[Zlib-devel] ABI change in zlib 1.2.4

[Mark Adler]

On Mar 17, 2010, at 11:35 AM, Xin LI wrote:
> I am thinking about making a bug-for-bug change for FreeBSD as
> attached.  Will this look bad for anyone?  Can we make it in next zlib
> release?

Xin,

libxml already has a fix for this, so the issue is mainly synchronization for when new versions of libxml and new versions of zlib are deployed.  The repaired version of libxml will work with all versions of zlib, but the old version of libxml will not work with the new version of zlib.

I will not be applying your patch, since I do not want to have to support applications that dig into and depend on the details of zlib's internal structures.

Lastly, it is not a bug in zlib to continue to be compatible only with its external interface.  It is a bug in libxml to violate those interfaces -- a reported, accepted, and repaired bug at that.

Mark