Re: libposix - is it done yet?

[Bruce Korb]

Hi Ralf,

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 10:08 PM, Ralf Wildenhues
<address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> then you wind up with these choices:
>>
>> 1. immutable, with the noted problem
>> 2. Use version $YEAR$MONTH$DAY:0:0 necessitating a recompile
>>    of everything that uses it with every new libposix installation.
>>    Probably not good either.
>
> That would be the worst solution.

Yes, indeed.  :)

>> 3. People (or someone) takes responsibility for twiddling the LTV_*
>>    values for every change to the library.  Who would that be?
>> I certainly agree that #3 is best.  I just don't see how it'd work well.
>> I think #2 would make it unusable.  There is a fourth possibility:

Well, both you and Gary think it not infeasible, I just have my doubts
about people being that thorough.  I may be wrong, but that would
be my main fear.

>> 4. Write some comprehensive interface measurement tool that auto-bumped
>>    the revision number and triggered a warning for a human being to
>>    check for possible interface incompatibilities.
>
> Debian has scripts for shared library version checking and handling.
> I don't know if they have something that fits (4), but honestly I don't
> think it is possible to detect automatically all situations in which a
> version bump is necessary.  Some might be policy changes only.

I was trying to say, a tool that detects an interface change.  Obviously,
it would not detect a semantic change.  But it could detect augmented
interfaces (new modules) etc.  Anyway, not trivial and not in scope and
certainly not for today.  Its output would be to jostle someone so they
take a careful look and not to take full responsibility for fiddling versions.

Good night. - Bruce