[Libvir] ABI compatibility question: static strings returned from some functions

[Mark McLoughlin]

On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 23:32 -0500, Daniel Veillard wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 02:46:43PM +0000, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> > >   Unfortunately I don't see a good thing to do in 
> > > this case except to change the semantics of virConnectGetType, which 
> > > arguably breaks ABI compatibility.
> > > 
> > > Suggestions from anyone?
> > 
> > 	Okay, suggest:
> > 
> >   1) Add a new function with a different name which returns an 
> >      allocated string. Mark the old function as deprecated.
> > 
> >   2) Retain the old function, and have a list of likely static strings 
> >      which you can return if it matches the string you got from the 
> >      remote side, and if not return (and leak) an allocated string
> 
>   I would go from 2) but keep an array of existing returned entries, so
> we only keep one list of the set of OS type handled. That list will be finite
> and relatively short, that should not be a problem.

	I was suggesting both 1) and 2), btw.

Cheers,
Mark.