Returns glibc version string, or None if not using glibc.

def glibc_version_string():
    "Returns glibc version string, or None if not using glibc."

    # ctypes.CDLL(None) internally calls dlopen(NULL), and as the dlopen
    # manpage says, "If filename is NULL, then the returned handle is for the
    # main program". This way we can let the linker do the work to figure out
    # which libc our process is actually using.
    process_namespace = ctypes.CDLL(None)
    try:
        gnu_get_libc_version = process_namespace.gnu_get_libc_version
    except AttributeError:
        # Symbol doesn't exist -> therefore, we are not linked to
        # glibc.
        return None

    # Call gnu_get_libc_version, which returns a string like "2.5"
    gnu_get_libc_version.restype = ctypes.c_char_p
    version_str = gnu_get_libc_version()
    # py2 / py3 compatibility:
    if not isinstance(version_str, str):
        version_str = version_str.decode("ascii")

    return version_str