Contents of Glibc
Last checked against version &glibc-contversion;.
Program Files
catchsegv, gencat, getconf, getent, glibcbug, iconv, iconvconfig,
ldconfig, ldd, lddlibc4, locale, localedef, mtrace, nscd, nscd_nischeck,
pcprofiledump, pt_chown, rpcgen, rpcinfo, sln, sprof, tzselect, xtrace,
zdump and zic
Descriptions
catchsegv
catchsegv can be used to create a stack trace when a program
terminates with a segmentation fault.
gencat
gencat generates message catalogues.
getconf
getconf displays the system configuration values for filesystem
specific variables.
getent
getent gets entries from an administrative database.
glibcbug
glibcbug creates a bug report about glibc and and mails it to the
bug email address.
iconv
iconv performs character set conversion.
iconvconfig
iconvconfig creates fastloading iconv module
configuration file.
ldconfig
ldconfig configures the dynamic linker run time bindings.
ldd
ldd prints the shared libraries required by each program or shared
library specified on the command line.
lddlibc4
lddlibc4 assists ldd with object files.
locale
locale is a Perl program which tells the compiler to enable
(or disable) the use of POSIX locales for built-in operations.
localedef
localedef compiles locale specifications.
mtrace
mtrace prints the multicast path from a source to a receiver (an IP
trace query).
nscd
nscd is a daemon that provides a cache for the most common name
service requests.
nscd_nischeck
nscd_nischeck checks whether or not secure mode is necessary for
NIS+ lookup.
pcprofiledump
pcprofiledump dumps information generated by
PC profiling.
pt_chown
pt_chown sets the owner, group and access permission of the
slave pseudo terminal corresponding to the master pseudo terminal passed
on file descriptor `3'. This is the helper program for the `grantpt'
function. It is not intended to be run directly from the command
line.
rpcgen
rpcgen generates C code to implement the RPC protocol.
rpcinfo
rpcinfo makes an RPC call to an RPC server.
sln
sln symbolically links dest to source. It is statically linked,
needing no dynamic linking at all. Thus sln is useful to make symbolic
links to dynamic libraries if the dynamic linking system for some reason
is nonfunctional.
sprof
sprof reads and displays shared object profiling data.
tzselect
tzselect asks the user for information about the current location and
outputs the resulting time zone description to standard output.
xtrace
xtrace traces execution of program by printing the currently executed
function.
zdump
zdump is the time zone dumper.
zic
zic is the time zone compiler.
Library Files
ld.so, libBrokenLocale.[a,so], libBrokenLocale_p.a,
libSegFault.so, libanl.[a,so], libanl_p.a, libbsd-compat.a, libc.[a,so],
libc_nonshared.a, libc_p.a, libcrypt.[a,so], libcrypt_p.a, libdl.[a,so],
libdl_p.a, libg.a, libieee.a, libm.[a,so], libm_p.a, libmcheck.a,
libmemusage.so, libnsl.a, libnsl_p.a, libnss_compat.so, libnss_dns.so,
libnss_files.so, libnss_hesiod.so, libnss_nis.so, libnss_nisplus.so,
libpcprofile.so, libpthread.[a,so], libpthread_p.a, libresolv.[a,so],
libresolv_p.a, librpcsvc.a, librpcsvc_p.a, librt.[a,so], librt_p.a,
libthread_db.so, libutil.[a,so] and libutil_p.a
Descriptions
ld.so
ld.so is the helper program for shared library
executables.
libBrokenLocale, libBrokenLocale_p
Used by software, such as Mozilla, to solve broken locales.
libSegFault
libSegFault is a segmentation fault signal handler. It tries to catch
segfaults.
libanl, libanl_p
libanl is an asynchronous name lookup library.
libbsd-compat
libbsd-compat provides the portability needed in order to run certain
programs in Linux.
libc, libc_nonshared, libc_p
These files constitute the main C library. The C library is a
collection of commonly used functions in programs.
This way a programmer doesn't need to create his own functions for every
single task. The most common things like writing a string to the screen
are already present and at the disposal of the programmer.
The C library (actually almost every library) comes in two flavors:
a dynamic and a static one. In short, when a program uses a static C
library, the code from the C library is copied into the executable file.
When a program uses a dynamic library, the executable will not
contain the code from the C library, but instead a routine that loads
the functions from the library at the time the program is run. This
means a significant decrease in the file size of a program. The
documentation that comes with the C library describes this in more
detail, as it is too complicated to explain here in one or two
lines.
libcrypt, libcrypt_p
libcrypt is the cryptography library.
libdl, libdl_p
libdl is the dynamic linking interface library.
libg
libg is a runtime library for g++.
libieee
libieee is the IEEE floating point library.
libm, libm_p
libm is the mathematical library.
libmcheck
libmcheck contains code run at boot.
libmemusage
libmemusage is used by memusage to help collect information about the
memory usage of a program.
libnsl, libnsl_p
libnsl is the network services library.
libnss_compat, libnss_dns, libnss_files,
libnss_hesiod, libnss_nis, libnss_nisplus
The basic idea is to put the implementation of the different services
offered to access the databases in separate modules. This has some
advantages:
contributors can add new services without adding them to
GNU C library,
the modules can be updated separately,
the C library image is smaller.
libpcprofile
Code used by the kernel to track CPU time spent in functions, source
code lines, and instructions.
libpthread, libpthread_p
The POSIX threads library.
libresolv, libresolv_p
Functions in this library provide for creating, sending, and
interpreting packets to the Internet domain name servers.
librpcsvc, librpcsvc_p
Functions in this library provide miscellaneous RPC services.
librt, librt_p
Functions in this library provide most of the interfaces specified by
the POSIX.1b Realtime Extension.
libthread_db
Functions is this library are useful for building debuggers for
multi-threaded programs.
libutil, libutil_p
Contains code for "standard" functions used in many different Unix
utilities.