Re: libposix - is it done yet?

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Bruce Korb wrote on Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 11:45:43PM CEST:
> However, since folks fixing the modules are highly unlikely
> to be thinking about miniscule perturbations of libposix
> interfaces,

Why not?  They are thinking of adding a NEWS entry, too, for
incompatible changes?  Bumping the library REVISION before a release
(or maybe encoding the date in the REVISION only) is not much more work.

> 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.

> 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:
> 
> 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.

Cheers,
Ralf