Updates to static library packages

[Kevin Kofler]

Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
> I maintain LibRaw, which is only a static library -- upstream has
> rejected the idea of maintaining dynamic libs since they would have to
> take care of ABI compatibility across releases.
> 
> I wanted to know if there are any other only-static libraries out
> there and how they maintainers manage releases. I had packaged this to
> build Shotwell 0.6.x but I understand there are a couple of other apps
> too that build against this now. Do i have to keep track of all of
> them and coordinate releases with them, i.e. announce an update, have
> them test and then push a build? Or do I just go ahead and build in
> rawhide and then wait for someone to complain?

You can just build a shared library with custom sonames (probably a new 
soname per version, unfortunately). I think that's actually the sanest 
approach to handle this problem.

        Kevin Kofler