What's the best way to build software that doesn't require the newest glibc?

Question

I'm attempting to build a binary package that can be run on multiple Linux distributions. It's currently built on Ubuntu 10.04, but it fails on Ubuntu 8.04 with the following error:

./test: /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.11' not found (required by ./test)
./test: /usr/lib/libstdc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.11' not found (required by ./test)

What's the preferred way to solve this problem? Is there a way to install an old glibc on a new box and build against it, or do I have to build on an old distribution? And if I build against an old glibc, will it work on a new glibc?

Or, alternatively, are there just some handy compiler flags or packages I could install to solve the problem?

Answer 1

The best solution I've found is to install a virtual machine running Debian stable, and build on that. Debian stable is old enough that any packages built with it will run on any other Debian-based distribution like Ubuntu. You may have to work around non-critical bugs that have been fixed in later versions of various software but not backported to Debian stable.

Answer 2

If you really want to make sure it runs on every recent distribution, you might also consider statically linking against a libC you select. However you may then still run into problems if you use features that are only provided by newer kernels (newer system calls e.g.).