[gentoo-dev] heads up: glibc-2.20 will require >=linux-2.6.32

[gentoo-dev] heads up: glibc-2.20 will require >=linux-2.6.32

[Mike Frysinger]

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upstream glibc has dropped support for older Linux kernels.  your choices:
 - upgrade your kernel
 - switch to a different C library
 - stick with glibc-2.19 for a while

be warned though there are no plans atm to backport things to glibc-2.19.  
this includes security fixes, but more importantly as time moves on, making 
newer gcc versions sanely compile glibc.  we've kept older glibc versions 
around to be nice, and on a part time basis for cross-compiling, but none of 
those are given priority.  i.e. fixes come as people feel like doing them.

certainly once glibc-2.20+ goes stable, there is no expectation let alone 
requirement that packages in the tree be kept working with older glibc 
versions.  the maintenance cost there is unreasonable.

i guess if you're stuck on old crap, now would be a good time to start 
preparing to unstick your crap.  glibc-2.20 will most likely be in ~arch in 
the next 6 months.
-mike

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Re: [gentoo-dev] heads up: glibc-2.20 will require >=linux-2.6.32

[Samuli Suominen]

On 03/08/14 16:16, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> upstream glibc has dropped support for older Linux kernels.  your choices:
>  - upgrade your kernel
>  - switch to a different C library
>  - stick with glibc-2.19 for a while
>
> be warned though there are no plans atm to backport things to glibc-2.19.  
> this includes security fixes, but more importantly as time moves on, making 
> newer gcc versions sanely compile glibc.  we've kept older glibc versions 
> around to be nice, and on a part time basis for cross-compiling, but none of 
> those are given priority.  i.e. fixes come as people feel like doing them.
>
> certainly once glibc-2.20+ goes stable, there is no expectation let alone 
> requirement that packages in the tree be kept working with older glibc 
> versions.  the maintenance cost there is unreasonable.
>
> i guess if you're stuck on old crap, now would be a good time to start 
> preparing to unstick your crap.  glibc-2.20 will most likely be in ~arch in 
> the next 6 months.
> -mike

use of 2.6.32 needs ~sys-fs/udev-208 (kept around for late 2.6.32 patchsets)
use of current udev needs at least 2.6.39 for CONFIG_FHANDLE

so there's more problems with running such a old kernel than just glibc

just saying

Re: [gentoo-dev] heads up: glibc-2.20 will require >=linux-2.6.32

[Tobias Klausmann]

Hi! 

On Sun, 03 Aug 2014, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> upstream glibc has dropped support for older Linux kernels.  your choices:
>  - upgrade your kernel
>  - switch to a different C library
>  - stick with glibc-2.19 for a while

Also note that 2.6.32 is the oldest longterm kernel. If you use
something older, you haven't gotten any security updates at all
for a while.

Regards,
Tobias

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