Bug#32229: PROPOSED] libc-dev dependency in non-libc -dev packages

[Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@trick.fig.org>]

Hi!

>>>>> Michael Stone writes:

 MS> Why not just wait until the next wholly incompatible libc upgrade
 MS> (when things will have to change) instead of making a gratuitous
 MS> policy shift?

According to Ulrich Drepper, GNU ld's symbol versioning capabilities
which are exploited in glibc-2.1 should make it unnecessary ever to
have another ``wholly incompatible libc upgrade,'' except for the few
ports (such as ARM) which are currently not using symbol versioning,
or the ports (such as the Hurd, with soname `libc.so.0.2') whose glibc
ABI's are still quite different from the corresponding Linux glibc
ABI.

In other words, we should be using libc6 from now until the end of
time (or until something completely replaces libc).  Glibc's
versioning is now done on a symbol-by-symbol basis, so the soname
should never need to change again.

Waiting will take too long.  Either we change now, or we decide not to
change for the forseeable future (perhaps decades).

-- 
 Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/)
    Lovers of freedom, unite!     \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
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