Re: [boost] boost dll versions

From: Rene Rivera (grafik.list_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-08-14 11:30:20

Neal Becker wrote:
> I think it is a bit unfortunate that we don't have a system to determine
> whether boost updates break existing api's. 

I've always been under the assumption that 1.x to 1.y release will 
change the binary API, and that 1.33.x to 1.33.y will not.

> The usual process is that, for
> example, suppose we have
> 
> libboost.so.1.33.0
> 
> Let's assign this soname libboost.so.1.  Then a symlink is created
> 
> libboost.so.1 -> libboost.so.1.33.0.
> 
> Now if a bugfix comes out that does not change the api, be can have
> 
> libboost.so.1.33.1, which also has soname libboost.so.1, and then symlink:
> 
> libboost.so.1 -> libboost.so.1.33.1

Is that what the RPM does? It's not what the regular build does.

> OK, so that's the background.  AFAICT, we (boost) don't have any way to tell
> if a new release breaks existing api, and whether to up the version.  I
> think that is unfortunate.  I don't really know what to do about it,
> though.

Perhaps the misunderstanding is that we consider the "version" to be 
1.33 in this case. So instead of doing above you would do:

libboost.so.1.33.0
libboost.so.1.33 --> libboost.so.1.33.0

And the new patch revision would be:

libboost.so.1.33.1
libboost.so.1.33 --> libboost.so.1.33.1

Basically there's no "1" version, ever. If that's not what the RedHat 
RPMs do I would say that's a mistake and should be corrected.

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