The console script reads the /etc/sysconfig/console file for configuration information. Decide which keymap and screen font will be used. Various language-specific HOWTOs can also help with this, see http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html. If still in doubt, look in the /usr/share/kbd directory for valid keymaps and screen fonts. Read loadkeys(1) and setfont(8) manual pages to determine the correct arguments for these programs.

The /etc/sysconfig/console file should contain lines of the form: VARIABLE="value". The following variables are recognized:

KEYMAP

This variable specifies the arguments for the loadkeys program, typically, the name of keymap to load, e.g., “es”. If this variable is not set, the bootscript will not run the loadkeys program, and the default kernel keymap will be used.

KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS

This (rarely used) variable specifies the arguments for the second call to the loadkeys program. This is useful if the stock keymap is not completely satisfactory and a small adjustment has to be made. E.g., to include the Euro sign into a keymap that normally doesn't have it, set this variable to “euro2”.

FONT

This variable specifies the arguments for the setfont program. Typically, this includes the font name, “-m”, and the name of the application character map to load. E.g., in order to load the “lat1-16” font together with the “8859-1” application character map (as it is appropriate in the USA), set this variable to “lat1-16 -m 8859-1”. If this variable is not set, the bootscript will not run the setfont program, and the default VGA font will be used together with the default application character map.

UNICODE

Set this variable to “1”, “yes” or “true” in order to put the console into UTF-8 mode. This is useful in UTF-8 based locales and harmful otherwise.

LEGACY_CHARSET

For many keyboard layouts, there is no stock Unicode keymap in the Kbd package. The console bootscript will convert an available keymap to UTF-8 on the fly if this variable is set to the encoding of the available non-UTF-8 keymap. Note, however, that dead keys (i.e., keys that don't produce a character by themselves, but put an accent onto a character procuced by the next key; there are no dead keys on the standard US keyboard) and composing (i.e., pressing Ctrl+. A E in order to produce the Æ character) will not work in UTF-8 mode without the special kernel patch. This variable is useful only in UTF-8 mode.

BROKEN_COMPOSE

Set this to “0” if you are going to apply the kernel patch in Chapter 8. Note that you also have to add the character set expected by composition rules in your keymap to the FONT variable after the “-m” switch. This variable is useful only in UTF-8 mode.

Support for compiling the keymap directly into the kernel has been removed because there were reports that it leads to incorrect results.

Some examples:

  • For a non-Unicode setup, only the KEYMAP and FONT variables are generally needed. E.g., for a Polish setup, one would use: 

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

KEYMAP="pl2"
FONT="lat2a-16 -m 8859-2"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console
EOF

  • As mentioned above, it is sometimes necessary to adjust a stock keymap slightly. The following example adds the Euro symbol to the German keymap: 

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

KEYMAP="de-latin1"
KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
FONT="lat0-16 -m 8859-15"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console
EOF

  • The following is a Unicode-enabled example for Bulgarian, where a stock UTF-8 keymap exists and defines no dead keys or composition rules: 

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

UNICODE="1"
KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console
EOF

  • Due to the use of a 512-glyph LatArCyrHeb-16 font in the previous example, bright colors are no longer available on the Linux console unless a framebuffer is used. If one wants to have bright colors without framebuffer and can live without characters not belonging to his language, it is still possible to use a language-specific 256-glyph font, as illustrated below. 

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

UNICODE="1"
KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
FONT="cyr-sun16"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console
EOF

  • The following example illustrates keymap autoconversion from ISO-8859-15 to UTF-8 and enabling dead keys in Unicode mode: 

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

UNICODE="1"
KEYMAP="de-latin1"
KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
LEGACY_CHARSET="iso-8859-15"
BROKEN_COMPOSE="0"
FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16 -m 8859-15"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console
EOF

  • For Chinese, Japanese, Korean and some other languages, the Linux console cannot be configured to display the needed characters. Users who need such languages should install the X Window System, fonts that cover the necessary character ranges, and the proper input method (e.g., SCIM, it supports a wide variety of languages).

Note

The /etc/sysconfig/console file only controls the Linux text console localization. It has nothing to do with setting the proper keyboard layout and terminal fonts in the X Window System, with ssh sessions or with a serial console.

7.7. Configuring the sysklogd script

The sysklogd script invokes the syslogd program with the -m 0 option. This option turns off the periodic timestamp mark that syslogd writes to the log files every 20 minutes by default. If you want to turn on this periodic timestamp mark, edit the sysklogd script and make the changes accordingly. See man syslogd for more information.

7.8. Creating the /etc/inputrc File

The inputrc file handles keyboard mapping for specific situations. This file is the startup file used by Readline — the input-related library — used by Bash and most other shells.

Most people do not need user-specific keyboard mappings so the command below creates a global /etc/inputrc used by everyone who logs in. If you later decide you need to override the defaults on a per-user basis, you can create a .inputrc file in the user's home directory with the modified mappings.

For more information on how to edit the inputrc file, see info bash under the Readline Init File section. info readline is also a good source of information.

Below is a generic global inputrc along with comments to explain what the various options do. Note that comments cannot be on the same line as commands. Create the file using the following command: 

cat > /etc/inputrc << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/inputrc
# Modified by Chris Lynn <roryo@roryo.dynup.net>

# Allow the command prompt to wrap to the next line
set horizontal-scroll-mode Off

# Enable 8bit input
set meta-flag On
set input-meta On

# Turns off 8th bit stripping
set convert-meta Off

# Keep the 8th bit for display
set output-meta On

# none, visible or audible
set bell-style none

# All of the following map the escape sequence of the
# value contained inside the 1st argument to the
# readline specific functions

"\eOd": backward-word
"\eOc": forward-word

# for linux console
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line
"\e[4~": end-of-line
"\e[5~": beginning-of-history
"\e[6~": end-of-history
"\e[3~": delete-char
"\e[2~": quoted-insert

# for xterm
"\eOH": beginning-of-line
"\eOF": end-of-line

# for Konsole
"\e[H": beginning-of-line
"\e[F": end-of-line

# End /etc/inputrc
EOF

7.9. The Bash Shell Startup Files

The shell program /bin/bash (hereafter referred to as “the shell”) uses a collection of startup files to help create an environment to run in. Each file has a specific use and may affect login and interactive environments differently. The files in the /etc directory provide global settings. If an equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override the global settings.

