Re: Maintaining C++ library symbols control file with unstable mangled symbols

[Ross Gammon <ross@the-gammons.net>]

On 02/12/16 18:11, Jérémy Lal wrote:
> 2016-12-02 18:08 GMT+01:00 Ghislain Vaillant <ghisvail@gmail.com>:
> > On 02/12/16 16:36, lumin wrote:
> > > Hi mentors,
> > >
> > > I need advise on the way maintaining symbols control file when
> > > the mangled C++ symbols are unstable.
> > >
> > > I'm maintaining a package named "Caffe". I migrated the same
> > > source from experimental to unstable, and it FTBFS'ed as you
> > > see at [0], due to the mangled C++ symbols change. Actually
> > > this package FTBFS'ed many times in the history due to
> > > symbols change. (I have no e.g. ppc64el machine, hence
> > > unable to test before upload)
> >
> > Stopping you right there. Maintaining C++ symbols is notoriously painful,
> > and I was advised back in my early packaging days to just avoid it.
> >
> > Perhaps things have changed since, and other people might disagree.
> dh-acc and abi-compliance-checker might help you maintain your own
> soname. Nothing guaranteed, though.
>
> Jérémy

In the Debian GIS Team we have quite a few C++ library packages where 
the symbols are managed using pkgkde_symbolshelper 
(https://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/symbolfiles.html).

It involves a trip via experimental to pickup all the symbol changes on 
all architectures that are built for experimental by the buildd machines.

Cheers,

Ross