[Bf-linux] Precompiled linux versions

[Yann Renard]

Hello list,

I am new to this list and I come here because of some discussions I had 
on #blendercompilers and #blendercoders about precompiled Linux version. 
People there told me I should ask to "ken hughes" about my problem.

Right, first of all, I have to introduce myself a bit. I am not a 
Blender developer nor a Blender user. I occasionally used Blender in the 
past but no more than 20-30 hours so consider I don't know much about 
it. But I used 3DSMax a lot so this is why I know Blender and I got 
interested enough to see how good the software is, leading me to take it 
as an example. Additionnaly, I am currently working on a Brain Computer 
Interface software (http://openvibe.inria.fr) which goal is to control a 
computer or machine thanks to brainwaves. Now, gota stop telling you my 
life, I move on to the problem.

We are at the point where we are interested in giving people precompiled 
binaries of our software. Windows packages were pretty easy to build, 
but I have problems with Linux building relocatable binaries. The first 
problem I got was to have a fixed path to access the software, even if 
the user decompresses the archive in his homedir. This has been solved 
with script wrappers. These scripts create symlinks in /tmp just before 
launching the software. I consider assuming /tmp is accessible with 
write access is quite reasonable. I don't know how you guys do with 
Blender. The second problem I got (and this is why I contact you), is 
the glibc that I should link with my software. I compiled my whole 
software on Ubuntu 9.04 and when I moved it to Fedora Core 5, it 
complained about a bad glibc version. Now in the case of Blender, the 
download website states that glibc 2.3.6 is required. I suppose that 
compiling the software among this old version of glibc guarantees that 
the binary will be relocatable on most if not all of the curent linux 
distros. This is what I want.

So my two questions are :
1- why did you chose 2.3.6 over any other glibc version ?
2- how do you build blender among this exact version ? do you use a 
speicific linux distro ? do you compile this glibc localy on recent 
distros ?
3- what about libstdc++ ?

I hope my life was not too boring for you...
Many thanks in advance for the help you'll provide.
Best regards,
Yann Renard