Hi Jakob, On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 10:36:10PM -0700, Jakob Leben wrote: > > I have not been able to find clear information about Debian policies for > binary > compatibility between point releases and security updates. In essence, I would > like to know whether the binary interface of dynamic ELF libraries is > guaranteed to remain unmodified across such updates. <snip>
At https://www.debian.org/security/faq#oldversion it says: "never change the Application Program Interface (API) or Application Binary Interface (ABI)" and "In some cases it is not possible to backport a security fix, for example when large amounts of source code need to be modified or rewritten. If that happens it might be necessary to move to a new upstream version" I guess it boils down to: Debian aims at keeping binary compatibility during the support window of stable releases, but cannot guarantee it. Some upstreams lack resources to help us maintaining that. Debian cannot guarantee anything: we are a volunteer project. Otoh, I feel we have a pretty good track record; it won't be easy to find another project doing better in this regard. HTH, Bye, Joost
