Re: [boost] ABI and API compatibility

From: Daniel James (daniel_james_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-04-24 04:00:43

2008/4/24 Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]>:
>
>  1. Applications using 1.35.0 need not be changed at all.
>  2. If application link to 1.35.0 as dynamic library, then
>  switching them to use 1.35.1 should not break anything.
>
>  Does this make sense, and if so, can we officially document
>  such a policy?

I think this would be a very good thing, but I'm not sure how
practical it would be. There are already at least two changes in the
release branch which break ABI compatability (I might be wrong, I only
had a quick look at the changesets):

http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/44414
http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/44440

We do so much in headers that this would require a lot of discipline
and prevent a lot of fixes. It'd be nice to be able to test for ABI
compatibility, perhaps by running the tests with one version, and the
libraries with another. Would that be effective? We'd also need more
frequent releases so that those fixes could be pushed out sooner but
we need that anyway.

Daniel