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Re:Compile your software by coliveira on Monday July 26, 2021 @09:29PM (#27967582)
You mean, expose bugs. If the software doesn't support a certain combination, this is a bug in the software.
Re:Compile your software by indianboy42 on Monday July 26, 2021 @11:23PM (#27968273)
Is it required for open source software to support every combination of compiler, kernel, libc etc? We wouldn't say it has to support every version of any other dependency (not provided by system)

It's definitely a nice to have, but I think it's also valid for some project to say we support the version we used in CI and for releases. On the other hand you could say being stuck on a specific version is skin to relying on implementation details, which is a code smell atleast.

Re:Compile your software by binarybanana on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @11:21AM (#27973513)
>Is it required for open source software to support every combination of compiler, kernel, libc etc?

If the versions of the components are within the range of what is defined at supported, then yes, absolutely. Most open source software supports a certain range of all the dependencies it needs to compile, like libfoo >= 0.2 - <= 0.5, libbar >= 1.0.0 - <= 1.8.0 and so on. This is encoded in the build scripts that check for this and set up the final Makefiles or whatever to actually compile the thing.

In practice it's more difficult because distributions often "fix" build scripts to allow versions outside this range, or the libraries they ship are heavily patched, but in that case it's still a bug, just some else's.

I think writing something against only a single specific version of anything is a shoddy practice and leads to brittle and ultimately hard to maintain software. It means you can't easily do updates and will depend on bugs in whatever version you use.

If you seriously suggested that way to handle things to an open source project most would laugh at you.

Re:Compile your software by wowi42 on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @01:59AM (#27969107)
That's what people are doing with Alpine and Musl!
Re:Compile your software by spfzero on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @12:52AM (#27968773)
Its only a bug if the software was stated to support that combination. If it was designed and documented to suppot three combinations, and you tried it on a fourth, found it not to work, that’s an enhancement request not a bug report.
Re:Compile your software by npsf3000 on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @12:25PM (#27974294)
I'm sure that'll be reassuring when production goes down at 3am... and you're seeing an error message that nobody else in the world has encountered.