Using Symbol Versioning to Label the Solaris ABI

Since all visible symbols in a library belong to some named set, the naming scheme can be used to label the symbols' ABI status. This labeling is done by associating all private interfaces with a set name beginning with SUNWprivate. Public interfaces begin with other names, specifically:

• SYSVABI, for interfaces defined by the System V ABI definition

• SISCD, for interfaces defined by the SPARC International SPARC Compliance Definition

• SUNW, for interfaces defined by Sun Microsystems

These public, named sets are numbered with a major.minor numbering scheme. When a set includes new symbols, the set's minor version number increases. When an existing symbol changes in a way that makes the symbol incompatible with its previous behavior, the major version number of the set that includes that symbol increases. When an existing symbol changes incompatibly, the version number in the library's file name also increases.

The definition of the Solaris library ABI is therefore contained in the libraries, and consists of the set of symbols that are associated with symbol version names that do not begin with SUNWprivate. The pvs command lists the symbols in a library.