Compiling code that uses kernel headers

["Stephen J. Smoogen" <smooge gmail com>]

I am working with the libpcap + ringbuffer and trying to get it moved
from Debian to Red Hat. The Debian/Slackware code depends upon
/usr/include/linux/system.h which has the kernel version of asm.h
linked to if for the platform. For i386 this is asm-i386.h which has
the macro mb(); that the pcap ringbuffer code relies on to make sure
some obscure race conditions are taken of. [I do not know what the
race condition is beyond it talking to the kernel half of the
ringbuffer.]

Anyway it compiles well on the other Linux versions we have because it
can find the call to mb() without problems. On Fecore Core 3 (and most
likely RHEL4) it does not work at all because  of kernel system.h now
in /lib/modules/....

What is the best way of dealing with items like this?

-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
CSIRT/Linux System Administrator