glibc basic informations

[Gildas Bayard <gildas dot bayard at gmail dot com>]

Hello,

I've got a compile problem with glibc 2.3.6 using powerpc-linux-gcc
3.3.3 and cross compiling from x86 to powerpc.

What I'd like to talk about first is access to glibc information.
I'm experiencing difficulties to get very basic informations about
glibc which does not appear to be anywhere on the site (maybe I don't
know how to search well)

Here it is: what is the current pthread library used in glibc?
It seems like it's NPTL since there's a nptl directory in the sources.
But the documentation keeps on telling me I must install the
linuxthreads add-on to get thread support. Is the documentation simply
out of date?

I presumed the previous question to have a positive answer and tried
to move forward.
Then compilation fails with an error telling me to install
'linuxthreads' add-on.
Hum... Isn't NPTL supposed to replace linuxthreads? The glibc
'INSTALL' document talks about "--enable-add-ons" option that should
be set. Since nptl seems to be in the base package I don't think it
would help but retry with this option and gets the same error.

Then I downloaded and installed linuxthreads anyway. I launched
./configure again with the "--enable-add-ons" option and then got
stuck with a "configure: error: "compiler support for __thread is
required" error.
Searching on google I found that I should just delete the nptl
directory. Hum... I'm really puzzled at this point!

I think the documentation should include a pthread section (in the
'INSTALL' doc or in the 'FAQ' doc or on the web page, better would be
both on the web page and 'INSTALL' or 'FAQ' doc) to answer these
questions:
- Is nptl development taking place here, in the glibc?
	If it's true then the doc should say something about this and stop
only talking about linuxthreads
	If it's not true then where is it?
- Is the option "--enable-add-ons" needed to compile nptl? Or is there
a kind of "--use-nptl" option somewhere? (./configure --help mentions
'nptl' nowhere, whereas there's a nptl directory)

Of course if someone has an answer to my "compiler support for
__thread is required" which does not imply to forget about nptl I
would appreciate (Isn't gcc 3.3.3 supporting this __thread option? And
well, what is the __thread support about?)

Have a nice day

Gildas Bayard