for some reason I dockerized it and it works

meson.build

@@ -1,10 +1,21 @@
 project('fedavg_mpi', 'c')
-add_global_arguments('-Wno-unused-command-line-argument', language: 'c')
+
 add_project_arguments(
   '-DNPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API=NPY_1_7_API_VERSION',
   language: 'c'
 )
 
+compiler = meson.get_compiler('c')
+if compiler.has_argument('-Wno-unused-command-line-argument')
+  add_global_arguments('-Wno-unused-command-line-argument', language: 'c')
+endif
+
+if compiler.has_link_argument('-Wl,-w')
+  add_link_args = ['-Wl,-w']
+else
+  add_link_args = []
+endif
+
 mpi = dependency('mpi')
 python = dependency('python3')
 numpy_header = include_directories(run_command(
@@ -21,4 +32,4 @@ executable('fedavg_mpi',
   'main.c', bridge,
   dependencies: [mpi, python],
   include_directories: numpy_header,
-  link_args: '-Wl,-w')
+  link_args: add_link_args)