Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] 'Can't Avoid' fixes in current GNUradio 3.7.9.2

[Lamar Owen]

[Reply comments in-line.]

On 04/28/2016 01:41 PM, Marcus Müller wrote:
> It's not about not updating – it's about not breaking possible existing
> usage! RH has to make sure that software stays binary-compatible, so
> they can't use a different version if it has a different ABI.

I not only am aware of the policy, I agree with the policy, and am 
attempting to work within the framework established by the policy.

> GR changes ABI between revisions, and if you change ABI, you're expected
> to offer a "-compat" package, even for EPEL.

Hmm, the ABI changed between 3.7.5 and 3.7.9?  Is there a document 
somewhere that documents the criteria for what consitutes major versus 
minor versus releases?  In my humble opinion, and going from historical 
experience with a package that I maintained for five years, an ABI 
change should be a major version thing, or a minor version thing but not 
a revision thing (I read the version number of current stable GNUradio 
as major version 3, minor 7, revision 9, release 2; am I reading that 
wrong?).  I base my impression on PostgreSQL; 7.0 to 7.1 was an ABI (and 
database format) breaking change; 7.0.0 to 7.0.1 was not (and I 
maintained RPMs of those specific versions, up until the beta period for 
8.0).  Am I wrong when thinking this with GNUradio?

Yes, if there is an ABI (or an API) change then that's a different ball 
of wax.

> ...
> Central question here is why *you* can't live with 3.7.5; actual user
> necessity be the main thing that someone might consider a reason that
> "can't be avoided".

And that's the crux of my question: concisely, are there any 'you really 
need to update and can't avoid it' changes between 3.7.5 and 3.7.9?  If 
not, then there's no reason I can't use 3.7.5, really. That's part of 
the reason I'm working with CentOS 7 AArch64 on the ODroids to begin 
with, as I want to be consistent.  And if 3.7.5 is fine, then I can do 
that on all my C7 boxen; if there is a compelling reason to go to 
3.7.9.2 then I will want to be consistent there, too.

> Really, CentOS 7 is pretty stable distro. If you need a version that
> they don't offer, your best option probably really is to do the rpmbuild
> dance, building your binaries from a modified SPEC file that uses the
> GNU Radio source code version of your choice.
And I know how to do that if I need to do that.

Thanks for the good answers, Marcus.