[arch-general] Installing packages with different glibc

[Thomas Bächler]

Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi schrieb:
> Baho Utot wrote:
>> Does it create complications if I install packages built with a newer
>> glibc-2.10.1-2 on a system with an older glibc-2.9-7?
>>   
> Yes and no. Depending if the executable or library that is linked to
> glibc uses a symbol with declaring what version use via ELF versioning.
> You obtain it with a simple "readelf -s /path/to/executable | grep
> @GLIBC_2.10".
> 
> Do this "readelf -s /lib/libc.so.6 | grep @GLIBC_2.10" and get an idea
> of the minimal  functions that are only in version 2.10 ;)

I'm just taking a quick look over some random binaries:

$ readelf -s file | grep @GLIBC|cut -d@ -f2 | cut -d\  -f1|sort -u

For /bin/bash, this tells me our bash should work with glibc 2.4. 
/bin/ls should even work with 2.3. In general, all should work unless a 
new symbol is used, or an old symbol had incompatible changes. This is 
not often the case in glibc, but there's many more problems with C++ 
programs and the standard C++ libs.

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