[LLVMdev] Clarification on stable release shared object ABI compatibility

[Tom Stellard]

Hi,

One issue that has come up in the process of merging patches to the 3.5
branch is whether or not it is OK to add new symbols to 3.5.1 that
weren't included in 3.5.0.

My understanding is that if new symbols are added to 3.5.1, then
programs built against 3.5.0 will still be able to link against 3.5.1,
however programs built against 3.5.1 will fail to link against 3.5.0.

My initial feeling is that we should not allow new symbols in 3.5.1,
so that programs can downgrade from 3.5.1 to 3.5.0 without rebuilding,
but I wanted to get more opinions on this.

Thanks,
Tom