The GNU C Library, often abbreviated to libc or glibc, is ordinarily installed out of the box on all major Linux distros. It is an essential library that many software packages will rely on in order to run properly or run at all. In case you need to check what version of libc is installed on your Linux system, we have you covered in this tutorial.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to check libc version on all major Linux distros
- How to update libc on all major Linux distros
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Any Linux distro |
| Software | libc |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to check libc version on major Linux distros
The process for checking your installed version of
libc will be the same regardless of your Linux distro. Simply use the ldd command as seen below.
$ ldd --version ldd (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3) 2.35 ...
As you can see from the first line of the output and in the previous screenshot, we have version 2.35 installed.
Another way how to check your libc library version is to run its binary. This may require you to add execute permissions to the file first.
$ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 GNU C Library (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3) stable release version 2.35. ...
How to update libc version on major Linux distros
In case you find your installed libc to be out of date, it is simple enough to bring it up to date on any Linux system.
You can use the appropriate command below to update libc with your system’s package manager.
To update libc on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install libc-bin
To update libc on Fedora, CentOS, AlmaLinux, and Red Hat:
$ sudo dnf install glibc
To update libc on Arch Linux and Manjaro:
$ sudo pacman -Syu glibc
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to check the installed version of libc on a Linux system. This could be a necessary troubleshooting step in case you have downloaded software that is refusing to run and is blaming an outdated libc version as the culprit. In case you need to update libc, you now have the instructions to download the latest version with your system’s package manager.
