[csw-maintainers] Upgrading shared libraries

[Philip Brown]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 6:52 AM, Maciej (Matchek) Blizinski
<maciej at opencsw.org> wrote:
> I'm splitting this thread, to talk a bit more about library updates.
>
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:43 PM,  <dam at opencsw.org> wrote:
>> Hi Maciej,
>>
>>
>>> I see, version modulations. Is it a one-way process only? I mean, this
>>> way the list of package versions is going to be growing indefinitely,
>>> unless there's a process in place to phase out the old versions.
>>
>> No. After the updated package has been released you file the bugs
>> to the packages depending on the old libs :-) After the last one has
>> been updated you remove them from your package.
>
> I'll drill the topic some more. What if a dependent package becomes
> orphaned? Suppose there's CSWlibfoo, which has been updated, but
> package CSWbar depends on it, the maintainer vanished inside a black
> hole and nobody is willing to pick the package up. Are there any
> deadlines?


I dont see how this "changes" anything.

every package that is "current"ly being distributed, needs to actually WORK.
for so long as CSWbar is present, CSWlibfoo must ensure that it does
not break, by supplying the older library that CSWbar requires.


> Ideally, I'd like it to be there a page which describes how to deal
> with library updates,

I believe there already is such a page, and it mentions what dago
says: Provide the older versions of the shared libs for so long as
other packages we distribute, require them.