Hello,
I've released new versions of the abi-compliance-checker and abi-dumper tools
that are now able to easily verify compatibility of changes in the Linux kernel
ABI: https://github.com/lvc/
1. The kernel should be compiled with CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y and
CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_REDUCED=n additional options.
2. Create ABI dump for vmlinux:
abi-dumper vmlinux -vnum 4.4.5 -kernel-export -o ABI.dump
3. Compare ABI dumps to produce report:
abi-compliance-checker -l kernel -bin -old ABI-0.dump -new ABI-1.dump
The new -kernel-export option of the abi-dumper is introduced to dump only
public exported symbols of the kernel, i.e. declared in the ksymtab/ksymtab_gpl
binary sections + system calls.
I've applied this approach on the recent releases of the Linux kernel
(2.6.36-4.4.5) as an example and prepared the compatibility table here:
http://abi-laboratory.pro/tracker/timeline/linux/
The distribution specific changes in the kernel can be verified in the same way
to prevent/minimize ABI differences with upstream or between sequential
releases.
Thank you.
