The great thing about standards ...

… is that there are so many to choose from. In order to build your own linux kernel, you must have a bunch of supporting software, and each program must be relatively recent. Fortunately, the linux 2.5 kernel documentation shows you how to check the version of each required program. Also fortunately, most of the programs follow standards on how to check their versions. Unfortunately, the programs follow four different standards.

o  Gnu C                  2.95.3                  # gcc --version
o  Gnu make               3.78                    # make --version
o  binutils               2.9.5.0.25              # ld -v
o  util-linux             2.10o                   # fdformat --version
o  module-init-tools      0.9.9                   # depmod -V
o  e2fsprogs              1.29                    # tune2fs
o  jfsutils               1.0.14                  # fsck.jfs -V
o  reiserfsprogs          3.6.3                   # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep rei\
serfsprogs
o  xfsprogs               2.1.0                   # xfs_db -V
o  pcmcia-cs              3.1.21                  # cardmgr -V
o  PPP                    2.4.0                   # pppd --version
o  isdn4k-utils           3.1pre1                 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
o  procps                 2.0.9                   # ps --version
o  oprofile               0.5                     # oprofiled --version