An interactive login shell is started after a successful login, using /bin/login, by reading the /etc/passwd file. An interactive non-login shell is started at the command-line (e.g., [prompt]$/bin/bash). A non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is running. It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and not waiting for user input between commands.

For more information, see info bash under the Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells section.

The files /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile are read when the shell is invoked as an interactive login shell.

The base /etc/profile below sets some environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting them properly results in:

  • The output of programs translated into the native language

  • Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and other classes. This is necessary for bash to properly accept non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English locales

  • The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country

  • Appropriate default paper size

  • Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values

This script also sets the INPUTRC environment variable that makes Bash and Readline use the /etc/inputrc file created earlier.

Replace <ll> below with the two-letter code for the desired language (e.g., “en”) and <CC> with the two-letter code for the appropriate country (e.g., “GB”). <charmap> should be replaced with the canonical charmap for your chosen locale. Optional modifiers such as “@euro” may also be present.

The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running the following command: 

locale -a

Charmaps can have a number of aliases, e.g., “ISO-8859-1” is also referred to as “iso8859-1” and “iso88591”. Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly (e.g., require that “UTF-8” is written as “UTF-8”, not “utf8”), so it is safest in most cases to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine the canonical name, run the following command, where <locale name> is the output given by locale -a for your preferred locale (“en_GB.iso88591” in our example). 

LC_ALL=<locale name> locale charmap

For the “en_GB.iso88591” locale, the above command will print: 

ISO-8859-1

This results in a final locale setting of “en_GB.ISO-8859-1”. It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior to it being added to the Bash startup files: 

LC_ALL=<locale name> locale language
LC_ALL=<locale name> locale charmap
LC_ALL=<locale name> locale int_curr_symbol
LC_ALL=<locale name> locale int_prefix

The above commands should print the language name, the character encoding used by the locale, the local currency, and the prefix to dial before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If any of the commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown below, this means that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 6 or is not supported by the default installation of Glibc. 

locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory

If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using the localedef command, or consider choosing a different locale. Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages from Glibc.

Some packages beyond LFS may also lack support for your chosen locale. One example is the X library (part of the X Window System), which outputs the following error message if the locale does not exactly match one of the character map names in its internal files: 

Warning: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C

In several cases Xlib expects that the character map will be listed in uppercase notation with canonical dashes. For instance, "ISO-8859-1" rather than "iso88591". It is also possible to find an appropriate specification by removing the charmap part of the locale specification. This can be checked by running the locale charmap command in both locales. For example, one would have to change "de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro" to "de_DE@euro" in order to get this locale recognized by Xlib.

Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations. In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale might provide some useful information.

Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the /etc/profile file: 

cat > /etc/profile << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/profile

export LANG=<ll>_<CC>.<charmap><@modifiers>
export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc

# End /etc/profile
EOF

The “C” (default) and “en_US” (the recommended one for United States English users) locales are different. “C” uses the US-ASCII 7-bit character set, and treats bytes with the high bit set as invalid characters. That's why, e.g., the ls command substitutes them with question marks in that locale. Also, an attempt to send mail with such characters from Mutt or Pine results in non-RFC-conforming messages being sent (the charset in the outgoing mail is indicated as “unknown 8-bit”). So you can use the “C” locale only if you are sure that you will never need 8-bit characters.

UTF-8 based locales are not supported well by many programs. E.g., the watch program displays only ASCII characters in UTF-8 locales and has no such restriction in traditional 8-bit locales like en_US. Work is in progress to document and, if possible, fix such problems, see http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/introduction/locale-issues.html.

7.10. Configuring the localnet Script

Part of the job of the localnet script is setting the system's hostname. This needs to be configured in the /etc/sysconfig/network file.

Create the /etc/sysconfig/network file and enter a hostname by running: 

echo "HOSTNAME=<lfs>" > /etc/sysconfig/network

<lfs> needs to be replaced with the name given to the computer. Do not enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) here. That information will be put in the /etc/hosts file in the next section.

7.11. Customizing the /etc/hosts File

If a network card is to be configured, decide on the IP address, fully-qualified domain name (FQDN), and possible aliases for use in the /etc/hosts file. The syntax is: 

IP_address myhost.example.org aliases

Unless the computer is to be visible to the Internet (i.e., there is a registered domain and a valid block of assigned IP addresses—most users do not have this), make sure that the IP address is in the private network IP address range. Valid ranges are: 

Private Network Address Range      Normal Prefix
10.0.0.1 - 10.255.255.254           8
172.x.0.1 - 172.x.255.254           16
192.168.y.1 - 192.168.y.254         24

x can be any number in the range 16-31. y can be any number in the range 0-255.

A valid private IP address could be 192.168.1.1. A valid FQDN for this IP could be lfs.example.org.

Even if not using a network card, a valid FQDN is still required. This is necessary for certain programs to operate correctly.

Create the /etc/hosts file by running: 

cat > /etc/hosts << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/hosts (network card version)

127.0.0.1 localhost
<192.168.1.1> <HOSTNAME.example.org> [alias1] [alias2 ...]

# End /etc/hosts (network card version)
EOF

The <192.168.1.1> and <HOSTNAME.example.org> values need to be changed for specific users or requirements (if assigned an IP address by a network/system administrator and the machine will be connected to an existing network). The optional alias name(s) can be omitted.

If a network card is not going to be configured, create the /etc/hosts file by running: 

cat > /etc/hosts << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/hosts (no network card version)

127.0.0.1 <HOSTNAME.example.org> <HOSTNAME> localhost

# End /etc/hosts (no network card version)
EOF

7.12. Creating custom symlinks to devices

7.12.1. CD-ROM symlinks

Some software that you may want to install later (e.g., various media players) expect the /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd symlinks to exist. Also, it may be convenient to put references to those symlinks into /etc/fstab. For each of your CD-ROM devices, find the corresponding directory under /sys (e.g., this can be /sys/block/hdd) and run a command similar to the following: 

udevtest /block/hdd

Look at the lines containing the output of various *_id programs.

