Maurice Hendrix, Wed, Jun 30, 1999 at 01:57:05PM +0200:
> I'm stupid. It is still not clear to me. What do Libc5 and Libc6 contain?
> Are they some kind of pool (library) of precompiled (optimised) functions
> that can be shared at runtime?
> If I don't have Libc5 installed should I get it?
> Or wait until I run into (what kind of?) problems?
>
> I've found what I think is the sources to Libc5 at metalab.unc.edu
> (currently FTPing them). But sources to Libc6 are not there.
> What are (and/or where do I find) the latest versions of Libc5 and Libc6?
>
> Can someone please point me to a source or give the information here?
libc (any version) is one of the two central parts of any Linux
system (the other one is the kernel). libc is the standard C
library, which contains the vast majority of the functions any
application uses. So, if your system is working, you already have
one or more versions of libc. To find out what version it is, look
at the files in /lib.
If there is a file 'libc.so.5', then you have libc5.
If there is a file 'libc.so.6', then you have libc6.
You can run one, or two, or probably more versions of libc without
any problems.
Now, enter 'ldd /bin/cat'. In the output, you will find a filename
like 'libc.so.<something>'. This is the version most of your
programs use (because /bin/cat is nothing special), so it tells you
if your system is libc5-based, or libc6-based, or
libcwhatever-based.
--
Christian Ullrich
Registered Linux User #125183
