I need to build an application running on an embedded vendor supplied version of linux. According to the documentation it has libc version 2.8.90. I have built a simple application in C++ on a desktop and copied the binary across to the hardware along with copies of the libraries it is linked to. In order to remove any potential conflicts of linking against different versions of libraries I considered attempting to link to libraries statically. After some research I found the following question and answers and after reading through it gave the impression that linking statically is not a good thing to do. What I could not find here (or anywhere else so far) was a simple explanation of why this seems to be frowned upon. It would seem to me (pretty much a novice to linux) to be a way of solving my problem of bundling my executable as a single package and running it on my hardware but clearly it seems to be considered a bad idea but can someone please explain why??
Obviously I am aware that it would cause bloating of my binary but I am not worried about that. Additionally, I am aware of the licensing issues, but I am not concerned with that aspect of things particularly. This is not a commercial application so I do not think that it applies to me.
The advantages are, as you expect, a single binary that works without having to install the other dependencies and which you can easily move around.
The disadvantages are the size and the need to recompile the entire application if there’s an update (e.g. a security fix) to the linked library and perhaps licensing issues (as you’ve noted).
Tradeoffs. If it solves your problem, go for it.