about talloc API/ABI - was: [Re: http://samba.org/~vlendec/talloc-doc/index.html]

[simo]

On Sun, 2009-03-22 at 14:21 +1100, tridge at samba.org wrote:

> It is even worse for many of the other functions, which are described
> in doxygen in terms of undocumented _talloc*() functions, which really
> should not be exposed in documentation. The only reason the _talloc*()
> functions exist as public functions is the fact that the way cpp works
> requires it - they are supposed to be hidden from API users.

This is just a side thing, but our heavy use of macros makes talloc
"interesting" from the POV of ABI compatibility, and concerns me a bit
because of that.

So, if anyone changes the macros please make sure you consider if that
means an application compiled against a previous version needs to be
recompiled (macros are inside the app not in the library ...), or if it
is still ABI compatible.

If ABI compatibility breaks, please consider if there is another way to
do it that doesn't break the ABI, or make sure we change the major
library version (and .so version).

Simo.

-- 
Simo Sorce
Samba Team GPL Compliance Officer <simo at samba.org>
Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, Inc. <simo at redhat.com>