Thanks for your feedback, on the list and irc. Appended is an updated
version, the most notable change is to drop the 'c102' suffix from
packages, if it exists. This way, we get rid off the "ugly" extension,
and we don't support direct upgrades from woody to etch anyway.
Matthias
C++ ABI Transition
Debian already had a C++ transition in 2002. Still remember? We are
proposing the same schema for the forthcoming ABI transition. The
following text is derived from this plan.
- Why do we need one?
Because GCC 3.4/4.0 changed the C++ ABI. You can't mix a C++ library
compiled with GCC 3.4/4.0 and a C++ application compiled with an
earlier version, or vice versa.
Transitions are painful. This will be no exception. The rules here
are designed to make it as smooth as possible, but it's still going
to be unpleasant. We have to do it, we can't stay with GCC 3.3 for
ever.
Other distributions did already switch to 3.4 or 4.0, and most of
our ports will have much better toolchains with the newer compiler.
- How is it called?
The C++ ABI has many names (no, actually only two). G++ 3.2/3.3 have
the Version 1, 3.4/4.0 have the version 2. To get the ABI version:
g++ -E -dM - < /dev/null | awk '/GXX_ABI/ {print $3}'
Compilers with ABI version 1 print '102', those with version 2 print
1002. During the last C++ ABI transition package names were renamed
from libfoo to libfooc102. So rename them to libfooc1002 this time?
No,
- if your package is called libfoo1, add the string ''c2'' to the
package name (see below).
- if your package is called libfoo1c102, then drop the ''c102'' from
the package name (see below).
- So what're we going to do?
We're going to rebuild all C++ packages with the gcc-3.4/4.0 ABI.
* If you have workarounds to build with a specific gcc version on
certain architectures, these should be removed. Also if there are
specific optimization settings that have been used to workaround
compiler bugs, these should be removed, if possible.
* If you maintain a library written in C++
* Wait until all of your dependencies have been uploaded in c2
versions, and rebuilt on all architectures (check the
update_excuses file).
* If your package does not contain the c102 suffix, add a c2 to
the end of the name of your .deb, eg libdb4.0++.deb
-> libdb4.0++c2.deb. This is similar in spirit to the glibc
transition adding g to the end of libraries.
* If your package already has a c102 suffix, drop the suffix from
the package name. (that works, because we don't support direct
upgrades from woody to etch).
* Add a Conflict with the non-c2 version of the package (the
previous version), i.e.
Package: libdb4.0++.deb
Conflicts: libdb4.0++c102.deb
Package: libdb4.2++c2.deb
Conflicts: libdb4.2++.deb
* You should not add a c2 to your -dev package.
* The exact placement of the c2 can be tricky. It's not terribly
important; the important thing is that the new package conflicts
with the old and has a different name. Stylistically, we prefer
to keep the c2 adjacent to the soname number,
e.g. libqt3c2-mt-odbc, but if your package ends in a ++, put the
c2 after that.
* Ensure that you're using g++-4.0 to build. You should have g++
(>= 4:4.0) installed on the system you build on (or
build-essential (>= 11) ).
TODO: Proposal to bump the build-essential version for the ABI
transition.
* If you maintain a library or a program written in C++
* Wait until all your dependencies have been uploaded in c2
versions, and rebuilt on all architectures.
* If your Depends: line isn't generated automatically, you'll need
to change it too. But you should be using dpkg-shlibdeps anyway ;-)
You should see a dependency on libstdc++6, if you see one on
libstdc++5, something is wrong.
* Upload and rejoice!
* If your package contains no C++, do nothing more. You'll start
building with the new gcc on your next upload.
You should not rename your package to remove the c2 suffix
until upstream changes their soname.
- Why don't we just change the sonames?
Because upstream chooses the soname to match their API. If we change
the soname then we render ourselves binary-incompatible with other
distros and vendor-supplied binaries. This is important because the
LSB3 intends to standardise the GCC 4.0 ABI; for Ubuntu/Debian to
become binary-incompatible at this point would be the height of
perversity.
Of course, when your upstream does bump the soname, you can drop the
c2 from the package name, just like very few libs still have a `g'
on the end.
- How about versioned symbols?
Versioned symbols don't even pretend to solve ABI transition
problems. Not to mention there's the other-distro compatibility
issue -- binaries compiled on Debian would not run on other distros.
- Why don't we put the libs in a different directory?
Basically, it's too complex. For the glibc (.5 to .6) transition, we
could do this because they used different dynamic linkers. For this
transition, there is also little to gain in having full backwards
compatibility to the old ABI. The only gain is that third party
binary only applications that dynamically link to C++ using-libs
(other than the stdc++ library itself) continue to work. What about
other architectures?
- The rules outlined above should make the autobuilders build your
packages with GCC 4.0.
TODO: check for other incompatibilities for non-release
architectures,
* i.e. sparc and hppa. I.e.: hppa libgcc1 (SJLJ) -> libgcc2
(Dwarf2) transition. I.e.: sparc ABI change from 3.3 to 3.4.
* The SPARC ABI changes should only relate to complex numbers or
less used parts of the SPARC64 ABI. Mathmatical packages probably
should be NMU'd once glibc has been compiled with GCC 4.0 for
SPARC.
- Help! My package doesn't build with GCC 4.0
First search for the error in your package, not in GCC. g++-4.0 is
more strict to the C++ standard than g++-3.3, and as such, things
not written in standard C++, but written in an "extended subset" of
it, using gnu extension classes that are no longer supported. See
http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html#cplusplus and
http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.0/changes.html
If you find an internal compiler error (ICE), then submit a bug
report. Please look at the error message that gcc emits: in most
cases gcc asks for the preprocessed source file to be submitted
together with the command line that was used to produce the
file. Recompile the file using "-save-temps" and include the
(compressed) .i or .ii file in the report.
If you want help with debugging, download the gcc-snapshot package
and retry compiling your package with this gcc. Please see the
README in the package how this works. In no case should a package
built by gcc-snapshot be uploaded to the archive.
TODO Update the gcc-snapshot package to HEAD once 4.0 is released
and in sid.
If you really can't get your package fixed, you should change to
build-depend on g++-3.4, and use it in the build process. If even
g++-3.4 can't build your package, and your package depend on a
library other than libstdc++, you're not likely to release with
breezy/etch. We recommend you statically link to any C++ libraries
which you use.
TODO: Check for each architecture, if that's possible due to arch
specific changes.
- How do I know what ABI a given g++ is using?
The following command will show you the C++ ABI version being used
by g++:
g++ -E -dM - < /dev/null | awk '/GXX_ABI/ {print $3}'
- How do I know when all of my dependencies have been uploaded on all
architectures?
The madison command on merkel (accessible for Debian developers),
followed by the package name of your dependencies will show you the
latest version, and which archs that version is built for. You
should run linda or lintian over your package, as they have a check
for multiple C++ libraries being linked to a single binary. If you
get an error about more than one libstdc++ being linked, not all of
your dependencies are updated yet.
TODO: update linda/lintian to discover packages linked against two
different versions of a library (libgcc1/libgcc2,
libstdc++5/libstdc++6)
- Why not use GCC 3.4 as the default compiler?
Upstream did announce one more GCC 3.4.x release; with the
availability of a newer released compiler version, the older
branches usually get less attention. Because 3.4 and 4.0 are ABI
compatible (at least on i386, amd64, powerpc and ia64), we can use
GCC 3.4 as a fallback.
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