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Re: are there any exceptions(cases) that glibc is not strict backward-compatibility?


Dear Paul Eggert,

Thank you so much for help!!!

On 2020/01/19 6:52, Paul Eggert wrote:
On 1/18/20 7:09 AM, Jason Yang wrote:
are there any cases(exceptions) that we need to notice in terms of glibc backward-compatibility?

Every time glibc's behavior changes, there is a potential backward-compatibility problem. Even if the behavior is just to add a feature that wasn't there before, it's theoretically possible that old programs assume that the feature is absent and misbehave if it's present. Plus, old code may depend on buggy glibc behavior and thus may break when a glibc bug is fixed.

That being said, the glibc developers are quite conscious of backward-compatibility issues and go to extraordinary lengths to avoid them.

Where can I find these exceptions?

The source code's top-level NEWS file is a good place to start. Although it doesn't list *every* backward-compatibility issue, it lists the ones deemed significant for practical code.


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