Hi,
right now SONAME is not set by v8 upstream authors.
I understand that :

1. they encourage people to embed v8, not distribute it as a shared lib,
2. it requires expertise to keep ABI compatibility in a C++ lib.

Let me address those points :

1. Distributions like debian are pushing forward the use of shared libs,
for maintenance and security reasons. A fix to libv8 is done once and
in only one place. It doesn't have to be done in each embedded copy of the lib.

2. i don't have that expertise. Maybe only one guy in the world has it
(the kde libs are given in example most of the time).
So i end up having SONAME = VERSION, which is a shame from a distribution
point f view, since it requires recompiling each software depending
on v8 as a shared lib, even for patch level version bumps.
Because of that, pushing latest versions (to debian in my case) is often 
delayed.

However, with a tool like :
http://upstream-tracker.org/versions/v8.html
which is using abi-compliance-checker (which i really don't know the quality),
i wonder if it could be used by v8 authors to define a SONAME that changes
only when ABI breakage is detected.

Trying to keep ABI compatibility across a given branch, say,
from version 3.6.0 to 3.6.6.20, the soname stays at 3.6, is probably not
what is wanted either, because it would put to much constraints to
the possible changes within a branch.
But having a defined SONAME that changes less often than at every tagged 
version,
would be a real bonus for us, package maintainers, and for you, as newer 
compatible
versions would be adopted faster.


Regards,
Jérémy.

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