title: Avoiding too specific dependencies
body: <p>I am using a shared C library on Linux that is distributed in binary form. The problem is that the dependencies are set to require exactly the versions available on the development machine. For example, each release requires the (at the time) latest glibc and only the exact version of libreadline on their system.</p>
  
  <p>I have contacted the developers and they don't know what to do about this. As far as I can tell, they are not consciously using the latest features, so the library should continue to work with older dependencies. I think they are using gcc on Linux, but they are also using a complex make system to control other compilers to build for Windows and Unix.</p>
  
  <p>How and to what extent can you manage the build process so that a library requires dependencies just of a sufficient version and will also accept later versions?</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20270965/linking-with-a-shared-library-without-version">This</a> was a related question.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong> To be clear, I want to know how to build programs so they will accept dependencies with a specific version number or later numbers. Whether the developers compile it or I do, I want to be able to distribute a binary that does not require exactly the versions of dependencies present in the build environment.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit 2:</strong> After rephrasing the question, I realized this has been covered many times before. Some of the best Q&amp;A:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8657908/deploying-yesod-to-heroku-cant-build-statically/8658468#8658468">Deploying Yesod to Heroku, can't build statically</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10815453/compile-with-older-libc-version-glibc-2-14-not-found">Compile with older libc</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4032373/linking-against-an-old-version-of-libc-to-provide-greater-application-coverage">Linking against an old version of libc</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2856438/how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-glibc-version">How can I link to a specific glibc version?</a></p>