[Mageia-dev] Utter frustration

Fri Nov 30 13:26:18 CET 2012

On 11/30/2012 07:13 AM, Anne Wilson wrote:
+>
+> Before doing all that, can you explain the significance of the
+> suffixes here?
+>
+> ls /usr/lib/ | grep powerdevil
+> libpowerdevilconfigcommonprivate.so.4@
+> libpowerdevilconfigcommonprivate.so.4.10.0*
+> libpowerdevilcore.so.0@
+> libpowerdevilcore.so.0.1.0*
+> libpowerdevilui.so.4@
+> libpowerdevilui.so.4.10.0*
+>
+Library naming conventions use several, actual version, e. g. 4.10.0, 
+major version, e. g. 4, and a generic name, e. g. libxxx.so.  The last 
+two are usually symlinked to the first.
+
+The major version usually signals an ABI difference or some other major 
+difference, e. g. new function, from the previous version. The actual 
+version changes whenever any change is made.  Developers use the major 
+version if their code is dependent on that major version, but just use 
+the generic name if any version will do.
+
+In this way, the majority of packages using the library just ask for 
+libxxx.so, and don't have to be rebuilt or have their makefiles or spec 
+modified when the library changes.  A few packages, which are dependent 
+on a specific version, ask for libxxx.so.N (or higher), and these have 
+to be changed when the major version they require is released.  A very 
+very few packages are dependent on the actual version, and these may 
+have to change more often.
+