Re: [boost] C++03 and C++11 ABI compatibility for compiled libraries

Subject: Re: [boost] C++03 and C++11 ABI compatibility for compiled libraries
From: Petr Machata (pmachata_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-05-20 07:44:31

I maintain Boost in Fedora, and C++03/11 incompatibility has been on my
list of things to look into for some time now.

Andrey Semashev <andrey.semashev_at_[hidden]> writes:
> 1. Avoid using C++11 features in binary interfaces.

This is attractive from the downstream maintainer point of view, but
would likely be fragile.  Also, avoiding use of ABI-incompatible STL
types seems like a serious limitation.  This doesn't seem like it could
work.

> 2. Compile different versions of Boost libraries

I'm not sure how this fares with respect to autotools (by any name).  We
might need to update some automation to adapt to the changes in soname
mangling, and to take any C++11-enabling switches into account.  But I
didn't look closely.  Covering autotools and cmake would take us a long
way towards the goal, which seems doable, so maybe #2 is the way to go.

Thanks,
PM