cvs commit: src/lib/libc/locale utf8.c

[Robert Watson]

On Thu, 25 Oct 2007, Andrey Chernov wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 25, 2007 at 12:05:40PM -0700, LI Xin wrote:
>> Well, I think the problem is not exposing a new symbol by itself, but 
>> __mb_sb_limit is being used in _ctype.h, in a form of __inline functions. 
>> Therefore, the change will break new binaries running on older systems.
>
> Yes. Only vice versa compatibility supported.

I think the issue here is that the change occurred very quickly after the 
branch, and when users wanted to 'change gears' back to RELENG_7 from HEAD 
once it was created immediately ran into the problem.  It seems like a useful 
piece of post-branch advice to developers in the future will be, "Please don't 
do things that make switching branches -- back or forward -- for the first few 
weeks after the branch is created".  In general, I don't think we care about 
forward compatibility, but we are currently getting lots of reports because 
this is one of those few times where a lot of moving backward happens.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge