Curious

[Joe Buck]

> Just curious, why does linux config.guess not return with an OS
> version?  Does that mean that binaries compiled for i686-pc-linux-gnu
> on Linux 2.2.2 kernel will work on Linux 2.0.36 and vice-versa?

Generally speaking, the C library version is far more important to the
function of gcc than the kernel is (in that C and C++ programs don't
call the kernel directly, they call the C library).  So unless you're
doing something fairly machine-specific or advanced in your program,
it doesn't much matter what your kernel version is.  For the most part,
the C library insulates you from kernel differences and the answer is
"it doesn't matter".  There are some notes distributed in the
documentation directory of Linux 2.2.x that describes cases where it
does matter.

However, if you switch from libc5 (alias Glibc1) to libc6
(alias glibc2) it makes quite a large difference.  This is why
config.guess figures out which one you have.