Best way of compiling applications to run on older linux distros

[Andrew Haley]

Tom Quarendon wrote:
> We have a requirement for our application to run on Centos 4, but
> currently we compile on Fedora 9 with gcc 4.3.
> My question is what is the best way of compiling an application to
> target older linux distros? Doesn't seem to be any common wisdom that I
> can find on the web, but maybe I'm searching for the wrong thing.

Install an old linux distro.  They're still available.

> Obvisously one solution is to compile on Centos 4, using a gcc such as 3.4.
> However I'd like to use the latest gcc is I can.

Don't.  if you want to run on Centos 4, build on Centos 4.

Andrew.