Notes about Creating C/C++ Binaries that Run on Different Flavors of Linux

After a little reading, what we've learned so far is –

• This is not simple
• I think the level of difficultly increases with the number of linked libraries
• It is debatable whether static linking helps or causes more problems (see the pixelbeat site for more information on this).
• It's probably helpful to compile with the oldest version of Linux & gcc that one intends to support.

Here's some articles/conversations on the topic –

• http://www.pixelbeat.org/programming/linux_binary_compatibility.html
• http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/24/2230256&threshold=1
• http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1771366/binary-compatibility-between-linux-distributions

Here's a tool that might help – http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/check-your-app

Here's a list of distros certified for compliance with the Linux Standard Base – http://www.linuxfoundation.org/lsb-cert/productdir.php?by_lsb

Here's an interesting report on binary compatibility: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/linux-binary-compatibility.html

A few other bits of research on Binary Compatibility: http://kerneltrap.org/node/4006