Re: gmp-4.2.2-1 and and mpfr- for upload

[Charles Wilson <cygwin@cwilson.fastmail.fm>]

Dave Korn wrote:
> David Billinghurst wrote on 24 March 2008 03:43:
> 
>> The version number of libgmpxx was bumped in the upstream files to
>> "correct the shared library numbers".  I reverted this change in the
>> cygwin build as the cygwin shared library is backwards compatible with
>> gmp-4.2.1 - the 4.2.1 testsuite passes with the new cyggmpxx-3.dll.
> 
>   On the face of it, that sounds like a worryingly dubious idea.

Not necessarily. It is often the case that the version number of 
cygwin's library ports (I don't want to say "cygwin DLL" because that 
could be misconstrued) do not exactly follow the upstream versioning.

Most of the time, it's because there have been cygwin-specific changes 
that have forced "our" version number ahead of the upstream progression. 
Take ncurses, for instance: upstream so's are at version 5.0 or so, but 
our DLL number is "8".

In rare cases, we might fall "behind" the upstream numbers -- imagine if 
an ABI change occurred, but only #ifdef SOLARIS -- there'd be no reason 
(other than a desire for consistency) to bump the cygwin port's DLL number.

However, in the case of gmp, it is probably necessary to understand WHY 
the upstream maintainers bumped the DLL number. Did they make a 
back-wards incompatible change sometime early in the -3 sequence, but 
neglected to update the number until now? Or is the new version number 
merely cosmetic?

"correct the shared library numbers" just doesn't provide enough 
information.

--
Chuck