Steps for adding TLS support for a new platform: (1) Declare TLS variant in machine/types.h by defining either __HAVE_TLS_VARIANT_I or __HAVE_TLS_VARIANT_II. (2) _lwp_makecontext has to set the reserved register or kernel transfer variable in uc_mcontext to the provided value of 'private'. See src/lib/libc/arch/$PLATFORM/gen/_lwp.c. This is not possible on the VAX as there is no free space in ucontext_t. This requires either a special version of _lwp_create or versioning everything using ucontext_t. Debug support depends on getting the data from ucontext_t, so the second option is possibly required. (3) _lwp_setprivate(2) has to update the same register as _lwp_makecontext uses for the private area pointer. Normally cpu_lwp_setprivate is provided by MD to reflect the kernel view and enabled by defining __HAVE_CPU_LWP_SETPRIVATE in machine/types.h. cpu_setmcontext is responsible for keeping the MI l_private field synchronised by calling lwp_setprivate as needed. cpu_switchto has to update the mapping. _lwp_setprivate is used for the initial thread, all other threads created by libpthread use _lwp_makecontext for this purpose. (4) Provide __tls_get_addr and possible other MD functions for dynamic TLS offset computation. If such alternative entry points exist (currently only i386), also add a weak reference to 0 in src/lib/libc/tls/tls.c. The generic implementation can be found in tls.c and is used with __HAVE_COMMON___TLS_GET_ADDR. It depends on ___lwp_getprivate_fast (see below). (5) Implement the necessary relocation records in mdreloc.c. There are typically three relocation types found in dynamic binaries: (a) R_TYPE(TLS_DTPOFF): Offset inside the module. The common TLS code ensures that the DTV vector points to offset 0 inside the module TLS block. This is normally def->st_value + rela->r_addend. (b) R_TYPE(TLS_DTPMOD): Module index. (c) R_TYPE(TLS_TPOFF): Static TLS offset. The code has to check whether the static TLS offset for this module has been allocated (defobj->tls_done) and otherwise call _rtld_tls_offset_allocate(). This may fail if no static space is available and the object has been pulled in via dlopen(3). For TLS Variant I, this is typically: def->st_value + rela->r_addend + defobj->tlsoffset + sizeof(struct tls_tcb) e.g. the relocation doesn't include the fixed TCB. For TLS Variant II, this is typically: def->st_value - defobj->tlsoffset + rela->r_addend e.g. starting offset is counting down from the TCB. (6) Implement _lwp_getprivate_fast() in machine/mcontext.h and set __HAVE___LWP_GETPRIVATE_FAST in machine/types.h. (7) Test using src/tests/lib/libc/tls. Make sure with "objdump -R" that t_tls_dynamic has two TPOFF relocations and h_tls_dlopen.so.1 and libh_tls_dynamic.so.1 have both two DTPMOD and DTPOFF relocations.