[Xcb] [ANNOUNCE] xcb-util 0.3.8

[Jeremy Huddleston]

On May 24, 2011, at 17:39, Jamey Sharp wrote:

> Hi Jeremy! I don't know what happened with that release, but I wanted to
> point out that all of these libraries *are* browsable at
> cgit.freedesktop.org: Search for "xcb/util".

Ah, thanks.  I was searching for xcb-util and missed it.  Apologies.

> From a glance at xcb/util/src/Makefile, it looks like xcb-atom, -aux,
> and -event really are now merged as libxcb-util.
> 
> If that merge is a packaging problem, we should certainly discuss
> whether it should be reverted or done differently somehow. It seems
> sensible to me, though.

The merge isn't providing an unsolvable problem.  I'm able to get around that part with some symlinking to ensure that binaries linked against the old version find the new version.

The issue comes from the removal of API.  Applications that use the old API will no longer build after this change.  

> Regarding the symbols that are missing from the merged library, I think
> those were all removed intentionally. Do you have applications that were
> using them? Note that there's no API or ABI stability guarantee for the
> util libraries yet, unlike libxcb itself...

I think xlsclients and Gnome's startup-notification are two such examples.  Both have source updates, but old versions will fail.

I understand that xcb-util is still pre-1.0 and is subject to API-flux, but it would be nice if release notes pointed out when API changes in an incompatible way, so packagers will know that going in rather than being bitten after the fact.  A note at the top of the email (and perhaps bumping to 0.4.0 instead) would've helped call attention to this change.

Thanks,
Jeremy