[Development] How to handle duplicated zlib in different repos?

Anttila Janne Janne.Anttila at digia.com
Thu May 24 14:03:28 CEST 2012


Hi,

Currently there are 3rdparty zlib sources in both qtbase and qtsvg repositories, and in addition building zlib dependent imageformat plugins (mng, tiff) are disabled in qtimageformats repo if platform does not have system zlib available.
Already now zlib sources in qtbase and qtsvg have diverged - and zlib in qtsvg does not build for Windows Embedded Compact 7 since required fixes are currently applied for zlib in qtbase. Initially I cherry-picked the required fixes to qtsvg repo as well (Patch-set 1 in [1]), but Friedemann had an idea that qtsvg should probably use exported zlib symbols from qtbase. Initial implementation for that is in patch set 6 of [1]. 

Now with that approach there was comment that "modules should not try to grab other modules' sources to be able to compile independently. Is it possible to declare the used functions as extern without using the headers?". Personally I think that extern just makes the dependency more hidden compared to direct include of needed header, but yes I agree that it is not ideal solution to depend on directly from another module sources. Also I don't quite see how this extern approach can work for defines, C structs and what it would actually solve. More information see my latest comment in [1].

So what would be the correct approach?
1. Duplicate zlib to needed repos and try to keep different instances in sync (Like done currently)
2. Use exported zlib symbols from QtBase and include needed zlib header from QtBase to QtBase repo.
3. Use zlib functions from QtBase as extern, like suggested by Friedemann in comments to my change? If that is doable...
4. Something else, for example move zlib to a new static library inside QtBase repo or even move it to a separate repo?
  
In short term I would like to go with approach 1 or 2. Something from approach 4 is probably better in long term, but is it needed now? 
Has there been similar issues with other 3rparty modules in Qt5, and what is the way to go?

[1]  https://codereview.qt-project.org/23497 

Br,
-- 
Janne Anttila 
Architect, Qt Commercial R&D
Digia Plc
Elektronikkatie 10, FI - 90590 Oulu
E-mail: janne.anttila at digia.com
Tel. +358 (0) 10 313 3000 Mobile: +358 (0)40 8474106
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