Interface checking

[bwh]

Robert Collins writes: "Added to my list of 'things we need'... a version of icheck that requires less configuration to hook into package builds. Ideally one that we can get running automatically on any package build."

There's only so much you can do without having debug information from both versions, which of course we don't keep at present. However, Steve Langasek implemented some basic checks on exported symbols in the unixodbc package which you can find in its debian directory.

I'm slowly starting to work on a more comprehensive ABI checker that would use debug information. This would require someone to keep or rebuild debug information from the previous version (and to delay stripping it from the new version) so I don't think it could be automatic.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What about using the -dbg package from the previous version? In theory, a package could check if its debug symbols already resided on the system, and compare. Then, we just need to build packages with the previous -dbg package installed, which (since the packages shouldn't Build-Depends on themselves) either requires modifying the buildd software to do so or setting up a separate buildd.

re: nice

[(Anonymous)]

Nice site... Well done
good luck

icheck is obsolete

[andrey-ponomarenko.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Use ABI-compliance-checker instead of icheck because it provides more convenient and appropriate compatibility report
http://ispras.linux-foundation.org/index.php/ABI_compliance_checker