There are two approaches to creating symlinks. The first one is to use the model name and the serial number, the second one is based on the location of the device on the bus. If you are going to use the first approach, create a file similar to the following: 

cat >/etc/udev/rules.d/82-cdrom.rules << EOF

# Custom CD-ROM symlinks
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="SAMSUNG_CD-ROM_SC-148F", \
    ENV{ID_REVISION}=="PS05", SYMLINK+="cdrom"
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="PHILIPS_CDD5301", \
    ENV{ID_SERIAL}=="5VO1306DM00190", SYMLINK+="cdrom1 dvd"

EOF

Note

Although the examples in this book work properly, be aware that udev does not recognize the backslash for line continuation. If modifying udev rules with an editor, be sure to leave each rule on one physical line.

This way, the symlinks will stay correct even if you move the drives to different positions on the IDE bus, but the /dev/cdrom symlink won't be created if you replace the old SAMSUNG CD-ROM with a new drive.

The SUBSYSTEM=="block" key is needed in order to avoid matching SCSI generic devices. Without it, in the case with SCSI CD-ROMs, the symlinks will sometimes point to the correct /dev/srX devices, and sometimes to /dev/sgX, which is wrong.

The second approach yields: 

cat >/etc/udev/rules.d/82-cdrom.rules << EOF

# Custom CD-ROM symlinks
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{ID_TYPE}=="cd", \
    ENV{ID_PATH}=="pci-0000:00:07.1-ide-0:1", SYMLINK+="cdrom"
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{ID_TYPE}=="cd", \
    ENV{ID_PATH}=="pci-0000:00:07.1-ide-1:1", SYMLINK+="cdrom1 dvd"

EOF

This way, the symlinks will stay correct even if you replace drives with different models, but place them to the old positions on the IDE bus. The ENV{ID_TYPE}=="cd" key makes sure that the symlink disappears if you put something other than a CD-ROM in that position on the bus.

Of course, it is possible to mix the two approaches.

7.12.2. Dealing with duplicate devices

As explained in Section 7.4, “Device and Module Handling on an LFS System”, the order in which devices with the same function appear in /dev is essentially random. E.g., if you have a USB web camera and a TV tuner, sometimes /dev/video0 refers to the camera and /dev/video1 refers to the tuner, and sometimes after a reboot the order changes to the opposite one. For all classes of hardware except sound cards and network cards, this is fixable by creating udev rules for custom persistent symlinks. The case of network cards is covered separately in Section 7.13, “Configuring the network Script”, and sound card configuration can be found in BLFS.

For each of your devices that is likely to have this problem (even if the problem doesn't exist in your current Linux distribution), find the corresponding directory under /sys/class or /sys/block. For video devices, this may be /sys/class/video4linux/videoX. Figure out the attributes that identify the device uniquely (usually, vendor and product IDs and/or serial numbers work): 

udevinfo -a -p /sys/class/video4linux/video0

Then write rules that create the symlinks, e.g.: 

cat >/etc/udev/rules.d/83-duplicate_devs.rules << EOF

# Persistent symlinks for webcam and tuner
KERNEL=="video*", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1910", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0d81", \
    SYMLINK+="webcam"
KERNEL=="video*", SYSFS{device}=="0x036f", SYSFS{vendor}=="0x109e", \
    SYMLINK+="tvtuner"

EOF

The result is that /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 devices still refer randomly to the tuner and the web camera (and thus should never be used directly), but there are symlinks /dev/tvtuner and /dev/webcam that always point to the correct device.

More information on writing Udev rules can be found in /usr/share/doc/udev-096/index.html.

7.13. Configuring the network Script

This section only applies if a network card is to be configured.

If a network card will not be used, there is likely no need to create any configuration files relating to network cards. If that is the case, remove the network symlinks from all run-level directories (/etc/rc.d/rc*.d).

7.13.1. Creating stable names for network interfaces

Instructions in this section are optional if you have only one network card.

With Udev and modular network drivers, the network interface numbering is not persistent across reboots by default, because the drivers are loaded in parallel and, thus, in random order. For example, on a computer having two network cards made by Intel and Realtek, the network card manufactured by Intel may become eth0 and the Realtek card becomes eth1. In some cases, after a reboot the cards get renumbered the other way around. To avoid this, create Udev rules that assign stable names to network cards based on their MAC addresses or bus positions.

If you are going to use MAC addresses to identify your network cards, find the addresses with the following command: 

grep -H . /sys/class/net/*/address

For each network card (but not for the loopback interface), invent a descriptive name, such as “realtek”, and create Udev rules similar to the following: 

cat > /etc/udev/rules.d/26-network.rules << EOF
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", SYSFS{address}=="00:e0:4c:12:34:56", \
    NAME="realtek"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", SYSFS{address}=="00:a0:c9:78:9a:bc", \
    NAME="intel"
EOF

Note

Although the examples in this book work properly, be aware that udev does not recognize the backslash for line continuation. If modifying udev rules with an editor, be sure to leave each rule on one physical line.

If you are going to use the bus position as a key, create Udev rules similar to the following: 

cat > /etc/udev/rules.d/26-network.rules << EOF
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", BUS=="pci", ID=="0000:00:0c.0", \
    NAME="realtek"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", BUS=="pci", ID=="0000:00:0d.0", \
    NAME="intel"
EOF

These rules will always rename the network cards to “realtek” and “intel”, independently of the original numbering provided by the kernel (i.e.: the original “eth0” and “eth1” interfaces will no longer exist, unless you put such “descriptive” names in the NAME key). Use the descriptive names from the Udev rules instead of “eth0” in the network interface configuration files below.

Note that the rules above don't work for every setup. For example, MAC-based rules break when bridges or VLANs are used, because bridges and VLANs have the same MAC address as the network card. One wants to rename only the network card interface, not the bridge or VLAN interface, but the example rule matches both. If you use such virtual interfaces, you have two potential solutions. One is to add the DRIVER=="?*" key after SUBSYSTEM=="net" in MAC-based rules which will stop matching the virtual interfaces. This is known to fail with some older Ethernet cards because they don't have the DRIVER variable in the uevent and thus the rule does not match with such cards. Another solution is to switch to rules that use the bus position as a key.

