C.4 Supported Configurations

The GNU C Library currently supports configurations that match the following patterns:

     alpha*-*-linux
     arm-*-linux
     cris-*-linux
     hppa-*-linux
     ix86-*-gnu
     ix86-*-linux
     ia64-*-linux
     m68k-*-linux
     mips*-*-linux
     powerpc-*-linux
     s390-*-linux
     s390x-*-linux
     sparc-*-linux
     sparc64-*-linux

Former releases of this library (version 2.1 and/or 2.0) used to run on the following configurations:

     arm-*-linuxaout
     arm-*-none

Very early releases (version 1.09.1 and perhaps earlier versions) used to run on the following configurations:

     alpha-dec-osf1
     alpha-*-linuxecoff
     ix86-*-bsd4.3
     ix86-*-isc2.2
     ix86-*-isc3.n
     ix86-*-sco3.2
     ix86-*-sco3.2v4
     ix86-*-sysv
     ix86-*-sysv4
     ix86-force_cpu386-none
     ix86-sequent-bsd
     i960-nindy960-none
     m68k-hp-bsd4.3
     m68k-mvme135-none
     m68k-mvme136-none
     m68k-sony-newsos3
     m68k-sony-newsos4
     m68k-sun-sunos4.n
     mips-dec-ultrix4.n
     mips-sgi-irix4.n
     sparc-sun-solaris2.n
     sparc-sun-sunos4.n

Since no one has volunteered to test and fix these configurations, they are not supported at the moment. They probably don't compile; they definitely don't work anymore. Porting the library is not hard. If you are interested in doing a port, please contact the glibc maintainers by sending electronic mail to bug-glibc@gnu.org.

Valid cases of `ix86' include `i386', `i486', `i586', and `i686'. All of those configurations produce a library that can run on this processor and newer processors. The GCC compiler by default generates code that's optimized for the machine it's configured for and will use the instructions available on that machine. For example if your GCC is configured for `i686', gcc will optimize for `i686' and might issue some `i686' specific instructions. To generate code for other models, you have to configure for that model and give GCC the appropriate `-march=' and `-mcpu=' compiler switches via CFLAGS.