Are minor versions of protobuf supposed to be ABI compatible?

Puya Daravi

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Mar 6, 2021, 3:07:58 AM3/6/21

to Protocol Buffers

Hello,

My understanding is that library vendors generally bump the major version when a new version of the library is not ABI compatible with the old one (i.e. when the libraries do not provide the same symbols)
However today I found an issue where the exported symbol `internal::AssignDescriptors` (defined in `generated_message_reflection.h`) has different signatures in protobuf/3.6.1 and protobuf/3.11.4. In the earlier version it uses a number of arguments, whereas in the newer version it uses the `DescriptorTable` struct.

Is this a bug in protobuf versioning? Or does protobuf not guarantee ABI stability between minor versions?

Regards,
Puya

Puya Daravi

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Mar 6, 2021, 3:13:20 AM3/6/21

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To clarify. It is not just that one symbol that has changed between those two versions. That is just one example.

Adam Cozzette

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Mar 8, 2021, 2:41:37 PM3/8/21

to Puya Daravi, Protocol Buffers

For C++ we don't maintain ABI compatibility between minor versions.

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