ABI stability of libgfortran.so

[Steve Kargl]

On Wed, Aug 16, 2006 at 07:52:38PM +0200, Tobias Burnus wrote:
> 
> What is the best compiler for 4.1.x to make sure it runs with 4.1.0 up
> to 4.1-SVN branch?
> Is it 4.1.0? Or does 4.1.1 (or current 4.1-SVN) work as well? If they
> do, is 4.1.1 or 4.1-SVN better?
> (Following the list, I would think that 4.1-SVN contains fewer bugs, but
> I fear that 4.1.x, x>0 contain new functions.)

New functions aren't the problem.  The problems occur when a function
is removed or the calling interface has changed.  You would need to
check the 4.1.x ChangeLog for these types of changes.    

> For 4.2 one has of cause the problem that 4.2.0 is not released. Can one
> expect that a library compiled with the current 4.2 (SVN TRUNK) works
> also with future 4.2? (I'm not asking for a commitment, just for a
> personal judgment for the next half year.)

No.  I know that if an older binary (compiled with 4.2) uses
abort or etime, then it may have potential problems with
a newer libgfortran.so.  When 4.2.0 is officially released, 
you can expect that the library interface will remain frozen
in 4.2.x with x >= 0.

-- 
Steve