Shared library soname should change iff ABI incompatible

[heftig]

The soname is currently libsrt.so.1 and has been through several ABI-incompatible releases. E.g. 1.4.2 broke ABI by adding some fields to the CBytePerfMon structure. To avoid trouble when a shared libsrt is upgraded, the soname of the library should be bumped to reflect the incompatibility.

I would suggest making the next release 1.5.0 and using the soname libsrt.so.1.5, then avoiding breaking ABI in patch releases. If ABI is broken, the minor (or major) version is increased.

[FedericoCeratto]

@maxsharabayko ABI breaking changes without soname changes are impact Linux distributions e.g. [1] making srt difficult to ship. Would it be possible to have a 1.5 release as soon as possible? Thanks!

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=971754

[maxsharabayko]

@FedericoCeratto The next planned SRT release is v1.4.3.
If the shared library has libsrt.so.1.4 or even libsrt.so.1.4.3, would that resolve the shipment issue?

[sdroege]

You have to increase that 1 there whenever the ABI is changing in incompatible ways. If you're lazy you could simply increase it with every release.

[heftig]

If you're willing to take care to avoid ABI changes in patch releases (1.4.4, 1.4.5, etc) I would suggest .so.1.4 instead of .so.1.4.3.

[maxsharabayko]

Going forward with .so.1.4, .so.1.5 etc and preserving ABI compatibility in patch versions.