The second known non-working case is with wireless cards using the MadWifi or HostAP drivers, because they create at least two interfaces with the same MAC address and bus position. For example, the Madwifi driver creates both an athX and a wifiX interface where X is a digit. To differentiate these interfaces, add an appropriate KERNEL parameter such as KERNEL=="ath*" after SUBSYSTEM=="net".

There may be other cases where the rules above don't work. Currently, bugs on this topic are still being reported to Linux distributions, and no solution that covers every case is available.

7.13.2. Creating Network Interface Configuration Files

Which interfaces are brought up and down by the network script depends on the files and directories in the /etc/sysconfig/network-devices hierarchy. This directory should contain a sub-directory for each interface to be configured, such as ifconfig.xyz, where “xyz” is a network interface name. Inside this directory would be files defining the attributes to this interface, such as its IP address(es), subnet masks, and so forth.

The following command creates a sample ipv4 file for the eth0 device: 

cd /etc/sysconfig/network-devices &&
mkdir -v ifconfig.eth0 &&
cat > ifconfig.eth0/ipv4 << "EOF"
ONBOOT=yes
SERVICE=ipv4-static
IP=192.168.1.1
GATEWAY=192.168.1.2
PREFIX=24
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
EOF

The values of these variables must be changed in every file to match the proper setup. If the ONBOOT variable is set to “yes” the network script will bring up the Network Interface Card (NIC) during booting of the system. If set to anything but “yes” the NIC will be ignored by the network script and not be brought up.

The SERVICE variable defines the method used for obtaining the IP address. The LFS-Bootscripts package has a modular IP assignment format, and creating additional files in the /etc/sysconfig/network-devices/services directory allows other IP assignment methods. This is commonly used for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which is addressed in the BLFS book.

The GATEWAY variable should contain the default gateway IP address, if one is present. If not, then comment out the variable entirely.

The PREFIX variable needs to contain the number of bits used in the subnet. Each octet in an IP address is 8 bits. If the subnet's netmask is 255.255.255.0, then it is using the first three octets (24 bits) to specify the network number. If the netmask is 255.255.255.240, it would be using the first 28 bits. Prefixes longer than 24 bits are commonly used by DSL and cable-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In this example (PREFIX=24), the netmask is 255.255.255.0. Adjust the PREFIX variable according to your specific subnet.

7.13.3. Creating the /etc/resolv.conf File

If the system is going to be connected to the Internet, it will need some means of Domain Name Service (DNS) name resolution to resolve Internet domain names to IP addresses, and vice versa. This is best achieved by placing the IP address of the DNS server, available from the ISP or network administrator, into /etc/resolv.conf. Create the file by running the following: 

cat > /etc/resolv.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/resolv.conf

domain {<Your Domain Name>}
nameserver <IP address of your primary nameserver>
nameserver <IP address of your secondary nameserver>

# End /etc/resolv.conf
EOF

Replace <IP address of the nameserver> with the IP address of the DNS most appropriate for the setup. There will often be more than one entry (requirements demand secondary servers for fallback capability). If you only need or want one DNS server, remove the second nameserver line from the file. The IP address may also be a router on the local network.

Chapter 8. Making the LFS System Bootable

8.1. Introduction

It is time to make the LFS system bootable. This chapter discusses creating an fstab file, building a kernel for the new LFS system, and installing the GRUB boot loader so that the LFS system can be selected for booting at startup.

8.2. Creating the /etc/fstab File

The /etc/fstab file is used by some programs to determine where file systems are to be mounted by default, in which order, and which must be checked (for integrity errors) prior to mounting. Create a new file systems table like this: 

cat > /etc/fstab << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/fstab

# file system  mount-point  type   options         dump  fsck
#                                                        order

/dev/<xxx>     /            <fff>  defaults        1     1
/dev/<yyy>     swap         swap   pri=1           0     0
proc           /proc        proc   defaults        0     0
sysfs          /sys         sysfs  defaults        0     0
devpts         /dev/pts     devpts gid=4,mode=620  0     0
shm            /dev/shm     tmpfs  defaults        0     0
# End /etc/fstab
EOF

Replace <xxx>, <yyy>, and <fff> with the values appropriate for the system, for example, hda2, hda5, and ext3. For details on the six fields in this file, see man 5 fstab.

The /dev/shm mount point for tmpfs is included to allow enabling POSIX-shared memory. The kernel must have the required support built into it for this to work (more about this is in the next section). Please note that very little software currently uses POSIX-shared memory. Therefore, consider the /dev/shm mount point optional. For more information, see Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.txt in the kernel source tree.

Filesystems with MS-DOS or Windows origin (i.e.: vfat, ntfs, smbfs, cifs, iso9660, udf) need the “iocharset” mount option in order for non-ASCII characters in file names to be interpreted properly. The value of this option should be the same as the character set of your locale, adjusted in such a way that the kernel understands it. This works if the relevant character set definition (found under File systems -> Native Language Support) has been compiled into the kernel or built as a module. The “codepage” option is also needed for vfat and smbfs filesystems. It should be set to the codepage number used under MS-DOS in your country. E.g., in order to mount USB flash drives, a ru_RU.KOI8-R user would need the following line in /etc/fstab: 

/dev/sda1    /media/flash vfat
    noauto,user,quiet,showexec,iocharset=koi8r,codepage=866 0 0

The corresponding line for ru_RU.UTF-8 users is: 

/dev/sda1    /media/flash vfat
    noauto,user,quiet,showexec,iocharset=utf8,codepage=866 0 0

Note

In the latter case, the kernel emits the following message: 

FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems,
    filesystem will be case sensitive!

This negative recommendation should be ignored, since all other values of the “iocharset” option result in wrong display of filenames in UTF-8 locales.

It is also possible to specify default codepage and iocharset values for some filesystems during kernel configuration. The relevant parameters are named “Default NLS Option” (CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT), “Default Remote NLS Option” (CONFIG_SMB_NLS_DEFAULT), “Default codepage for FAT” (CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_CODEPAGE), and “Default iocharset for FAT” (CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_IOCHARSET). There is no way to specify these settings for the ntfs filesystem at kernel compilation time.

