Ideally you should rebuild and repackage your applications for each major release. This will allow you take advantage of new optimizations in the compiler, as well as new features available in the latest tools.

However, we understand there are times when it is useful to build one set of binaries that can be deployed on multiple major releases at once. This is especially useful with old code bases that are not compliant to the latest revision of the language standards available in more recent Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.

As such, Red Hat advises that you refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Application Compatibility Specification for guidance. This document outlines Red Hat policy and recommendations regarding backwards compatibility, particularly for specific packages.