Re: Stable means not-changing?
On Sep 23, Bob Nielsen wrote
> I guess this confuses me even more! Are libc4, libc5 and libc6 completely
> independent of each other, or are they versions of something which began
> as "libc".
They are somewhat independent:
libc4 is the Linux C library for use with the a.out format of binaries.
(it is a heavily hacked version of GNU libc version one)
libc5 is the Linux C library for use with the ELF binary format.
licb6 is the GNU C library (version two) for use with the ELF binary format.
The advantage: it is much cleaner designed & implemented, better for
standards compliance (e.g. POSIX) but still includes the good stuff from
Linux libc
Although they share parts of their code, to a user they are more or less
independent.
> In either case, why would one want to compile for more than one at a time?
We maintainers want to be able to compile code for libc5, so users of the
current stable tree can get updates in case of security fixes and such.
> I take it they are neither upward nor downward compatible.
You have to distinguish between source and binary compatibility.
There is no binary compatibility: you cannot run libc4 binary with libc5;
you have to have libc4 installed on that system to.
There is source compatibility (but not 100%): you can compile most well
written C code with libc4, 5 and 6.
HTH,
Ray
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have the decency to betray his country.
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