setting MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.4 or MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.3 on an Intel Leopard produced binaries executable on Intel Tigers (we have no Intel Panther, though) Without MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET binaries from Leopard yield "Bus Error" on Tiger. The binary was built using my own binary-dist for Intel Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) (with GMP and GNUreadline frameworks). Christian Deborah Goldsmith wrote:
On Nov 6, 2007, at 4:06 PM, Manuel M T Chakravarty wrote:
I wasn't expecting any backwards compatibility from Leopard-built software to Tiger, but then I am also a Mac-noob and maybe there are ways to achieve that that I don't know of. Any suggestions?
Sorry, I missed this the first time around...
To build binaries on Leopard that are compatible with previous releases of Mac OS X, you need to use the appropriate SDK parameters when invoking gcc (for includes) and the linker (for libraries). This is described in the context of building a universal binary in:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Porting/Conceptual/PortingUnix/comp...
but the same concepts (-isysroot for gcc and -Wl,-syslibroot for ld) apply to building against any SDK.
An SDK is basically a copy of the frameworks and libraries for a particular OS release, but the libraries are just stubs to link against. By pointing gcc and ld at an SDK, you use the correct headers and entry points for a particular release.
Caveat: I don't know how use of SDKs interacts with use of non-system libraries (e.g., in /opt/local or /Library/Frameworks).
Another approach is to set MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED to MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_4 (or whatever). You then have to be careful about how you use APIs that are new in Leopard. I would think the SDK approach would be easier for something like ghc.
If you don't do anything, by default binaries built on a particular Mac OS X release will only run on that release or later.
Deborah