ActiveMQ-CPP, libtool and packaging notes

ActiveMQ-CPP, libtool and packaging notes

Introduction

This page attempts to summarise information to be considered

  • when configuring libtool
  • when packaging ActiveMQ for distribution on Debian, Red Hat, Solaris.

Concepts

Product version numbers

SONAME

  • At runtime (when dynamic linking occurs) the SONAME embedded in the library must match the SONAME expected by the application.
  • To see the SONAME embedded in the library, objdump -p libactivemq-cpp-2.1.2.so | grep SONAME
  • To see the SONAMEs expected by an application, objdump -p | grep NEEDED
  • By default, libtool will use the library filename as the SONAME
  • Libtool’s default behaviour can be modified by the soname_spec variable
  • Possible SONAMEs fro ActiveMQ CPP:
    • libactivemq-cpp-2.1.2.so.0 (each executable will depend on a specific build and will refuse to work with any other build)
    • libactivemq-cpp.so.0 (only one version can be installed at the same time)
    • libactivemq2-cpp.so.0 (so that 2.x and 3.x can be installed simultaneously)

libtool -release

  • the -release argument tells libtool the release number
  • the release number could be the major version number, the complete version number, or the SVN revision number
  • libtool believes that any two releases are NOT compatible - for example, if an executable expects release number 5, and the library has release number 4 or 6, the executable will refuse to run

libtool -version-info current:revision:age

  • Allows binary compatibility between versions
  • The number at the end of the filename is the interface version number
  • Interface version number is NOT THE SAME as the product version number
  • Interface version number should increment each time the `interface’ changes (new function prototypes, new function arguments, change in wire protocol, etc)
  • The `age’ number is used to indicate backwards compatibility - if age=1, then this interface is backwards compatible with the previous version only, if age=2, then this interface is backwards compatible with the 2 previous versions

Debian package name

  • The package name includes the following from libtool: release number and interface number
  • for example, if interface version = 4, then the package name = libactivemq-cpp4
  • The product version number is not part of the Debian package name - it is used elsewhere in Debian’s control files

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