You can just use a GCC docker image to build: https://hub.docker.com/_/gcc

No I can't... without an appropriate installation of docker and/or dependencies of docker.

See: https://docs.docker.com/engine/security/rootless/#prerequisi...

You don't control your device OS or otherwise have access to a machine you do, your OS does not offer modern packages, and you don't have the ability to otherwise pull in development toolchain resources.... yet it's supposed to be the projects problem you can't compile something started in 2021 from source on your older setup?

I get your current situation is less than ideal for you but at some point you have to accept the project is not the source of painfulness associated with you trying to compile new apps from source, it's just the trigger.

You have the implicit assumption that I'm working on an individual project. Imagine a large company which settles on an OS for some product that goes into the field for 10 or 20 years. That's the OS you're stuck with. And yes, that's painful in itself.

Now, I _can_, with some effort, pull/build a development toolchain. But it would be much nicer if I could have access to this utility on machines with older toolchains, that's all.

You can install the binary on your device and don't need to compile from source for using the application.

It seems unfair to both developers and other users of the project to expect it to be compatible with older toolchains given the benefits of the newer builds.

This. In the github readme it says static binaries are supplied. Thinking of linux and linux tooling as just something distros supply limit the imagination. Pull down the correct static and you're done. If you still want to compile it, it's easy.

From linux from scratch to muslcc to buildroot to yocto you can get nice new compilers and run them in docker or in a simple chroot. Requiring new compiler versions is a good thing and any disto related impediments are a distraction from just getting simple toolchain tooling going.

> You have the implicit assumption that I'm working on an individual project.

There is no such implication.

That link says "Known to work on Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, and 21.04", although maybe Ubuntu is just the default selection when the page loads... still, I guess you won't be testing much new software if they don't allow you even using Docker!

If you don't even have the right to install docker on your own machine what makes you think that your sysadmins are ok with you compiling this random software from the internet anyways ?

Maybe download Miniforge and install gcc_linux-64, then you get GCC 11, all without sudo, on (probably) any Linux distro