Static build of mc

[david leighweb com]

I'm on a web host shared server that I like VERY much: O2Switch 
(o2switch.fr) They give a LOT of functionality for the money, including 
shell access.  Unfortunately they don't have mc installed and are not 
willing to install it.

I've tried to find other ncurses-based file managers and editors but 
nothing even comes CLOSE to mc and what it does for me.  I've got the 
python ranger file manager to work but I DON'T know and don't have time 
to learn vim key-bindings so it's almost useless to me.  mc simply works 
the way I do and I would really like to get it working on this 
environment.  The hosting company says I'm free to put on there things 
that I can get to run within the limitations of being a standard user.  
I can't run package installers, nor can I compile anything.  I've gotten 
other small statically-linked programs to run fine in my user 
environment.  So I would like a statically-linked, user-environment 
version of mc (even if some of the more esoteric features don't fully 
work - though what's esoteric for me may not be for someone else).

They told me that the server is a CentOS 6 box.  I see traces of 
CloudLinux and CageFS in my user space as well.

So I created a VirtualBox CentOS 6.8 machine (Win 10 Pro host).  I 
installed the mc yum package and it runs fine in my VM.  So then I tried 
to copy the appropriate files to my web hosting user space (/etc/mc >>> 
~/etc/mc, ~/usr..., and so on).  Unfortunately it complained about the 
version of glibc (2.12) on the server.  I saw ONE statically linked mc 
on the web here: 
https://github.com/linux-static/linux-static-i386/downloads but it will 
only run if placed under /opt and I don't have access to that on my user 
space (in .Cagefs there is an /opt.  I tried putting it there, but mc 
wouldn't start, complaining of something missing/wrong version...sorry 
don't remember the details - I've tried SO MANY things)

While I have a programming background (IBM mainframe assembler and COBOL 
and LOTS of various scripting), none of it is in Linux so I've been 
getting a crash, self-taught course in linking/loading elf-style, etc.  
I'm still in WAY over my head though.

It looked like I was going to need to compile it myself.  So I tried to 
compile it statically on my CentOS box using hints from this site: 
https://namelythehedgehog.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/compile-static-copy-of-midnight-commander/ 
where he suggests this configure line:

./configure --with-glib-static --without-x --disable-shared 
--enable-static \
    CC='gcc -static -static-libgcc -fno-exceptions' \
    CXX='g++ -static -static-libgcc -fno-exceptions' \
    LDFLAGS='-Wl,-static -static -lc' \
    LIBS='-lc'

The CentOS 6.8 had a problem with glibc versions and the mc source 
version I tried (4.8.17).  So I read more and found out that I really 
needed to have the static versions of glibc as well so I went to create 
a user-space static version of glibc.  I couldn't get that to work with 
my CentOS VM and VirtualBox with CentOS is is EXTREMELY painful.  So I 
fell back to my xubuntu VM and succeeded in compiling the latest glibc 
to a non-system directory.  So I modified the configure line to the 
following:

./configure --with-glib-static --without-x --disable-shared 
--enable-static \
    CC='gcc -static -static-libgcc -fno-exceptions' \
        CXX='g++ -static -static-libgcc -fno-exceptions' \
        LDFLAGS='-Wl,-static -static -L/root/myglibc/build/lib -lc' \
        LIBS='-L/root/myglibc/build/lib -lc'

For good measure and because it wasn't finding a static glibc, I also 
did:

export GLIB_LIBDIR=/root/myglibc/build/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/root/myglibc/build/lib

The end result though is still the same message:

configure: error: Cannot find static glib

and it stops right there.  If I look in  /root/myglibc/build/lib, there 
is a libc.a so I really am at the end of my understanding and patience 
and time.  I can't imagine that there is NOT a solution, but I need help 
from people who know this MUCH better than I do.

So, if any of you smart people can point out to me the error of my ways 
or point me to other copies of statically linked mc that should work 
(that I can simply do copies of the relevant files into my user-space), 
please let me know.  I'll be very grateful and I promise to pass on my 
eventual success to others in my same situation.

Many thanks in advance!