[pkg-boost-devel] Bug#424038: Bug#424038: reason for compiler name in library names

[Domenico Andreoli]

On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 09:43:51PM +1000, Peter Moulder wrote:
> I haven't read the libboost documentation, but I speculate that the
> reason that the upstream library names all include `gcc41' is because
> different C++ compilers give a different ABI for a given piece of code
> (different name mangling, calling conventions etc.).  This is comparable

exactly

> Including an indicator of the compiler (or ABI) in the library name is
> presumably intended to allow having multiple ABI versions installed at
> once.

or to prevent runtime mislinking of applications built with different
version of the libraries/compiler.

> As for how calling programs should determine what ABI version
> to link against, I suppose we either
> 
>   - hard-code the answer (e.g. have a symlink that doesn't include a
>     compiler/ABI version, or a pkg-config name that doesn't mention
>     compiler/ABI version) and handle C++ ABI transitions much the same
>     as other libraries; and/or

which is what we are already doing

>   - provide an autoconf macro that does something like
>   
>       lb_ABI=`${CXX} -E -dM - </dev/null 2>&1 |grep ABI`
>       case "$lb_ABI" in
>         '#define __GXX_ABI_VERSION 1002') lb_abi_str=-gcc41 ;;
>         '#define __GXX_ABI_VERSION 102') lb_abi_str=-gcc33 ;;
> 	...
>       esac
> 
>     The libboost source might give a clue as to what tests to use and/or
>     what library names libboost uses for different compilers (-gcc33 was
>     just my guess).

yes, but unfortunately is not exported out of the source tree build. so
if debian exported it, it would not be a portable solution.


-----[ Domenico Andreoli, aka cavok
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