8.3. Linux-2.6.16.27

The Linux package contains the Linux kernel.

Approximate build time: 1.5 - 3 SBU
Required disk space: 310 - 350 MB

8.3.1. Installation of the kernel

Building the kernel involves a few steps—configuration, compilation, and installation. Read the README file in the kernel source tree for alternative methods to the way this book configures the kernel.

By default, the Linux kernel generates wrong sequences of bytes when dead keys are used in UTF-8 keyboard mode. Also, one cannot copy and paste non-ASCII characters when UTF-8 mode is active. Fix these issues with the patch: 

patch -Np1 -i ../linux-2.6.16.27-utf8_input-1.patch

Prepare for compilation by running the following command: 

make mrproper

This ensures that the kernel tree is absolutely clean. The kernel team recommends that this command be issued prior to each kernel compilation. Do not rely on the source tree being clean after un-tarring.

Configure the kernel via a menu-driven interface. BLFS has some information regarding particular kernel configuration requirements of packages outside of LFS at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/longindex.html#kernel-config-index: 

make menuconfig

Alternatively, make oldconfig may be more appropriate in some situations. See the README file for more information.

If desired, skip kernel configuration by copying the kernel config file, .config, from the host system (assuming it is available) to the unpacked linux-2.6.16.27 directory. However, we do not recommend this option. It is often better to explore all the configuration menus and create the kernel configuration from scratch.

Compile the kernel image and modules: 

make

If using kernel modules, an /etc/modprobe.conf file may be needed. Information pertaining to modules and kernel configuration is located in Section 7.4, “Device and Module Handling on an LFS System” and in the kernel documentation in the linux-2.6.16.27/Documentation directory. Also, modprobe.conf(5) may be of interest.

Install the modules, if the kernel configuration uses them: 

make modules_install

After kernel compilation is complete, additional steps are required to complete the installation. Some files need to be copied to the /boot directory.

The path to the kernel image may vary depending on the platform being used. The following command assumes an x86 architecture: 

cp -v arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/lfskernel-2.6.16.27

System.map is a symbol file for the kernel. It maps the function entry points of every function in the kernel API, as well as the addresses of the kernel data structures for the running kernel. Issue the following command to install the map file: 

cp -v System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.16.27

The kernel configuration file .config produced by the make menuconfig step above contains all the configuration selections for the kernel that was just compiled. It is a good idea to keep this file for future reference: 

cp -v .config /boot/config-2.6.16.27

Install the documentation for the Linux kernel: 

install -d /usr/share/doc/linux-2.6.16.27 &&
cp -r Documentation/* /usr/share/doc/linux-2.6.16.27

It is important to note that the files in the kernel source directory are not owned by root. Whenever a package is unpacked as user root (like we did inside chroot), the files have the user and group IDs of whatever they were on the packager's computer. This is usually not a problem for any other package to be installed because the source tree is removed after the installation. However, the Linux source tree is often retained for a long time. Because of this, there is a chance that whatever user ID the packager used will be assigned to somebody on the machine. That person would then have write access to the kernel source.

If the kernel source tree is going to be retained, run chown -R 0:0 on the linux-2.6.16.27 directory to ensure all files are owned by user root.

Warning

Some kernel documentation recommends creating a symlink from /usr/src/linux pointing to the kernel source directory. This is specific to kernels prior to the 2.6 series and must not be created on an LFS system as it can cause problems for packages you may wish to build once your base LFS system is complete.

Also, the headers in the system's include directory should always be the ones against which Glibc was compiled, that is, the ones from the Linux-Libc-Headers package, and therefore, should never be replaced by the kernel headers.

8.3.2. Contents of Linux

Installed files: config-2.6.16.27, lfskernel-2.6.16.27, and System.map-2.6.16.27

Short Descriptions

config-2.6.16.27

Contains all the configuration selections for the kernel

lfskernel-2.6.16.27

The engine of the Linux system. When turning on the computer, the kernel is the first part of the operating system that gets loaded. It detects and initializes all components of the computer's hardware, then makes these components available as a tree of files to the software and turns a single CPU into a multitasking machine capable of running scores of programs seemingly at the same time

System.map-2.6.16.27

A list of addresses and symbols; it maps the entry points and addresses of all the functions and data structures in the kernel

8.4. Making the LFS System Bootable

Your shiny new LFS system is almost complete. One of the last things to do is to ensure that the system can be properly booted. The instructions below apply only to computers of IA-32 architecture, meaning mainstream PCs. Information on “boot loading” for other architectures should be available in the usual resource-specific locations for those architectures.

Boot loading can be a complex area, so a few cautionary words are in order. Be familiar with the current boot loader and any other operating systems present on the hard drive(s) that need to be bootable. Make sure that an emergency boot disk is ready to “rescue” the computer if the computer becomes unusable (un-bootable).

Earlier, we compiled and installed the GRUB boot loader software in preparation for this step. The procedure involves writing some special GRUB files to specific locations on the hard drive. We highly recommend creating a GRUB boot floppy diskette as a backup. Insert a blank floppy diskette and run the following commands: 

dd if=/boot/grub/stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
dd if=/boot/grub/stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1

Remove the diskette and store it somewhere safe. Now, run the grub shell: 

grub

GRUB uses its own naming structure for drives and partitions in the form of (hdn,m), where n is the hard drive number and m is the partition number, both starting from zero. For example, partition hda1 is (hd0,0) to GRUB and hdb3 is (hd1,2). In contrast to Linux, GRUB does not consider CD-ROM drives to be hard drives. For example, if using a CD on hdb and a second hard drive on hdc, that second hard drive would still be (hd1).

Using the above information, determine the appropriate designator for the root partition (or boot partition, if a separate one is used). For the following example, it is assumed that the root (or separate boot) partition is hda4.

