C program to run under all versions
 

I have created a C program that complies and runs under RH 9.0, but when i take the executable to another box running RH 7.3 it will not run.

I have been told that I can build the executable to contain all of it's needed libraries, that way it can run on any system I need to copy it too. Is this true? If so how?

Any help or suggestions??

Thanks.

gcc -static <rest of arguments>

but why not just provide the source and compile it on the rh9 machine because static binaries are larger and more succeptable to security problems

Using the gcc -static does work.

When I take the source over to the RH 7.3 system and try to compile I get a few errors, missing libraries.

I am trying to run this on a production system and do not want to create other problems by updating glibc.

why no take the source and just compile it on the other machine no need to upgrade :)

I didn't know that.
Why is this so?

well not directly but for example take something thats linked to zlib, if a security problem is found in zlib then all dynamically linked programs are fixed as soon as you upgrade zlib but all statically linked programs require a recompile which it is quite easy to forget to do.

Ah, right.
Quite obvious, should have thought of that myself.
Thanks.

>When I take the source over to the RH 7.3 system and try to compile I get a few errors, missing libraries.

>I am trying to run this on a production system and do not want to create other problems by updating glibc.

You need install _additionally_ old libraries from RH7.3 on RH9.0 and change some compilation options.

i'd recommend compiling with the -ansi -Wall options to help portability, remove all warnings as well as errors. just a suggestion but it may not help your library issue.