27/09/2019 18:54, Ray Kinsella: > TL;DR abbreviation: > A major ABI version that all DPDK releases during a one year period > support. ABI versioning is managed at a project-level, in place of > library-level > management. ABI changes to add new features are permitted, as long as ABI > compatibility with the major ABI version is maintained. > > Detail: > This patch introduces major ABI versions, supported for one year and released > aligned with the LTS release. This ABI version is then supported by all > subsequent releases within that one year period. The intention is that the one > year support period, will then be reviewed after the initial year with the > intention of lengthing the support period for the next ABI version.
For the record, I would prefer a v7 saying it is a fixed period of time, being one year at first and should be longer next. Please don't state "supported for one year", which can be understood as a general truth. > ABI changes that preserve ABI compatibility with the major ABI version are > permitted in subsequent releases. ABI changes, follow similar approval rules > as > before with the additional gate of now requiring technical board approval. The > merging and release of ABI breaking changes would now be pushed to the > declaration of the next major ABI version. > > This change encourages developers to maintain ABI compatibility with the major > ABI version, by promoting a permissive culture around those changes that > preserve ABI compatibility. This approach begins to align DPDK with those > projects that declare major ABI versions (e.g. version 2.x, 3.x) and support > those versions for some period, typically two years or more. > > To provide an example of how this might work in practice: > > * DPDK v20 is declared as the supported ABI version for one year, aligned > with > the DPDK v19.11 (LTS) release. All library sonames are updated to reflect > the > new ABI version, e.g. librte_eal.so.20, librte_acl.so.20... > * DPDK v20.02 .. v20.08 releases are ABI compatible with the DPDK v20 ABI. > ABI > changes are permitted from DPDK v20.02 onwards, with the condition that ABI > compatibility with DPDK v20 is preserved. > * DPDK v21 is declared as the new supported ABI version for two years, > aligned > with the DPDK v20.11 (LTS) release. The DPDK v20 ABI is now depreciated, > library sonames are updated to v21 and ABI compatibility breaking changes > may > be introduced. OK I agree with these explanations.