Tell GRUB where to search for its stage{1,2} files. The Tab key can be used everywhere to make GRUB show the alternatives: 

root (hd0,3)

Warning

The following command will overwrite the current boot loader. Do not run the command if this is not desired, for example, if using a third party boot manager to manage the Master Boot Record (MBR). In this scenario, it would make more sense to install GRUB into the “boot sector” of the LFS partition. In this case, this next command would become setup (hd0,3).

Tell GRUB to install itself into the MBR of hda: 

setup (hd0)

If all went well, GRUB will have reported finding its files in /boot/grub. That's all there is to it. Quit the grub shell: 

quit

Create a “menu list” file defining GRUB's boot menu: 

cat > /boot/grub/menu.lst << "EOF"
# Begin /boot/grub/menu.lst

# By default boot the first menu entry.
default 0

# Allow 30 seconds before booting the default.
timeout 30

# Use prettier colors.
color green/black light-green/black

# The first entry is for LFS.
title LFS 6.2
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/lfskernel-2.6.16.27 root=/dev/hda4
EOF

Add an entry for the host distribution if desired. It might look like this: 

cat >> /boot/grub/menu.lst << "EOF"
title Red Hat
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.5 root=/dev/hda3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5
EOF

If dual-booting Windows, the following entry will allow booting it: 

cat >> /boot/grub/menu.lst << "EOF"
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
EOF

If info grub does not provide all necessary material, additional information regarding GRUB is located on its website at: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/.

The FHS stipulates that GRUB's menu.lst file should be symlinked to /etc/grub/menu.lst. To satisfy this requirement, issue the following command: 

mkdir -v /etc/grub &&
ln -sv /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/grub

Chapter 9. The End

9.1. The End

Well done! The new LFS system is installed! We wish you much success with your shiny new custom-built Linux system.

It may be a good idea to create an /etc/lfs-release file. By having this file, it is very easy for you (and for us if you need to ask for help at some point) to find out which LFS version is installed on the system. Create this file by running: 

echo 6.2 > /etc/lfs-release

9.2. Get Counted

Now that you have finished the book, do you want to be counted as an LFS user? Head over to http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/cgi-bin/lfscounter.cgi and register as an LFS user by entering your name and the first LFS version you have used.

Let's reboot into LFS now.

9.3. Rebooting the System

Now that all of the software has been installed, it is time to reboot your computer. However, you should be aware of a few things. The system you have created in this book is quite minimal, and most likely will not have the functionality you would need to be able to continue forward. By installing a few extra packages from the BLFS book while still in our current chroot environment, you can leave yourself in a much better position to continue on once you reboot into your new LFS installation. Installing a text mode web browser, such as Lynx, you can easily view the BLFS book in one virtual terminal, while building packages in another. The GPM package will also allow you to perform copy/paste actions in your virtual terminals. Lastly, if you are in a situation where static IP configuration does not meet your networking requirements, installing packages such as Dhcpcd or PPP at this point might also be useful.

Now that we have said that, lets move on to booting our shiny new LFS installation for the first time! First exit from the chroot environment: 

logout

Then unmount the virtual files systems: 

umount -v $LFS/dev/pts
umount -v $LFS/dev/shm
umount -v $LFS/dev
umount -v $LFS/proc
umount -v $LFS/sys

Unmount the LFS file system itself: 

umount -v $LFS

If multiple partitions were created, unmount the other partitions before unmounting the main one, like this: 

umount -v $LFS/usr
umount -v $LFS/home
umount -v $LFS

Now, reboot the system with: 

shutdown -r now

Assuming the GRUB boot loader was set up as outlined earlier, the menu is set to boot LFS 6.2 automatically.

When the reboot is complete, the LFS system is ready for use and more software may be added to suit your needs.

9.4. What Now?

Thank you for reading this LFS book. We hope that you have found this book helpful and have learned more about the system creation process.

Now that the LFS system is installed, you may be wondering “What next?” To answer that question, we have compiled a list of resources for you.

  • Maintenance

    Bugs and security notices are reported regularly for all software. Since an LFS system is compiled from source, it is up to you to keep abreast of such reports. There are several online resources that track such reports, some of which are shown below:

    • Freshmeat.net (http://freshmeat.net/)

      Freshmeat can notify you (via email) of new versions of packages installed on your system.

    • CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team)

      CERT has a mailing list that publishes security alerts concerning various operating systems and applications. Subscription information is available at http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/signup.html.

    • Bugtraq

      Bugtraq is a full-disclosure computer security mailing list. It publishes newly discovered security issues, and occasionally potential fixes for them. Subscription information is available at http://www.securityfocus.com/archive.

  • Beyond Linux From Scratch

    The Beyond Linux From Scratch book covers installation procedures for a wide range of software beyond the scope of the LFS Book. The BLFS project is located at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/.

  • LFS Hints

    The LFS Hints are a collection of educational documents submitted by volunteers in the LFS community. The hints are available at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/list.html.

  • Mailing lists

    There are several LFS mailing lists you may subscribe to if you are in need of help, want to stay current with the latest developments, want to contribute to the project, and more. See Chapter 1 - Mailing Lists for more information.

  • The Linux Documentation Project

    The goal of The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP) is to collaborate on all of the issues of Linux documentation. The TLDP features a large collection of HOWTOs, guides, and man pages. It is located at http://www.tldp.org/.

