When installing Diffutils using glibc-2.1.x on your base system, it may be necessary to use a fix to prevent a variable name conflict. The following commands can be used in this case. Note that these commands can also be used for other glibc versions so if you aren't sure, then use the first version. export CPPFLAGS=-Dre_max_failures=re_max_failures2 && ./configure --prefix=$LFS/usr && unset CPPFLAGS && make LDFLAGS=-static PR_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/pr && make install If you are using a newer glibc version (2.2.x), you can use the following commands to install Diffutils: ./configure --prefix=$LFS/usr && make LDFLAGS=-static PR_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/pr && make install