Pre-built binaries require GLIBC 2.29+, incompatible with older Linux systems

[Persephones-hades101]

Issue: Pre-built binaries require GLIBC 2.29+, incompatible with older Linux systems

Environment

• OS: CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 (GLIBC 2.28)
• git-ai version: v1.1.2 (latest pre-built binary)
• Installation method: curl -sSL https://usegitai.com/install.sh | bash

Problem

The pre-built Linux binaries fail to run on systems with GLIBC 2.28 or earlier:

$ git-ai --version
/users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai)
/users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai)
/users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.30' not found (required by /users/sudhasi2/.git-ai/bin/git-ai)

Installation completes successfully but the binary is unusable.

Impact

This affects users on:

• CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 (GLIBC 2.28)
• Debian 10 (GLIBC 2.28)
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (GLIBC 2.27)
• Other enterprise Linux systems with older GLIBC versions

These systems are still widely deployed in corporate environments.

Current Workaround

Building from source works fine:

# Install Rust
export CARGO_HOME=/workspace/rust/cargo
export RUSTUP_HOME=/workspace/rust/rustup
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs/ | sh -s -- -y --no-modify-path

# Build git-ai
git clone https://github.com/git-ai-project/git-ai.git
cd git-ai
cargo build --release
cp target/release/git-ai ~/.git-ai/bin/git-ai

The locally-built binary works perfectly with GLIBC 2.28.

Proposed Solutions

Option 1: Build on older system (Recommended)

Build pre-built binaries on a system with GLIBC 2.27 or 2.28. Binaries built against older GLIBC versions work on newer systems (forward compatibility).

Option 2: Provide multiple binary versions

Offer separate downloads for different GLIBC versions:

• git-ai-linux-x64 (GLIBC 2.29+)
• git-ai-linux-x64-glibc2.27 (for older systems)

Option 3: Static linking

Statically link GLIBC to avoid runtime dependencies (may increase binary size).

System Information

$ ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.28
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

$ file ~/.git-ai/bin/git-ai
ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, 
interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=5f7c76dd00e1d17efc1444094e464cf9d751b4db, stripped

Additional Context

The installation script doesn't check GLIBC version before downloading, leading to a confusing experience where installation "succeeds" but the binary doesn't work.

Adding a GLIBC version check to the installer would provide better UX:

# In install.sh
MIN_GLIBC="2.29"
CURRENT_GLIBC=$(ldd --version | head -n1 | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+$')
if [ "$(printf '%s\n' "$MIN_GLIBC" "$CURRENT_GLIBC" | sort -V | head -n1)" != "$MIN_GLIBC" ]; then
    echo "Error: GLIBC $MIN_GLIBC+ required, found $CURRENT_GLIBC"
    echo "Please build from source: https://github.com/git-ai-project/git-ai"
    exit 1
fi