Weston versioning (Re: [PATCH weston 6/6] libweston: do not use weston version in libweston.pc)

[Jan Engelhardt]

On Sunday 2016-07-10 12:46, Emil Velikov wrote:
>> PKG_CHECK_EXISTS([gtk-3.0], [PKG_CHECK_MODULES([gtk], [gtk-3.0])], [
>> ...repeat the fun...
>> ])]
>>
>Yes, it's one line of fun for each version that you want to be
>compatible with. It's not ideal, but it's a price to pay, for keeping
>things compatible/sane.

Without pkgconfig supporting some new alias tag (hint, hint) to cover
such a case, I predict that whoever uses libfoo-LotsANumbersHere
limits themselves to 3 or maybe 4 PKG_CHECK_MODULES calls, because it
is looking real silly.

>> The .so symlink is really only for /usr/bin/ld. It does not
>> play a role for ld.so (ld-linux.so.*) and therefore won't
>> interfere with plugins living in versioned directories.
>> (Cf. libmirage from cdemu)
>>
>The (main?) problem [...] is that we [...] rely on libfoo.so being
>correct.
>I get the feeling that you have not read the following
>http://ometer.com/parallel.html. I would strongly recommend giving it
>a look.

I read it now, and I do not buy it - at least not for 2016 standards.
According to the page, it was written in 2002, and I can confirm that
the situation was much worse then it is now. I can practically refute
all his points from the "Some more issues:" section, but for brevity,
I spare you the details for now.


>> Or you can just have two lines in configure.ac next to each other
>> which will scream at you "update me in lockstep" everytime you look
>> at them because you modify one of them.
>>
>> AC_INIT([libweston], [1.12.0])
>> libweston_SONUM=3
>> ->
>> AC_INIT([libweston], [1.12.90])
>> libweston_SONUM=27
>>
>This could also work, but Pekka's idea sounds more robust and simpler
>in the long run. Add the logic once and don't bother checking/keeping
>things in sync ;-)

Feels wrong to pollute configure.ac with code that tries to be
"smart" but is foremost disproportional in size to the problem. (And
you wonder why people hate $build_system_du_jour.) Would a commit
hook not be better to run a check that SONUM is in good shape w.r.t.
VERSION?