Fedora 33 System-Wide Change proposal: The GNU C Library version 2.32
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/GLIBC232
== Summary ==
Switch glibc in Fedora 33 to glibc version 2.32.
== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:codonell|Carlos O'Donell]]
* Email: carlos(a)redhat.com
== Detailed Description ==
The GNU C Library version 2.32 will be released at the beginning of
August 2020; we have started closely tracking the glibc 2.32
development code in Fedora Rawhide and are addressing any issues as
they arise. Given the present schedule Fedora 33 will branch after the
glibc 2.32 upstream release. However, the mass rebuild schedule means
Fedora 33 will mass rebuild (if required) after glibc 2.31 upstream
freezes ABI for release, but before the actual release, so careful
attention must be paid to any last minute ABI changes.
== Benefit to Fedora ==
Stays up to date with latest security and bug fixes from glibc upstream.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: Update glibc to 2.32.
* Other developers: Developers need to ensure that rawhide is stable
and ready for the Fedora 32 branch. Given that glibc is backwards
compatible and we have been testing the new glibc in rawhide it should
make very little impact when updated, except for the occasional
deprecation warnings and removal of legacy interfaces from public
header files.
* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issue/9491 #9491]
* Policies and guidelines: The policies and guidelines do not need to
be updated.
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
The GNU C Library has its own testsuite, which is run during the
package build and examined by the glibc developers before being
uploaded. This test suite has over 6200 tests that run to verify the
correct operation of the library. In the future may also run the
microbenchmark to look for performance regressions.
== User Experience ==
Users will see improved performance, many bugfixes and improvements to
POSIX compliance, additional locales, etc. The glibc 2.32 NEWS update
will include more details.
== Dependencies ==
All packages do not need to be rebuilt.
== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: Given that Rawhide has started tracking glibc
2.32, no show-stopper problems are expected. At this point, we can
still revert to upstream version 2.31 if insurmountable problems
appear, but to do so may require a mass rebuild to remove new symbols
from the ABI/API.
* Contingency deadline: Upstream ABI freeze deadline of 2020-07-01.
* Blocks release? Yes, upgrading glibc does block the release. We
should not ship without a newer glibc, there will be gcc and language
features that depend on glibc being upgraded. Thus without the upgrade
some features will be disabled or fall back to less optimal
implementations.
== Documentation ==
The glibc manual contains the documentation for the release and
doesn't need any more additional work.
== Release Notes ==
The GNU C Library version 2.32 will be released at the beginning of
August 2020. The current NEWS notes can be seen here as they are
added: https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=NEWS;hb=HEAD
--
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Senior Program Manager, Fedora & CentOS Stream
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis