Re: bumping library major on release branch?

[christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)]

In article <20110622020143.GA18467%netbsd.org@localhost>,
David Holland  <dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
>On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 03:44:44AM +0200, Emmanuel Dreyfus wrote:
> > > > I would like to backport extended attribute support in libpuffs from
> > > > -current to netbsd-5. Unfortunately a structure grew, which means that
> > > > it would require bumping library major on the release branch.
> > > 
> > > It's really something we want to avoid as much as possible.
> > > library major change in X11 has delayed the 5.1 release for example.
> > 
> > Another approach is to introduce an alternate structure and associated
> > calls in -current, and pullup that to netbsd-5
> > [...]
>
>Since -current has a different major number from -5 (because of this
>and other changes) introducing these into current would serve no real
>purpose and potentially make a mess.
>
>Introducing them just into -5 seems fine though, assuming you intend
>the usual __RENAME method.
>
>(Also remember that since PUFFSOP_INIT is a macro you don't have to
>change or version it.)
>
>I'd suggest doing the patch to enable puffs_ops_spare[] separately
>from the feature patch.

That's the best idea.

christos