[Rd] shared libraries: missing soname

[Joseph Mingrone]

Dirk,

Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> writes:
> On 20 November 2016 at 21:49, Joseph Mingrone wrote:
> | Hello Dirk,
> | 
> | Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> writes:
> | 
> | > On 20 November 2016 at 19:28, Joseph Mingrone wrote:
> | > | Hello,
> | > | 
> | > | R's shared libraries are linked without setting the soname.  This is causing problems for some consumers.
> | > | 
> | > |         Error: /usr/local/lib/R/library/tseries/libs/tseries.so is linked to
> | > |         /usr/local/lib/R/lib/libRblas.so which does not have a SONAME.  math/R needs
> | > |         to be fixed.
> | > | 
> | > | What's the correct way to add the necessary linker flags?  I believe it should be something like this.
> | > | 
> | > |        cc -shared -Wl,-soname,...
> | 
> | > I think that may be true "in theory" (for libraries loaded by ldd(8) via
> | > `/etc/ld.conf`) but not "in practice" for R which loads these shared
> | > libraries itself (via dlopen(3) etc).
> | 
> | R may use dlopen() but other customers may not.

> Yes, well, but are there other customers?

Yes.  Here is one example. https://rkward.kde.org/

> | > For what it is worth, I have been providing the Debian packages "as is" for
> | > now 15+ years and nobody has complained. 
> | 
> | > What system are you on to get that complaint?
> | 
> | This is on FreeBSD.  Our apt-get, pkg, will not register shared library dependencies if the shared library does not have a soname.  If the library
> | gets changed and is no longer compatible with the previous version, and there is no soname to check, pkg will not know that all its dependencies
> | need to be reinstalled.

> Hmpf. No mechanism for fallback / default soname?  In that case you (or
> whoever acts as FreeBSD maintainer) may have to supply one.

Using a fallback or default soname would defeat the purpose, which is to detect
when the library's interface has changed, so that the proper action can be
taken.  I could provide a local patch for R's autotools, but as a package
maintainer yourself, I expect you also prefer when upstream get's it right.

Are there any constructive reasons not to include a proper soname?

Regards,

Joseph
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