[dependencies] RHEL 6 - how to install 'GLIBC_2.14' or 'GLIBC_2.15'?

I need these 2 packages installed on RHEL 6 linux system. They are required by several other programs.

When I do:

sudo yum install glibc-devel

this is output:

Loaded plugins: product-id, security
Setting up Install Process
Package glibc-devel-2.12-1.166.el6_7.1.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

Is there some EPEL with GLIBC_2.15 for RHEL? If not - what is a workaround here?

Naive question: Is it possible to somehow download GLIBC 2.15, put it in any folder (e.g. /tmp/myglibc) and then point to this path ONLY when executing something that needs this specific version of glibc?

Yes, it's possible.

To install GLIBC_2.14 or GLIBC_2.15, download package from /gnu/libc/ index at

https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libc/

Then follow instructions listed by Timo:

For example glibc-2.14.tar.gz in your case.

1. tar xvfz glibc-2.14.tar.gz

2. cd glibc-2.14

3. mkdir build

4. cd build

5. ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc-2.14

6. make

7. sudo make install

8. export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/glibc-2.14/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

download rpm packages and run the following command:

rpm -Uvh glibc-2.15-60.el6.x86_64.rpm \
glibc-common-2.15-60.el6.x86_64.rpm \
glibc-devel-2.15-60.el6.x86_64.rpm \
glibc-headers-2.15-60.el6.x86_64.rpm

This often occurs when you build software in RHEL 7 and try to run on RHEL 6.

To update GLIBC to any version, simply download the package from

https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libc/

For example glibc-2.14.tar.gz in your case.

1. tar xvfz glibc-2.14.tar.gz
2. cd glibc-2.14
3. mkdir build
4. cd build
5. ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc-2.14
6. make
7. sudo make install
8. export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/glibc-2.14/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Then try to run your software, glibc-2.14 should be linked.

For another instance of Glibc, download gcc 4.7.2, for instance from this github repo (although an official source would be better) and extract it to some folder, then update LD_LIBRARY_PATH with the path where you have extracted glib.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$glibpath/glib-2.49.4-kgesagxmtbemim2denf65on4iixy3miy/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$glibpath/libffi-3.2.1-wk2luzhfdpbievnqqtu24pi774esyqye/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$glibpath/pcre-8.39-itdbuzevbtzqeqrvna47wstwczud67wx/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$glibpath/gettext-0.19.8.1-aoweyaoufujdlobl7dphb2gdrhuhikil/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

This should keep you safe from bricking your CentOS*.

*Disclaimer: I just completed the thought it looks like the OP was trying to express, but I don't fully agree.