How to upgrade glibc from version 2.13 to 2.15 on Debian?

Question

I heard I can do it using apt-get install libc6, but I need to add something to /etc/apt/sources.list to receive the newest glibc version. What should I do?

Answer 1

In fact you cannot do it easily right now (at the time I am writing this message). I will try to explain why.

First of all, the glibc is no more, it has been subsumed by the eglibc project. And, the Debian distribution switched to eglibc some time ago (see here and there and even on the glibc source package page). So, you should consider installing the eglibc package through this kind of command:

apt-get install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg

Replace amd64 by the kind of architecture you want (look at the package list here).

Unfortunately, the eglibc package version is only up to 2.13 in unstable and testing. Only the experimental is providing a 2.17 version of this library. So, if you really want to have it in 2.15 or more, you need to install the package from the experimental version (which is not recommended). Here are the steps to achieve as root:

1. Add the following line to the file /etc/apt/sources.list:

   deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main
   

2. Update your package database:

   apt-get update
   

3. Install the eglibc package:

   apt-get -t experimental install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg
   

4. Pray...

Well, that's all folks.