Glibc 2 is the latest version of the GNU C Library. It currently runs unmodified on GNU Hurd systems and Linux i386, m68k, and alpha systems. Support for Linux PowerPC, MIPS, Sparc, Sparc 64, and Arm will be in version 2.1. In the future support for other architectures and operating systems will be added.
On Linux, glibc 2 is used as the libc with major version 6, the successor of the Linux libc 5. It is intended by the Linux libc developers to eventually replace libc 5. As of 2.0.6, glibc is considered production quality. Version 2.1 (due out in the near future) will be ready for main stream use along with adding more ports and features.
There are three optional add-ons available for glibc 2:
The UFC-crypt package. It is seperate because of export restrictions.
An implementation of the Posix 1003.1c "pthread" interface.
Contains the data needed to build the locale data files to use the internationalization features of the glibc.
The crypt and LinuxThreads add-ons are strongly recommended... not using them risks to be incompatible with the libraries of other systems. (If you do not wish to use them, you must add the option --disable-sanity-checks when you run configure.)
This HOWTO covers installing the glibc 2 library on an existing Linux system. It is tailored for users of Intel based systems currently using libc 5, but users of other systems and alternate libraries (such as glibc 1) should be able to use this information by substituting the proper filenames and architecture names in the appropriate places.
The latest copy of this HOWTO can be found as part of the Linux Documentation Project or from http://www.imaxx.net/~thrytis/glibc/Glibc2-HOWTO.html.
Differences between version 1.6 and 1.5:
Differences between version 1.5 and 1.4: