I've read elsewhere on this forum that it's safe to run later versions of glibc on 14.2 pulled from -current. Or at least I think what I've been reading is so.
Is this really safe? I do not plan on compiling the kernel or any other such activity.
To do this correctly would I upgrade glibc and glib both?

no, it's not, most probably all hell will break loose if you do such a thing: you probably misunderstood but in case you didn't I'm curious where that is stated.
glib is library used by gtk+1, it's not "related" to glibc (apart that they are both c libraries).

It should be safe (I will not tell it would) with glibc. Glibc is made, as much it can be, RUNTIME backward compatible. If developers remove some interface, they only remove possibility to compile new software with it. But, for sure, it will be unsafe for glib - this is totally different library from totally different developers
.

However I see no reason to upgrade only glibc. Older binaries won't use newer interfaces, optimization for main architectures is mostly complete, and bugs are minor or hits very limited user base.

If you don't need newer glibc for some reason (i.e. some binary blob requires new one) don't do it. Better update to current if you want just test it.


If you, however, decide to do it, make sure you have at least 3.2 kernel. Otherwise you brick your system.

Thanks all.
I wont touch glib. I just confused which package was which.
glibc 2.7 is required for some stuff I want to run/compile. I'll let you know how it goes (this is a VM anyway so it doesnt matter)

but slackware 14.2 ships glibc-2.23 already...

Sorry 2.27

It will be safer if you try compile your minimal required version 2.27. First try 14.2 slackbuild if it fail, try current slackbuild. If it also fail you may try find "older current" slackbuild with right glibc version. AFAIR some have git repo with past currents. I don't remember if it have only slackbuilds or also packages. But I'm sure someone on this forum know this .