According to Ivan Levashew on 2/12/2009 11:59 AM:
Generally, I'd like build system and compiler to be as humble as
possible. Don't run tests on my platform, don't look for libraries and
headers in my /usr directory. If something is not specified by means of
command line or environment variables, it doesn't exist. The only
exception is libraries/headers provided by compiler (which is specified
on command line anyway). OS headers should be taken from SDKs and never
from my system.
This sounds like the perfect use case for a chroot jail. As a maintainer,
you should be capable of creating a bare-bones environment for testing
your builds against an older or less complete installation than what you
run on a day-to-day environment. In fact, many of the distros have tools
to make doing this task easier. I think that you may be better served by
learning how those distro package-preparation tools work to simulate the
oldest supported environment.