Linking against older symbol version in a .so file

Question

Using gcc and ld on x86_64 linux I need to link against a newer version of a library (glibc 2.14) but the executable needs to run on a system with an older version (2.5). Si

Answer 1

Minimal runnable self contained example

GitHub upstream.

main.c

#include 
#include 

#include "a.h"

#if defined(V1)
__asm__(".symver a,a@LIBA_1");
#elif defined(V2)
__asm__(".symver a,a@LIBA_2");
#endif

int main(void) {
#if defined(V1)
    assert(a() == 1);
#else
    assert(a() == 2);
#endif
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

a.c

#include "a.h"

__asm__(".symver a1,a@LIBA_1");
int a1(void) {
    return 1;
}

/* @@ means "default version". */
__asm__(".symver a2,a@@LIBA_2");
int a2(void) {
    return 2;
}

a.h

#ifndef A_H
#define A_H

int a(void);

#endif

a.map

LIBA_1{
    global:
    a;
    local:
    *;
};

LIBA_2{
    global:
    a;
    local:
    *;
};

Makefile

CC := gcc -pedantic-errors -std=c89 -Wall -Wextra

.PHONY: all clean run

all: main.out main1.out main2.out

run: all
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./main.out
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./main1.out
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./main2.out

main.out: main.c libcirosantilli_a.so
    $(CC) -L'.' main.c -o '$@' -lcirosantilli_a

main1.out: main.c libcirosantilli_a.so
    $(CC) -DV1 -L'.' main.c -o '$@' -lcirosantilli_a

main2.out: main.c libcirosantilli_a.so
    $(CC) -DV2 -L'.' main.c -o '$@' -lcirosantilli_a

a.o: a.c
    $(CC) -fPIC -c '$<' -o '$@'

libcirosantilli_a.so: a.o
    $(CC) -Wl,--version-script,a.map -L'.' -shared a.o -o '$@'

libcirosantilli_a.o: a.c
    $(CC) -fPIC -c '$<' -o '$@'

clean:
    rm -rf *.o *.a *.so *.out

Tested on Ubuntu 16.04.