GNU C Library 2.44 Released With /etc/tunables.conf, More Optimizations

GNU developers today released GNU C Library "glibc" 2.44 as the newest feature release for this critical library to modern Linux systems and other platforms.

Among the new features in Glibc 2.44 is introducing /etc/tunables.conf for storing new system-wide tunables for the GNU C Library. This is an alternative and more persistent option than the existing GLIBC_TUNABLES= environment variable option. With /etc/tunables.conf you can store one tunable per line and a variety of filters and other options can be applied.

Glibc 2.44 also introduces a FMA'ed cosh implementation for a ~35% improvement. More optimized and correctly-rounded math functions have also been imported from the CORE-MATH project. There are also new optimizations for LoongArch CPUs as well as introducing LoongArch32 32-bit support. Various functions have also now been better optimized on AArch64 and RISC-V.

More details on the many changes to find with today's GNU C Library 2.44 release can be found via the mailing list announcement. Glibc 2.44 will be working its way into the likes of Ubuntu 26.10, Fedora 45, and other upcoming Linux distribution releases.