Re: ITP: libtar - c library for manipulating tar archives
On Wed, Jan 09, 2002 at 03:45:52PM +1100, Glenn McGrath wrote:
> I must admit i am somewhat confused by all the different version numbers
> for shared libraries, the libtool manual didnt help a lot either.
>
> e.g. The definition of the age field in -version-info
> current:revision:age
>
> age
> The difference between the newest and oldest interfaces that this
> library implements. In other words, the library implements all the
> interface numbers in the range from number current - age to current.
>
> I must be misinterpreting it, because read this as saying
> mathematically, age < current, and
> age >= current - age, which simplifies to age >= 1/2 * current
>
> So "in the range from number current - age to current", could be
> replaced with "in the range from (current/2) to current"
>
> I think they intended to say age has to be less than current... i
> decided to ignore age completely at that stage.
IMO, if upstream is using libtool, then they should use the
libtool's specification for shared libraries. Then you just have
libtar and libtar-dev packages.
Plus, the current:revision:age is designed to accomodate library
portability. It has nothing to do with version. It is suppose to
provide transparent compatability b/w compatable versions of the
library.
Of course, it only works with C style libraries - C++ libraries
do not exacly follow this current:revision:age guidelines as C++
libraries are difficult to be portable when the library is
changed.
Sincerely,
Adam
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