What are linux-headers for?

[Hara]

This might be a newb questions but I'm getting bad search results...

Can anyone answer this easily?

I use the 2.6 kernel and am wondering if I should "emerge -C" it
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Hara

(Mandrake->Slackware->LFS(Never Finished)->Gentoo)

[wmgoree]

Linux headers are a bunch of files that get included when stuff is compiled. They define things like data types and macros so that your C library knows how to talk to your kernel. Do not mess with them without being careful.

Let me repeat that: DO NOT mess with your linux-headers without being careful. As counter-intuitive as it seems, it *doesn't* matter if your headers match your kernel (well, you wouldn't want Linux 1.1 headers with a 2.6 kernel or anything, but 2.4 or even 2.2 headers with a 2.6 kernel is fine and is in fact what Linus says he uses).

All that matters (and this matters A LOT) is that the headers you have in your system are the exact headers your C library was compiled against. If you just emerge -C linux-headers without replacing them with something else, NOTHING (at least, nothing important) will compile.

Any time you change your linux-headers (and that includes the linux26-headers, too), you need to re-emerge glibc immediately. Death and pestilence can follow if you don't.

Hope that made sense!
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vi? *snicker* it doesn't even include a mail reader...

[Hara]

That was perfect!

Thanks a lot!
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Hara

(Mandrake->Slackware->LFS(Never Finished)->Gentoo)