> I have to srongly disagree here... Major numbers are updated when any
> part of the interface changes, and minor numbers are updated when there
> are "bug fixes" or non-interface enhancements made to the library.
> 

Major version numbers must be updated when part of the *existing* interface
changes. There's no harm done if you only add, say, some extra routines to
a library. Old programs will continue to run just fine. New or newly linked
programs that actually use the added stuff, will not run with older (minor)
revisions.

But, chances are that many programs will not be using the extra functions,
yet when linked with a newer revision, will bomb out if it is not available
at run-time. I've relaxed ld.so a bit, so that it will issue a warning
instead and use an older revision if available. This will tie you over when
running binaries on other systems where a particular library has not yet
been updated.

For testing purposes, I would suggest using an alternate directory to put
the libraries in and ldconfig'ing it, or using further "micro" revision
numbers.

-pk


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