On 08/29/2018 08:41 PM, L A Walsh wrote:
Distros and linux-run-time(gnu) is mostly going the other direction -- specifically adding features that are more likely to disallow apps not built specifically for a specific distribution.
Some of this we do to ourselves with the glibc and gcc improvements, other libs like libpng, etc.. Many times the things that are done are done for security reasons like making the png structure opaque. This automatically breaks backwards library compatibility -- and it done for security reasons, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to provide continued backwards compatibility. But then in the same breath we do it anyways with libpng12, libpng14, etc... Now this isn't directly to your point, but it is a close tangent. While you can compile code to support the different library implementations at compile time, it is more difficult to do are run time (mostly due to LSB turning into more a goal than a standard making the standard library search paths more a guessing game, and each distros slight variation on library naming conversions -- though softlinks could take care of some of that, if everyone could agree on a standard name for each library). The -lname is consistent at compile time, but beyond that unless a standard symlink name is agreed upon, it's tough to search of the latest or specific version of anything. There is no reason it can't be done (not for every package, but for those where there is code compatibility across different versions of a library) I would just take more standardization of the practice across those coding for Linux. In an open-source world of contributed code, that is one difficulty that is posed. Sonames have worked but with frustrating hiccups. A current prime example is ncurses5/6 which has caused a bit of growing pain. I don't have an answer, but I could see things improving if library search and install paths along with naming standardization (or at least a set of standard named symlinks) were agreed upon. Most of the major packages at least adhere to some sane standard, but the other 95% of Linux software contributed the the average Joe has little if no standardization other than what is enforced by the compiler or package manger. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org