GNU Coreutils - Building older versions on newer systems

Overview

Some older GNU coreutils fail to build on newer GNU/Linux systems.

This happens with Coreutils version 8.29 and earlier, on systems using GlibC version 2.28 or newer, Such as Debian 10, CentOS 8, Fedora 29.

A typical error is:

$ wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-7.6.tar.xz
$ tar -xf coreutils-7.6.tar.xz
$ cd coreutils-7.6
$ ./configure
$ make
[...]
freadahead.c: In function 'freadahead':
freadahead.c:83:3: error: #error "Please port gnulib freadahead.c to
                          your platform! Look at the definition of fflush,
                          fread, ungetc on your system, then report this
                          to bug-gnulib."
[...]
make[4]: *** [Makefile:1700: freadahead.o] Error 1

Other similar errors mention 'freadptr', 'freadseek', 'fseterr'. Older version (before version 7.2) mention 'tee', 'eaccess', 'futimens'.

Details

GLibC version 2.28 removed non-standed headre file (libio.h) and some internal symbols which were used by gnulib (a core component of GNU coreutils).

These were announced as 'deprecated' in vesion 2.27, and removed in version 2.28. Gnulib code was adjusted shortly after , but the code changes obviously can't be retroactively made to previously-released coreutils versions.

Older coreutils versions defined functions that were later picked-up by glibc ('tee','eaccess','futimens') resulting in conflicts.

See the patches for the exact code changes.

Available patches

The following patch files in adjust the source code of older coreutils versions, enabling successful build on newer systems.

Manual Build

1. Download the desired version from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils .
2. Patch using the corresponding patch file (see table above).
3. Configure the build, optionally adding the version number to the executables, to ensure they will not conflict with existing (newer) executables
4. Build with make
5. Optionally install with sudo make install.

Example:

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.97.tar.gz
wget https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/patches/coreutils-5.97-on-glibc-2.28.patch
tar -xf coreutils-5.97.tar.gz
cd coreutils-5.97
patch -p1 < ../coreutils-5.97-on-glibc-2.28.patch
./configure --program-suffix=-5.97
make
sudo make install

This will install the programs (e.g. sort, head) in /usr/local/bin, with "-5.97" added to each program name (e.g. sort-5.97, head-5.97).

NOTE: With very old versions (5.X and 6.X), running ./configure" will hang for a long time at the following step:
checking for mktime...
But will eventually continue successfully.

Automated build

The script build-older-versions.sh automatically performs the manual steps listed above. It will also install the programs into $HOME/old-coreutils/bin .

Example, running the following commands

wget https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/patches/build-older-versions.sh
chmod a+x build-older-versions.sh
./build-older-versions.sh 5.
./build-older-versions.sh 5.97
./build-older-versions.sh 6.12
./build-older-versions.sh 7.6

Will download, patch, build and install the programs for GNU coreutils versions 5.0,5.97,6.12,7.6 in $HOME/old-coreutils/bin :

$ ls $HOME/old-coreutils/bin
[-5.97          id-5.0          sha224sum-7.6
[-6.12          id-5.97         sha256sum-6.12
[-7.6           id-6.12         sha256sum-7.6
base64-6.12     id-7.6          sha384sum-6.12
base64-7.6      install-5.0     sha384sum-7.6
basename-5.0    install-5.97    sha512sum-6.12
basename-5.97   install-6.12    sha512sum-7.6
basename-6.12   install-7.6     shred-5.0
basename-7.6    join-5.0        shred-5.97
cat-5.0         join-5.97       shred-6.12
cat-5.97        join-6.12       shred-7.6
cat-6.12        join-7.6        shuf-6.12
cat-7.6         kill-5.0        shuf-7.6
chcon-6.12      kill-5.97       sleep-5.0
chcon-7.6       kill-6.12       sleep-5.97
chgrp-5.0       kill-7.6        sleep-6.12
chgrp-5.97      link-5.0        sleep-7.6
chgrp-6.12      link-5.97       sort-5.0
chgrp-7.6       link-6.12       sort-5.97
chmod-5.0       link-7.6        sort-6.12
chmod-5.97      ln-5.0          sort-7.6
chmod-6.12      ln-5.97         split-5.0
chmod-7.6       ln-6.12         split-5.97
chown-5.0       ln-7.6          split-6.12
[... many more files ...]

By adding the directory to your $PATH, older versions can be easily used:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/old-coreutils/bin

Questions and Reporting Issues