Arch Linux

ITA84

Member

Registered: 2019-10-02

Posts: 23

Any tips on managing ABI-dependent package updates?

The last time the libvpx package was updated (version 1.10.0), it had ABI-incompatible changes, so ffmpeg couldn't use that library for VP9 encoding (see Task 70182) until the next ffmpeg package update. This isn't the first time it's happened to me, since I often record WEBM videos with SimpleScreenRecorder, so I was wondering if there was a way to prevent this situation from my side. I suppose I could put these packages on IgnorePkg in the Pacman configuration and update them separately, but I'd still have to manually check when new packages are available to avoid getting too far behind.

If anyone has tips on how to better manage this situation please let me know. Thanks in advance!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,342

Re: Any tips on managing ABI-dependent package updates?

This was ultimately a packaging mistake that's hopefully not repeated anymore, but we're all humans. Trying to hold these back will just put the burden on your end and since ffmpeg is huge you might have other ABI breakage with other libs if you just hold back these two. You'd have to hold back ffmpeg and all of it's ABI dependencies if you wanted to be thorough.

However even with that disclaimer  if you really rely on this and don't just go all out and handle ffmpeg and deps yourself, adding them to IgnorePkg is likely the most fruitful option anyway. Pacman will tell you that you are actively ignoring a new package update which you can then check to ensure that the relevant pair is updated together. But you'd have to be wary  that ffmpeg might have to be updated for other libs.

ITA84

Member

Registered: 2019-10-02

Posts: 23

Re: Any tips on managing ABI-dependent package updates?

Understood, and thanks a lot for your comprehensive reply! Maybe it's not worth the extra effort for me for the couple times it's happened so far, but I'll look into it anyway to see how it would work