Part IV. Appendices

Table of Contents

Appendix A. Acronyms and Terms

ABI

Application Binary Interface

ALFS

Automated Linux From Scratch

ALSA

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

API

Application Programming Interface

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System

BLFS

Beyond Linux From Scratch

BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution

chroot

change root

CMOS

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

COS

Class Of Service

CPU

Central Processing Unit

CRC

Cyclic Redundancy Check

CVS

Concurrent Versions System

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DNS

Domain Name Service

EGA

Enhanced Graphics Adapter

ELF

Executable and Linkable Format

EOF

End of File

EQN

equation

EVMS

Enterprise Volume Management System

ext2

second extended file system

ext3

third extended file system

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

FHS

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

FIFO

First-In, First Out

FQDN

Fully Qualified Domain Name

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

GB

Gibabytes

GCC

GNU Compiler Collection

GID

Group Identifier

GMT

Greenwich Mean Time

GPG

GNU Privacy Guard

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language

IDE

Integrated Drive Electronics

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

IO

Input/Output

IP

Internet Protocol

IPC

Inter-Process Communication

IRC

Internet Relay Chat

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

ISP

Internet Service Provider

KB

Kilobytes

LED

Light Emitting Diode

LFS

Linux From Scratch

LSB

Linux Standard Base

MB

Megabytes

MBR

Master Boot Record

MD5

Message Digest 5

NIC

Network Interface Card

NLS

Native Language Support

NNTP

Network News Transport Protocol

NPTL

Native POSIX Threading Library

OSS

Open Sound System

PCH

Pre-Compiled Headers

PCRE

Perl Compatible Regular Expression

PID

Process Identifier

PLFS

Pure Linux From Scratch

PTY

pseudo terminal

QA

Quality Assurance

QOS

Quality Of Service

RAM

Random Access Memory

RPC

Remote Procedure Call

RTC

Real Time Clock

SBU

Standard Build Unit

SCO

The Santa Cruz Operation

SGR

Select Graphic Rendition

SHA1

Secure-Hash Algorithm 1

SMP

Symmetric Multi-Processor

TLDP

The Linux Documentation Project

TFTP

Trivial File Transfer Protocol

TLS

Thread-Local Storage

UID

User Identifier

umask

user file-creation mask

USB

Universal Serial Bus

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time

UUID

Universally Unique Identifier

VC

Virtual Console

VGA

Video Graphics Array

VT

Virtual Terminal

Appendix B. Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following people and organizations for their contributions to the Linux From Scratch Project.

  • Gerard Beekmans <gerard AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Creator, LFS Project Leader

  • Matthew Burgess <matthew AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Project Leader, LFS Technical Writer/Editor, LFS Release Manager

  • Archaic <archaic AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Technical Writer/Editor, HLFS Project Leader, BLFS Editor, Hints and Patches Project Maintainer

  • Nathan Coulson <nathan AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS-Bootscripts Maintainer

  • Bruce Dubbs <bdubbs AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – BLFS Project Leader

  • Manuel Canales Esparcia <manuel AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS/BLFS/HLFS XML and XSL Maintainer

  • Jim Gifford <jim AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Technical Writer, Patches Project Leader

  • Jeremy Huntwork <jhuntwork AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Technical Writer, LFS LiveCD Maintainer, ALFS Project Leader

  • Anderson Lizardo <lizardo AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – Website Backend-Scripts Maintainer

  • Ryan Oliver <ryan AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Toolchain Maintainer

  • James Robertson <jwrober AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – Bugzilla Maintainer

  • Tushar Teredesai <tushar AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – BLFS Book Editor, Hints and Patches Project Leader

  • Countless other people on the various LFS and BLFS mailing lists who helped make this book possible by giving their suggestions, testing the book, and submitting bug reports, instructions, and their experiences with installing various packages.

Translators

  • Manuel Canales Esparcia <macana AT macana-es D0T com> – Spanish LFS translation project

  • Johan Lenglet <johan AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – French LFS translation project

  • Anderson Lizardo <lizardo AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – Portuguese LFS translation project

  • Thomas Reitelbach <tr AT erdfunkstelle D0T de> – German LFS translation project

Mirror Maintainers

North American Mirrors

  • Scott Kveton <scott AT osuosl D0T org> – lfs.oregonstate.edu mirror

  • Mikhail Pastukhov <miha AT xuy D0T biz> – lfs.130th.net mirror

  • William Astle <lost AT l-w D0T net> – ca.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Jeremy Polen <jpolen AT rackspace D0T com> – us2.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Tim Jackson <tim AT idge D0T net> – linuxfromscratch.idge.net mirror

  • Jeremy Utley <jeremy AT linux-phreak D0T net> – lfs.linux-phreak.net mirror

South American Mirrors

European Mirrors

  • Barna Koczka <barna AT siker D0T hu> – hu.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • UK Mirror Service – linuxfromscratch.mirror.ac.uk mirror

  • Martin Voss <Martin D0T Voss AT ada D0T de> – lfs.linux-matrix.net mirror

  • Guido Passet <guido AT primerelay D0T net> – nl.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Bastiaan Jacques <baafie AT planet D0T nl> – lfs.pagefault.net mirror

  • Roel Neefs <lfs-mirror AT linuxfromscratch D0T rave D0T org> – linuxfromscratch.rave.org mirror

  • Justin Knierim <justin AT jrknierim D0T de> – www.lfs-matrix.de mirror

  • Stephan Brendel <stevie AT stevie20 D0T de> – lfs.netservice-neuss.de mirror

  • Antonin Sprinzl <Antonin D0T Sprinzl AT tuwien D0T ac D0T at> – at.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Fredrik Danerklint <fredan-lfs AT fredan D0T org> – se.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Parisian sysadmins <archive AT doc D0T cs D0T univ-paris8 D0T fr> – www2.fr.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Alexander Velin <velin AT zadnik D0T org> – bg.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Dirk Webster <dirk AT securewebservices D0T co D0T uk> – lfs.securewebservices.co.uk mirror

  • Thomas Skyt <thomas AT sofagang D0T dk> – dk.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Simon Nicoll <sime AT dot-sime D0T com> – uk.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

Asian Mirrors

  • Pui Yong <pyng AT spam D0T averse D0T net> – sg.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

  • Stuart Harris <stuart AT althalus D0T me D0T uk> – lfs.mirror.intermedia.com.sg mirror

Australian Mirrors

  • Jason Andrade <jason AT dstc D0T edu D0T au> – au.linuxfromscratch.org mirror

Former Project Team Members

  • Christine Barczak <theladyskye AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Book Editor

  • Timothy Bauscher

  • Robert Briggs

  • Ian Chilton

  • Jeroen Coumans <jeroen AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – Website Developer, FAQ Maintainer

  • Alex Groenewoud – LFS Technical Writer

  • Marc Heerdink

  • Mark Hymers

  • Seth W. Klein – FAQ maintainer

  • Nicholas Leippe <nicholas AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – Wiki Maintainer

  • Simon Perreault

  • Scot Mc Pherson <scot AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS NNTP Gateway Maintainer

