[Debichem-devel] OpenMM upstream ceases to version shared libraries

[Andrius Merkys]

Hello,

OpenMM upstream has decided against versioning their shared libraries 
[1]. Up til now they supported them, bumping soversions with each minor 
release of OpenMM. This worked pretty well for Debian, and there were no 
API/ABI breaks between soversions.

Currently OpenMM's shared libraries are linked in 3 other packages [2]. 
My plan is to switch them from dynamic linking to static one once the 
versioned libraries become unavailable, with all the self-evident 
consequences.

Has anyone had to deal with something similar lately? Maybe there are 
solutions I am overlooking? I do not feel I could argue the upstream to 
reconsider since it was me who talked them into soversions in the first 
place [3]. I saw some packages with Debian-specific soversions, but this 
approach places maintenance burden on Debian maintainers, is bound to 
clash with upstream versioning and is generally frowned upon (cannot 
find discussion references to support this statement, but I recall I 
participated in at least two).

[1] https://github.com/openmm/openmm/issues/2281#issuecomment-2040738821
[2] https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=libopenmm-dev&literal=1
[3] https://github.com/openmm/openmm/issues/2281

Best wishes,
Andrius