Anticipate “kernel too old” errors between 2.6.16 and 2.6.26 kernel versions

Question

I build an application on a machine running Linux (Debian) with kernel 2.6.26-2-amd64 and I want to run this application on another machine running Linux (Suse) with kernel

Answer 1

One way you can determine the minimum kernel version for a given ELF file is to run file on it, like so:

$ echo 'int main(){}' > test.c
$ gcc -o test test.c
$ file test
test: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.38, not stripped

The important part here is the "for GNU/Linux 2.6.38", which indicates the minimum kernel version.