  • Alexander Patrakov <semzx AT newmail D0T ru> – LFS Technical Writer

  • Greg Schafer <gschafer AT zip D0T com D0T au> – LFS Technical Writer

  • Jesse Tie-Ten-Quee – LFS Technical Writer

  • Jeremy Utley <jeremy AT linuxfromscratch D0T org> – LFS Technical Writer, Bugzilla Maintainer, LFS-Bootscripts Maintainer

  • Zack Winkles <zwinkles AT gmail D0T com> – LFS Technical Writer

A very special thank you to our donators

  • Dean Benson <dean AT vipersoft D0T co D0T uk> for several monetary contributions

  • Hagen Herrschaft <hrx AT hrxnet D0T de> for donating a 2.2 GHz P4 system, now running under the name of Lorien

  • SEO Company Canada supports Open Source projects and different Linux distributions

  • VA Software who, on behalf of Linux.com, donated a VA Linux 420 (former StartX SP2) workstation

  • Mark Stone for donating Belgarath, the linuxfromscratch.org server

Appendix C. Dependencies

Every package built in LFS relies on one or more other packages in order to build and install properly. Some packages even participate in circular dependencies, that is, the first package depends on the second which in turn depends on the first. Because of these dependencies, the order in which packages are built in LFS is very important. The purpose of this page is to document the dependencies of each package built in LFS.

For each package we build, we have listed three types of dependencies. The first lists what other packages need to be available in order to compile and install the package in question. The second lists what packages, in addition to those on the first list, need to be available in order to run the testsuites. The last list of dependencies are packages that require this package to be built and installed in its final location before they are built and installed. In most cases, this is because these packages will hardcode paths to binaries within their scripts. If not built in a certain order, this could result in paths of /tools/bin/[binary] being placed inside scripts installed to the final system. This is obviously not desirable.

Autoconf

Installation depends on: Bash, Coreutils, Grep, M4, Make, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Automake, Diffutils, Findutils, GCC, and Libtool
Must be installed before: Automake

Automake

Installation depends on: Autoconf, Bash, Coreutils, Gettext, Grep, M4, Make, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Binutils, Bison, Bzip2, DejaGNU, Diffutils, Expect, Findutils, Flex, GCC, Gettext, Gzip, Libtool, and Tar. Can also use several other packages that are not installed in LFS.
Must be installed before: None

Bash

Installation depends on: Bash, Bison, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Patch, Readline, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils and Gawk
Must be installed before: None

Berkeley DB

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: Not run. Requires TCL installed on the final system
Must be installed before: None

Binutils

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: DejaGNU and Expect
Must be installed before: None

Bison

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, M4, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: Diffutils and Findutils
Must be installed before: Flex, Kbd, and Tar

Bzip2

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Make, and Patch
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Coreutils

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils
Must be installed before: Bash, Diffutils, Findutils, Man-DB, and Udev

DejaGNU

Installation depends on: Bash, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Diffutils

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Expect

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Sed, and Tcl
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

E2fsprogs

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Gawk, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Gzip, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils
Must be installed before: Util-Linux

File

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Zlib
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Findutils

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: DejaGNU, Diffutils, and Expect
Must be installed before: None

Flex

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, M4, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Bison and Gawk
Must be installed before: IPRoute2, Kbd, and Man-DB

Gawk

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Sed and, Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils
Must be installed before: None

Gcc

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Findutils, Gawk, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Perl, Sed, Tar, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: DejaGNU and Expect
Must be installed before: None

Gettext

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils, Perl, and Tcl
Must be installed before: Automake

Glibc

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Gettext, Grep, Gzip, Make, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Grep

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils and Gawk
Must be installed before: Man-DB

Groff

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Bison, Coreutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Man-DB and Perl

GRUB

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Gzip

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Man-DB

Iana-Etc

Installation depends on: Coreutils, Gawk, and Make
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Perl

Inetutils

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Tar

IProute2

Installation depends on: Bash, Berkeley DB, Bison, Coreutils, Flex, GCC, Glibc, Make, and Linux-Libc-Headers
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Kbd

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Bison, Coreutils, Flex, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Gzip, Make, Patch, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Less

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Libtool

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Findutils
Must be installed before: None

Linux Kernel

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Findutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Gzip, Make, Module-Init-Tools, Ncurses, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

M4

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: Diffutils
Must be installed before: Autoconf and Bison

Man-DB

Installation depends on: Bash, Berkeley DB, Binutils, Bzip2, Coreutils, Flex, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Groff, Gzip, Less, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: Not run. Requires Man-DB testsuite package
Must be installed before: None

Make

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Perl
Must be installed before: None

Mktemp

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Patch, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Module-Init-Tools

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Zlib
Test suite depends on: File, Findutils, and Gawk
Must be installed before: None

Ncurses

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Patch, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Bash, GRUB, Inetutils, Less, Procps, Psmisc, Readline, Texinfo, Util-Linux, and Vim

Patch

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Perl

Installation depends on: Bash, Berkeley DB, Binutils, Coreutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Groff, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: Iana-Etc and Procps
Must be installed before: Autoconf

Procps

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Make, and Ncurses
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Psmisc

Installation depends on: Bash, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Readline

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: Bash

Sed

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils and Gawk
Must be installed before: E2fsprogs, File, Libtool, and Shadow

Shadow

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Findutils, Gawk, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Sysklogd

Installation depends on: Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Make, and Patch
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Sysvinit

Installation depends on: Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Tar

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Bison, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Inetutils, Make, Patch, Sed, and Texinfo
Test suite depends on: Diffutils, Findutils, and Gawk
Must be installed before: None

Tcl

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Texinfo

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Patch, and Sed
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Udev

Installation depends on: Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, and Make
Test suite depends on: Findutils, Perl, and Sed
Must be installed before: None

Util-Linux

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, E2fprogs, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Patch, Sed, and Zlib
Test suite depends on: No testsuite available
Must be installed before: None

Vim

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, and Sed
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: None

Zlib

Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed
Test suite depends on: None
Must be installed before: File, Module-Init-Tools, and Util-Linux

Index

Packages

Programs

Libraries

Scripts

Others