[getdns-users] [PATCH] remove GETDNS_COMPILATION_COMMENT

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Thu 2015-07-09 04:11:20 -0400, Willem Toorop wrote:
> Thank you Daniel,
>
> The way it works now is ordained by the API specification.
> I quote from section 10.2:
>
> 	The API's .h file contains a macro called
> 	GETDNS_COMPILATION_COMMENT. This can be useful to an
> 	application which will use the API because it can check the
> 	string without calling any functions. Each time the API
> 	implementation is compiled, this string should be updated with
> 	unique information about the implementation build.

yes, my patch removed that section from the spec because i don't see how
it is ever useful.  Simpler is better :)

> The define from the getdns_core_only.h file from the API spec tarball,
> has this value:
> 	
> 	#define GETDNS_COMPILATION_COMMENT The API implementation should fill
> in something here, such as a compilation version string and date, and
> change it each time the API is compiled.
>
> Hence the way it is.

But why is this useful?  What aim does it serve?  The request to embed a
change each time it's compiled seems like it makes things unreproducible
for the sake of unreproducibility.  *and* it doesn't help users figure
anything out at runtime.

> We can change of course, with the consensus of the people on the API
> list (CC'ed).  You could propose some new text.

I propose to remove it entirely :) If we need a way to fetch library
versioning information, it should be done at runtime, along the lines of
libevent versioning (or other similar libraries, as discussed on the
getdns-users list.

   --dkg